TENNESSEEGATEWhen I brought the contamination problem to the attention of McKee, I also wrote to Senator Bill Frist, Senator Fred Thompson, US Congressman Zack Wamp, and then Vice President Al Gore, Jr. asking for their intervention in this potential public health crisis. I notified them that not only was the water supply in Chattanooga contaminated, but that ionized mercury was being released by a plant above the Summit Landfill - directly above the McKee baking plants. I didn't know until several years later, that the McKee brothers were responsible for placing the incinerator above the baking plants, and moreover, the illegal deal with Chattanooga officials that burned hazardous wastes from the Chattanooga Moccasin Bend Treatment Plant releasing mercury in direct violation of EPA regulations. Mercury is a virulent poison readily absorbed through the respiratory tract, the gastrointestinal tract and through unbroken skin. Because the body can eliminate only small amounts of mercury at a time, it acts as a cumulative poison, building within the body until it reaches toxic levels. There is strong new evidence that mercury is responsible for the huge increase in cases of autism among children. In 2003, Senator Frist's staff member in Chattanooga, Tyler Owens, refused to pass my concerns on to the senator. Owens acknowledged on tape his failure to address my issues to Senator Frist. When I tried to bring to the attention of Tyler Owens other serious problems in Chattanooga such as the fact that stolen car parts were being found passing through the auto shop at Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Tyler Owens filed a complaint against me with the US Capitol Police who threatened to have me arrested if I called Owens in the future. I had already met with Senator Thompson in Chattanooga in 1994, on the matter of the contamination of the Chattanooga Creek and Tennessee River. But after I notified him about the latest problems with the Summit Landfill, I received no response. Thompson did promise Alice Ford, the Human Rights Investigator in Chattanooga, to help her with the fact that she had been transferred from Chattanooga as retaliation for her refusal to change her Cause ruling against Chattanooga State Technical Community College to a No Cause in my job loss. But the contamination continued until 2000. Now, convicted dumper William Foxworth has pled guilty in federal court to dumping violations, yet he is still in business, still is receiving protection from city, state, and federal officials, and still allowed to operate his Rooter-Rooter franchise in the Chattanooga area in a manner that has defrauded the Chattanooga taxpayers for years. Foxworth was allowed to dump hazardous "used" oil from 350 Walmart Auto Stores in the Southeast for years with full knowledge of the US Justice Department.
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