Robin A on Spoutible

1/6

#DailyPictureTheme

Lots of #Blank spots where trees, shrubs and animals used to be. Appalachian Trail through Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania. July 25, 1983. Read on for the cause. This gets me on my soapbox.

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We are standing hundreds of feet up a mountainside looking down at a river valley ravaged by industrial air, ground and water pollution. Beneath a whitewashed hazy sky the AT climbs through a surreal wasted landscape of naked rock — gigantic boulders covered with chunks of blasted rubble. Occasional black, broken skeletons of dead trees grope upward through the barren mass. There are continuous panoramic views into the smoky industrial valley below. Beyond the heavily localized devastation, the valley and the mountainside across the river from us is heavily wooded. Distant views are heavily obscured by the steamy, dirty air.

08:15 AM - Dec 23, 2023

George Steffanos

@GSteffanos

2/6

I did not know this at the time, and it still seems hardly possible, but one factory owned by one company did this. This is part of our very recent past. A past to which Chief Justice John Roberts and his band of billionaire fluffing conservative judges seems intent on returning us with

We are standing a few hundred feet up a mountainside looking down at a river valley ravaged by industrial air, ground and water pollution. Beneath a whitewashed hazy sky the AT crosses the gray, murky Lehigh River on a 2-lane highway bridge in the middle of a somber area graced by a large smoking factory, a used car lot, and a bunch of decaying houses. Gray smoke fills the dirty air belching from several different stacks. Many patches of ground along the riverbanks and mountainside beyond are denuded or covered with scraggly grass. The surviving forests look unhealthy and olive toned.

08:15 AM - Dec 23, 2023

George Steffanos

@GSteffanos

3/6

their gutting of longstanding environmental protections. This is just one of a growing litany of reasons we need to care about the Supreme Court.

Quoting from the EPA website:

The Palmerton Zinc Pile Site, encompasses the Borough of Palmerton and surrounding areas, Blue Mountain,

08:15 AM - Dec 23, 2023

George Steffanos

@GSteffanos

4/6

a large smelting residue pile called the Cinder Bank and much of the valley. For nearly 70 years, the New Jersey Zinc Company deposited 33 million tons of slag at the site, creating a cinder bank that extends for 2 1/2 miles and measures over 100 feet high and 500 to 1,000 feet wide.

08:15 AM - Dec 23, 2023

George Steffanos

@GSteffanos

5/6

The smelting operations emitted huge quantities of heavy metals throughout the valley. As a result, approximately 2,000 acres on Blue Mountain have been defoliated, leaving a barren mountain side.

08:15 AM - Dec 23, 2023