The Machine in the Garden
March 27, 2025 at 07:01PMSome stories bear repeating–at length. A year ago, Jordan Blumetti reported on plans for a residential development in Clay County, Florida, to be built on the grounds of a factory that produced building material and powered its kilns by burning hazardous waste. At 1,700 words, Blumetti’s story for The Guardian evoked a hyperlocal history of environmental degradation. His latest, for Oxford American, grants devastating proximity to residents sickened by their town’s toxic legacy and hell-bent on disrupting it, even if it means ruining real-estate deals. “We’re going broke doing this,” a former factory employee tells him. “But right now my conscience needs to be fully clear.”
A low creek runs through Randy’s backyard that’s fed by stormwater runoff from Solite, through the same culvert that Kristen had pointed out when we were viewing the burials. “Anytime it rains, we’re getting a fresh dose of that water,” Randy said. If the contamination settled at the headwaters of the creek, “then it’s settled right here too.” He pointed to the sediment at the base of his dock. Not long ago people swam, boated, and ate the fish out of the creek freely. Randy considered the possibility that his cancer was environmental, but as a retired data analyst, he was too pragmatic to say for sure. “But I can’t deny the fact that Don died from cancer, that his wife died from cancer, that the couple right there have cancer. Ms. Pat’s husband died from cancer, on and on and on,” he said, swiveling in his chair and pointing at the homes of his neighbors.
He knew he could gum up the construction machine for only so long. After more than four years of dealing with what he called the “parry and thrust” of Danhour and the developers, his greatest frustrations lie with the FDEP, the EPA, and the county. “There’s a set of facts that seem puzzling for groups whose charter is to protect the health and welfare of its citizens,” he said. “Where’s the protection?” He was likewise puzzled by the lack of accountability from real estate agents. Randy considered it the responsibility of both sellers and sales agents to make crucial disclosures about potential contamination. Short of that, he had to take matters into his own hands. One of Randy’s neighbors tried to sell his home during the initial development proposal and rezoning hearings in 2018. It was one of the pricier houses in the neighborhood, on a point of land with generous canal frontage. The seller had a deal in hand when Randy put one of the infamous signs up at a nearby intersection. The buyer saw it and backed out. Randy had little remorse when the neighbor confronted him. “That’s your realtor’s problem. That’s your problem,” he said.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/03/27/the-machine-in-the-garden/
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