Seven years. Amazing the lack of conscience exists.

I don't know why I should be surprised, the ash from gasification plants was once sold to farmers as an agricultural enhancement. No leaching ever discussed or any possibility the additive to the soil could cause crop damage or contamination. Agricultural land was a convenient dumping ground and they actually made money selling it.

By Timothy Puko 

Published: Thursday, March 6, 2014, 12:01 a.m.

Coal producer Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (click here) has agreed to $227.5 million in penalties and other costs to settle federal allegations that it illegally dumped large amounts of toxins into waterways in Pennsylvania and four other states for seven years.

“Today's agreement is good news for communities across Appalachia, who have too often been vulnerable to polluters who disregard the law,” said Robert G. Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

The company will pay $27.5 million in penalties and spend $200 million upgrading its waste water treatment systems to reduce illegal discharges under the settlement filed on Wednesday in federal court in West Virginia.... 

Are the people in Bobtown actually that hungry? Oh, the pizza is about the delay due to the fire where someone died. Is that all? Traffic jams can be a pain in the neck for sure, but, I don't recall Governor Christi handing out pizza vouchers when he apologized and to think no one died there.

This just goes to prove when Americans want to be dismissive of real tragedy and it lines their pocket in some manner, no matter how gratuitous, corporations win. Real morality there, huh? I suppose the widow or family made out like bandits. A real model for the future. And to think, someday their children will reflect the same level of indifference.

The Associated Press for Post-Standard 

March 7, 2014

...But the 750 or so residents (click here) of the hamlet of Bobtown? Not one has signed an online petition demanding an apology for the pizza offer. In fact, during a recent visit, The Associated Press found the talk of the town is more the furious response by outsiders.
“We feel it was something outside groups generated,” said Pete Novak, a co-director of the Polish American Club, a local gathering spot. None of the patrons has voiced outrage, he said, and residents laughed about how people who have never set foot in Bobtown claim to speak for its citizens.
Several people noted that Chevron’s pizza offer was made to apologize for traffic after the fire, not to downplay the loss of life.
“I thought it was pretty decent of them,” said Ray Elli, 54, who noted that the fire was about a mile outside town, on a ridge, and that people in town didn’t feel threatened....