Someone needs to do something in this county for sure. The county were I live has an underground lake, or aquifer. The aquifer used to be 'pure water' and now it has enough nitrates and other chemicals in it that a bottled water company (who was interested in the aquifer for their water source) told anyone using this water, that it had too high of a carcenogenic content for drinking!
This county has the leading rate for cancer in the state, and I also was told it now had the highest cancer rate in the country; maybe the world!
I can count (from house to house) right down the road I live on, people who I knew all of my life, who recently died from cancer....I lost I lost 6 neighbors within 5 miles...my father also has cancer and he lives within half a mile of me...plus there are many more who are facing a battle with cancer now.
At one of the vegetable fields, a year or so ago, they discovered some 55 gallon barrels buried in the field. They were ordered to be dug up and removed by the farm manager. Anyone who tried working around them got deathly ill. One of the head farm advisers was walking around the area and broke through the tops of one of the barrels with his leg. His leg was 'burned' by the chemicals it contained; supposedly the skin was coming off. The EPA did not know what it was in the barrels! Now the creepy part...as someone removed the barrels in the middle of the night! This was in a field not too far from my property.
Back in the 60s, they started growing veggies here. Horse radish, potatoes, carrots, greenbeans, pumpkins, popcorn, squash, sweetcorn, etc. It became the Imperial Valley of the Midwest; signs stating such are at all of the entrances to the county. They used more and more chemicals and now seem not to care what happens or how they use them. The newer No-Til method of farming is also using more and more chemicals that we are all exposed to; whether it be directly as in my case, or indirectly, as to those handling the products, or eating the produce. Put it this way, I only eat the veggies that I grow! I know what they use on the foods produced here and want no part of it.
I bought part of my old family farm and wanted to stay here. It has been in the family since 1852 when my grandfather's ancestors came here from Germany. It used to be a good place to live.
Brenda