Jane Keon, Pine River Superfund Citizen Taskforce Organizational Records, 1997-2016 (scattered), and undated
11 cubic ft. (in 20 boxes, 1 Oversized folder)
Allergy Note: Please note Boxes 13-20 and the Oversized Folder have a musty or mildew smell to them.
The collection, 1997-2011 (scattered), and undated, consists of materials printed in 2019 from 3 DVDs, documenting information about the Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force (CAG), and material related to the PBB contamination of cattle feed by Velsicol Chemical in the 1970s in Michigan, with a focus on contamination of St. Louis. CAG materials compose the majority of the collection (5.75 cubic feet in 12 boxes). The CAG documents were either generated on a computer or scanned and retained in a computer. They include newspaper clippings, meeting agendas, memos, meeting minutes, emails, journal articles, event posters, handwritten notes, financial records, and member rosters. The PBB and Velsicol documents include newspaper articles about the contamination. Copies of a few earlier references from the 1960s are included. Also included are copies of two DVDs that contain videotaped interviews of two CAG members, Jane Keon and Melissa Strait by Comcast Newsmakers, 2008. These interviews were also accessible, as of 2019, on the CAG Facebook page. The topic is the receipt of the Carter Partnership Award by the CAG and Alma College. Melissa Strait was a member and chair of the chemistry department at Alma College. Copyright of the DVDs is unknown, likely held by Comcast Newsmakers. The collection is organized according to original order.
This is the only collection documenting the CAG and its efforts to attain federal government recognition of the contamination in the St. Louis area and fund its remediation. Until the CAGs efforts began to make national news, there was minimal effort to document the tragedy outside of those directly impacted by it. Michigan’s PBB tragedy was largely forgotten. The CAGs efforts re-energized awareness of the tragedy. As a result, Alma College, Central Michigan University, University of Michigan, and Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, faculty, staff and students began to document, collect and preserve primary source materials for future researchers, including ongoing health issues of effected people of the tragedy. Without the CAGs efforts, St. Louis would remain an undocumented major national toxic site.
The 2020 Addition Acc#76923 includes Boxes 13-20 and one Oversized Folder, 2003-2004, 2006, 2011-2016. Most of the contents includes investigative and final reports on the ecological, water supply, and human health risks in St. Louis related to the Velsicol Superfund Site, cleanup proposals and remedial action investigation report and contracts for the same site, including one specifically for the golf course, previously the Velsicol Burn Pit. Authors of the reports include CDM Smith; CH2M Hill; Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr and Huber, Inc.; Michigan Department of Environmental Quality; Weston Solutions of Michigan, Inc. (sometimes their name on reports is typed as Weston Solutions Inc. of Michigan). Also included is the draft chapters and list of chapters of Keon’s book Tombstone Town: Left for dead, marked with a tombstone, a toxic town fights back, 2015, which includes more detailed information than what was included in the book. The addition is organized in alphabetical order by creator name, then by title. Most of the materials were in large binders originally and were foldered retaining the order of the binder contents.
Processing Note: Two DVDs were copied that contain videotaped interviews of two CAG members, and the originals were returned to donor as per the donor’s request. One W2 found in the collection, which contained a personal social security number, was removed from the collection.