One Mile from Home ™
One Mile from Home, Part Two: Discovery – Published 03/29/2015
One Mile from Home, Part Three: Chilling Test Results – Published 04/29/2015
One Mile from Home, Part Four: Casualties – Published 05/30/2015
One Mile from Home, Part Five: Conclusion & Lessons Learned – Published 06/14/2015
By Gary Zalimeni
To sum up my story with just one paragraph would be impossible. It would be an injustice to all of those people in my hometown and immediate neighborhood who endured unimaginable suffering and eventual death. Corporate greed and as is often stated, “mans inhumanity to man,” was the cause. The difficult job for me, in writing this, is to relive that period that was so devastating to the community where I spent 60 years of my life.
Before I begin, however, let me tell you the joy it is for me to reside in such a beautiful location as the high Sonoran desert. I never tire of the fresh desert air, that certain smell of the desert after a fresh rain, the chirp of a cactus wren in early morning, the howl of a coyote, or the sight of a herd of mule dear. Considering the environment I came from, it is a blessing to be a part of this breathtaking place I now consider home.
It is nearly impossible for the average person to know how lucky we are to have thousands of acres of pristine, unspoiled preserve at our very doorsteps. Does each of us realize that it is our responsibility and duty to stop any plans for further development of the preserve? As it looks now Scottsdale may very well allow the acreage to go up for sale to developers. For ourselves and future generations, we must positively not allow that to happen !
So join me now as I go back to a different time and place, to a struggle between right and wrong, good and evil, a place where environmental destruction was beyond comprehension and innocent people suffered.
Part ONE. Beginnings
Above. View of Ashtabula docks looking north towards Lake Erie. The loaded ore cars are bound for the steel mills.
In 1978 Ashtabula was a community of 25,000 residents located in the northeastern corner of Ohio on the shores of Lake Erie directly between Cleveland, and Erie, Pennsylvania. It was the town that Johnny Carson used in his jokes, it is where Ohio State coach Urban Meyer grew up and it was my hometown. It was and still is, considered to be one of the major ports in the United States. 2.
When the unskilled immigrants came to this country they were naturally attracted to cities along the shores of the great lakes for two reasons: rail lines which made travel easier, and water transportation which meant future growth and prosperity. The port of Ashtabula was the ideal place.
The city was divided into ethnic sections, Greeks, Italians, Finnish, Swedish, Hungarians, Portuguese etc, they all had their own separate neighborhoods. These ethnic sections of town were more about communication than anything else. Speaking to others of the same origin, in their own native tongue, helped them acclimate themselves to their new home. Eventually they all melted into hard working English speaking patriots proudly building the American empire; then along came World War II.
When iron ore and coal were delivered to the port of Ashtabula by lake freighters the iron ore was loaded on rail cars and shipped to the steel mills in Youngstown, OH and Pittsburgh, PA. The ore was melted into steel which was then used in everything from buildings to cars and all in between. As soon as World War II began nearly all of the steel production went into making armaments for the war effort.
After the war the port of Ashtabula received and shipped massive amounts of ore to satisfy the appetite of a booming American economy. The cold war with Russia, which began in the early 1960’s, brought an even higher need for steel production. Once more, it was an arms buildup that pumped up demand for ore.
In 1959 the St. Lawrence Seaway opened. The Seaway, which flows from the Atlantic ocean to the Great Lakes, allows ocean going freighters passage inland all the way to the lakes. It was the St. Lawrence Seaway, more than any other factor, that started the decline in ore transportation on the Lakes. The ocean going freighters carried new and different kinds of cargo; car parts, wind turbines, potash, rubber and manufactured goods of every kind.
In the first half of the 20th Century just about every product was made from wood or metal but after the war everything changed drastically. It was during this period that the need for chemical production20 exploded, when plastic became king. It was that need, through a web of terror and fear, where this story begins.
Related Articles
One Mile from Home: Beginnings – Published 03/09/2015
One Mile from Home: Discovery – Published 03/29/2015
One Mile from Home: Chilling Test Results – Published 04/29/2015
One Mile from Home: Casualties – Published 05/30/2015
One Mile from Home: Conclusion & Lessons Learned – Published 06/14/2015
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