What about the 'leakers'?

Like humans, machines are imperfect. Some cars leak -- even new cars. We know new humans leak, so we take precautions by using diapers. If only Pan Am and Ford would do the same.

When Fords were being offloaded in the "other lot" (that sits nearby-- vacant and available, but leased to competitor CSX) some of the Fords leaked. Workers pulled the "leakers" off to the side and allowed them to leak into the soil.

"The site was a wreck," said an abutter. Such environmental ignorance is wrong, but it's not as wrong as building a 750-space parking lot over our aquifer that supplies clean water to 15,000 people.

In an ideal world, we'd like to see our political and business leaders unite to protect our water supplies for generations to come and figure out a way to use the other lot.

In the Third World Republic of Ayer, foreigners control our resources and do not depend on our clean water for their health. Instead, they exploit it for their wealth. Our best hope is that Pan Am plans for the "leakers."

Third world countries have notoriously abyssmal environmental conditions because outsiders control the resources and don't care. Business has carte blanche to exploit local resources and leave a trail of pollution behind, unabated.

That's pretty much the situation in the Third World Republic of Ayer. A regulatory gap gives the railroads the right to build what they want over our water source. A regulatory gap allowed "leakers" to drip into the ground at the other lot.

A regulatory gap has permitted railroads to use their (poor) judgment as a guide for a century. It has resulted in Pan Am getting slapped with the highest criminal environmental fine in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - $500,000.

The fine is in escrow because Pan Am counter-sued the Commonwealth to avoid paying it. That's how Pan Am does business. Leak toxic substances in local environments with no diapers; don't report the leaks and make no plans to get diapers or toilet-train workers; appeal the fines.

What's wrong with this picture? That it's happening in the USA. That railroads all over the country have the same right, thanks to a regulatory gap -- yes the same type of regulatory gap that allowed greedy bankers to exploit the mortgage market and cause the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Here's my daily quote from Attorney General Martha Coakley's memorandum on sentencing in the case.

"In May 2007, the defendants Boston and Maine Corporation and Pan Am Railways, Inc. were fined $59,747 for failing to properly dispose of railroad ties that were leaching hazardous materials into the environmentleaching hazardous materials into the environment in Deerfield, Charlmont, and near the Wachusetts Reservoir. The defendants then appealed the fine."