Robert Kennedy to speak at Honors Day about environment and Pine River Superfund Site

ALEXA BOYCE

Staff Writer

The portions of the Pine River near St. Lous, Michigan are among the most highly polluted sites in the United States.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) named the stretch of the Pine River that runs through St. Louis a Superfund site and a "megasite." The Pine River Environmental Project Website on Alma involvement in the Superfund task force states that, “A Superfund site is one of the top polluted sites in the country, and is a federal government program to clean up the nations uncontrolled hazardous waste sites.”

Alma College students and faculty, led by professors Murray Borello, chair of environmental studies and Edward Lorenz, professor of political science and history, have adopted the site as a cause and are attempting to help relieve the environmental abuse caused by Velsicol Chemical and the Gratiot County Landfill.

Reasarch and activism at Alma College has helped to form the Pine River Superfund Task Force. The task force also works closely with a community advisory group (CAG). Together they have forced state and federal agencies to alter consent judgments, adjust cleanup plans and ensure citizen in-put in protecting the community’s environmental health.

Pollution from area oil refineries upriver has also complicated the cleanup of the watershed. Cleanup has been estimated to exceed $50 million, which makes the Pine River Superfnd site the fifth most expensive site in the country. The laws governing this type of pollution cleanup are outlined in the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) laws.

In recognition of this work, the Alma College’s Honors Day Committee has chosen Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to deliver the annual Honors Day Address March 31 at 8 p.m. in Cappaert Gymnasium.

Kennedy has been an influencial evironmentalist who fought for the health of the New York Hudson River and has now expanded to several other Superfund projects. That fight is similar to the one being fought now by many Alma students and faculty regarding the Pine River.

Lorenz hopes that his visit “will inspire people to realize that they can make a difference in their own areas. We have a responsibility to the community.”

Kennedy co-authored a book with environmentalist John Cronin called The Riverkeepers. The environmentalists “challenged a status quo that said all was expendable in the name of business and profit.”

Lorenz says that Kennedy will encourage activism, and send a good message to the students of Alma regarding the effectiveness of persistence. “’Stewards of your world’ is a good message for Alma students,” said Lorenz.

The Riverkeepers will be available for sale in The Scot Shop starting Monday, March 8, 2004. Copies will also be available from 6:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. and from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in the Hogan Physical Education Center Lobby.

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