European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fighting off a As a neighbor 3 ,9 Page 14 by Tad Bartimus associated press Here s a new Breed of vigilante on guard in the Rural Ham a s and backwaters of America a defiant citizen armed with technical books and a cunning born of fear. The men and women of this burgeoning brigade often arc transformed overnight from Law abiding citizens who Trust strangers and their government to wary sceptics who Trust no one who won t accept their bumper stickers. They Are Ike people who Wake up one morning to discover without warning that it hazardous waste disposal site could become their new neighbor i panicked i was terrified it was just As though the plague was coming and there was nowhere to run says Mabel Girando a 63-year-old grandmother who collects dolls and does t drive. I never Felt so helpless Power less or betrayed in my whole  a hazardous waste disposal firm that operates Sites i Kansas and Oklahoma wants to put a new one within a half mile of mrs. Girando s front Yard Flower Garden in Excello to. The state s department of natural re sources officials helped them find the land. There arc Only two Legal disposal Sites for hazardous wastes such As poisons acids and heavy metals in mis Souri which generates nearly 1 million tons of such toxic Industrial refuse every year. State officials say big Industry a vital economic Force will take its mess and its Money elsewhere if it can t find a permanent Home for its chemical garbage. They wan new ones and soon. The producers say society must Bear the blame for the increase in deadly pollutants because it demands the consumer goods that create such unwanted leftovers As arsenic sludge Asbestos waste solids and waste water containing Lead chromium and a Host of six syllable chemicals. The manufacturers need new Sites and soon. But the hundreds of residents in Northeast mis Souri who believe their land their livelihood and perhaps their very lives will be threatened if that site exists say Why us in t there a better Way the government says no. The companies say no. The people say yes. Somewhere someday somebody s going to have to face up to a ardous waste and what to do with it says Farmer John Kauffman who lives a mile from the pro posed site. If there s one dump allowed in this part of the state in five years there la be 10 More. It s time to grab the Bull by the horns. We re going to hold the line right  on May 14, Kauffman woke up to a sunny morning that promised a Long Day in the soybean Fields of his 443 acc farm near route y in Macon county just three Miles East of Excello. Down the Road a Short piece from Kauffman s place Tony Girando climbed aboard his tractor to tend his Corn and Muse about How Many tomatoes he could Harvest from his Rich Garden. Donna Pagliai put her kids on the school bus for the ride Down three Miles of roller coaster gravel Road to . Highway 63 and then 11 Miles on North to class in Macon. By Nightfall those three neighbors lives and hundreds More had been turned upside Down. First it was a Rumor. Then it was a reality. Somebody was going to put in a Poison dump and the state wanted them to Doit. We decided to fight says Kauffman. In to months opponents gathered 32,000 sign lures on petition to protest locating the site in Northeast Missouri residents have organized to fight the proposed disposal site. The stars and stripes Northeast Missouri. That s equivalent to two Ibe population in a four county area. I United in missourians against hazardous w testers have raised Money they ref Pic to do amount but say it s plenty and if that f til there s a lot More to lobby state legis attn special session to reconsider changes in Curren earning hazardous waste disposal. 3 the Money also is used for publicity Man expenses of local people travelling on fart fall Sions and to Blitz Jefferson City during the tit Sion and to pay lawyers fees. Maw Leaden Vinced the Issue will finally be resolved in cot we d already be there if it was t an election i Kauffman. Chamber of Commerce in Mobert and Kirksville have Given Money As have Bra Nesses and landowners in Macon Randolph so Adair counties says Kauffman the group i pr5� it s hard to fight a fight if you re a Ronai realize what s going on now and we re right. H have questions they can t answer especially ate age to the water Supply the smell and air we re not just worried about leakage that Toufi cattle and crops we re talking about out  1 like dozens of his neighbors Gerald Milt of come obsessed with his Mission to Stop the prop and has taken on the monumental task of try Jagt that National Industrial environmental set company seeking the permit is wrong about fit ment of the proposed site s water table. J a quiet soft spoken Man. Miller has work local Telephone company for 32 years. Let t Neter been Radical or led cum a been Inion de in a cause before nya it norms. But when we heard about Ohlf of were dumbfounded. Until love canal i know what hazardous waste was. Now i fwd going to be on our  its permit application the Wichita bated of said the proposed Ite is not a wetland a no Active fault zone. And no off site Public Wato Well or Reservoir exists within 1,320 feet of use f site permit area perimeter. Also the site is not Over a shallow aquifer and an unusable aquit approximately 250 feet below ground at the site. That paragraph makes local resident Angri anything else in the nearly 350-Page application. There Are 208 shallow hand dug Wells rat Between 15 and 60 feet within a three mile radio site says Miller. There Are also 38 Springs at deep  Kauffman has taken numerous visa. " when we heard about on to we were dumbfounded. Until love canal i did t even know. What hazardous waste now i find out it s going on our  thursday