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Toxic_Rim
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1994-10-02
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Prev: Hollywood(s): Powers of Simulation Up: Contents Next: Before We
Wake...
_________________________________________________________________
9. The Toxic Rim
Where does the nightmare end? Burgess was not greatly interested in
urban boundaries. His Chicago dartboard simply fades into the
"commuter zone" and, beyond, into the Corn Belt. The city limits of
Dystopia however, are an intrinsically fascinating problem. In Blade
Runner, it will be recalled. the dark megalopolis improbably yielded,
at its outer edge, to Ecotopia -- evergreen forests and boundless
wilderness.
No such happy ending will be possible in the coming Los Angeles of
201~. Postmodern geographer Edward Soja has observed that Southern
California is already bounded, along an almost unbroken desert
perimeter, by huge military air bases, bombing ranges and desert
warfare reservations. Now a second, equally ominous circumference
clearly is being drawn around this Pentagon desert. Choking on its own
wastes, with its landfills overflowing and its coastal waters
polluted, Los Angeles is preparing to export its garbage and hazardous
landuses to the Eastern Mojave and Baja California. Instead of
reducing its production of dangerous waste, the city is simply
planning to "regionalize" their disposal.
This emergent Toxic Rim includes giant landfills at Eagle Mountain
(the former Kaiser open-pit iron mine) and possibly near Adelanto
(defunct Air Force base), the controversial radioactive waste dump in
Ward Valley near Needles, and the relocation of such polluting
industries as furniture manufacture and metal-plating to Tijuana's
maquiladora belt. The environmental consequences may be almost
catastrophic.
The proposed 300,000 barrels of nuclear waste, for example, in the
unlined trenches of the Ward Valley nuclear dump will remain lethal
for 10,000 years. They will pose the perennial risk of leaking
radioactive tritium into the nearby Colorado River, thereby poisoning
the irreplaceable water source for much of Southern California. For
its part, the immense landfill at Eagle Mountain -- 2.5 miles long, 1
mile wide, and 2,000 feet deep -- will not only contaminate the water
table but also create a toxic shroud of air pollution over much of
eastern Riverside County. Meanwhile, the flight of hazardous
industries across the Border, eventually including a large segment of
Los Angeles' petrochemical production, will increase the possibility
of Bhopal-like catastrophes.
In sum, the formation of this waste-belt will accelerate the
environmental degradation of the entire American West (and part of
Mexico). Today a third of the trees in Southern California's mountains
already have been suffocated by smog, and animal species are rapidly
dying off throughout the polluted Mojave Desert. Tomorrow, Los
Angeles's radioactive and carcinogenic wastes may be killing life as
far away as Utah or Sonora. The Toxic Rim will be a zone of
extinction.
_________________________________________________________________
Prev: Hollywood(s): Powers of Simulation Up: Contents Next: Before We
Wake...