Found this UPI story on the internet. So grateful for then-Rep. Al Gore,, Jr. and his July 11, 1983 mercury hearing, where I testified and called for federal criminal investigation and prosecution of UNION CARBIDE, ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION and DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY managers.
More here: https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/07/july-11-1983-al-gores-mercury-pollution.html
From United Press International:
Federal officials will be questioned Monday about why 2.4...
By JOEY LEDFORD
WASHINGTON -- Federal officials will be questioned Monday about why 2.4 million pounds of mercury were released into the environment of Oak Ridge, Tenn., from 1950-63, sources told United Press International.
Two subcommittees, chaired by Tennessee Democratic Reps. Albert Gore Jr. and Marilyn Lloyd, plan an all-day hearing at the American Museum of Science and Energy to probe the health, safety and environmental hazards of the massive release at Department of Energy facilities in Oak Ridge.
Although the Energy Department believes the mercury discharged during this time period poses no hazard to area residents, I am most displeased with the department for having withheld this information from the public until now,' said Mrs. Lloyd.
The mercury releases were disclosed when Ed Slavin, editor of The Appalachian Observer, a small East Tennessee publication, filed a Freedom of Information Act request earlier this year.
Joseph La Grone, the department's manager of Oak Ridge Operations, will head a contigent of officials who will have to explain how the releases took place.
One congressional sources and the department was the agency 'that knew the most, it seems, about the extent of the problem. ... I think they are the ones we want to go after. Why did it take a Freedom of Information request before they released this?'
he department apparently learned of the releases in 1977 and wrote a report, which was not released until Slaven's inquiry.
The department believes 1.9 million pounds of mercury are trapped within geologic formations on the plant site. Some 30,000 pounds were apparently discharged into the air, in addition to the mercury released into the creek.
Other scheduled witnesses include Howard Zeller, an Environmental Protection Agency assistant regional administrator; Dr. Michael Bruner, assistant commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health and Environment, TVA Director David Freeman and Oak Ridge Mayor A.K. Bissell.
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