美國一小鎮遭污染變“毒鎮” 僅剩唯一住戶

中國日報網 2012-06-06 13:11

She stands alone: Della Busby and her husband Tim are the only people left in Treece, Kansas.(dailymail.co.uk)

Treece, Kansas, is a poisoned town. Only one house remains. Tim and Della Busby are the lone residents of the community today. And they say they're staying put. Even if it's toxic, Treece is still their home.

This tiny community in southeast Kansas used to be a bustling mining enclave -- with a school, hundreds of homes and bars the got rowdy with drunken miners on payday.

But, the mines that turned Treece into a boomtown ultimately left it lifeless and abandoned.

It's a toxic ghost town now. All but two residents left when the federal government offered buyouts to the 138 people who stuck around after the mines shut down, the Kansas City Star reports.

The Environmental Protection Agency says decades of zinc and lead mining have left the soil, water and air contaminated.

Massive piles of poisoned mining debris, called chat, litter the streets. The mines that were dug beneath the town are turning the ground into Swiss cheese, as massive sink holes develop throughout the town -- many big enough and deep enough to swallow a man whole.

In 2009, the federal government began offering buy-outs for the residents of Treece after Congress approved $3.5 million to vacate the town and turn it into a Superfund site.

Treece was abandoned after nearby Picher, Oklahoma, which sits just across the state line, was bought out by the federal government and bought out for the same reason -- lead contamination left by decades of mining.

Picher's buyout came first -- it was a historic event, the government giving people cash to leave the town they'd lived on their lives.

However, the EPA tried to save Treece. Only one child out of 16 in the town tested positive for having dangerously high levels of lead.

But the damage in Treece was already done, the residents no longer believed it was safe to live there.

After Picher was abandoned, the town government in Treece also asked for a buy-out.

When it finally came, the EPA offered residents about $40,000 each for their homes. By 2010, 63 out of 64 homeowners sold out and their houses were torn down.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)

美國堪薩斯州的特萊塞鎮因受到污染已淪為“毒鎮”?，F在鎮上僅有唯一的一家住戶，只剩下蒂姆和妻子德拉-巴斯比。他們依然拒絕離開。因為即使那里變成毒鎮，卻依然還是他們的家園。

位于美國堪薩斯州東南部的特萊塞曾是一個非常繁榮的礦業小鎮，那里曾有學校、數百戶居民以及發薪日擠滿醉酒礦工的喧鬧酒吧。

但曾經把特萊塞變為新興小鎮的礦業最終也使它成為毫無生氣的被荒廢小鎮。

如今這里已經淪為“毒鎮”。根據《堪薩斯城星報》的報道，在礦山關閉后，政府向仍然居住在該地的138名居民提供資助，人們陸續搬走，僅剩蒂姆夫婦。

美國環保署稱，數十年的鋅和鉛礦開采已經污染了當地的土地、水源以及空氣。

大堆有毒的礦石碎屑凌亂堆積在街頭上。地底挖礦使地面呈“蜂窩乳酪”狀，全鎮遍布大的灰巖坑，很多較大的坑洞深到足以把整個人吞沒。

2009年，美國聯邦政府開始“買斷”該鎮的居民，國會還批準了350萬美元的資金讓居民搬離小鎮，并把它改造成一個超級基金場址。

在人們搬離該鎮之前，位于州界對面的俄克拉荷馬州的皮歇爾鎮也由于同樣的原因被政府“買斷”。數十年采礦使皮歇爾鎮遭到嚴重的鉛污染。

皮歇爾鎮先于特萊塞鎮被“買斷”，這是個歷史性事件，美國政府付給當地居民現金，讓他們搬離賴以生存的小鎮。

美國環保署試圖拯救特萊塞鎮。該鎮的16名兒童中，僅有一人在檢測中查出體內鉛超標。

但特萊塞鎮的污染已經造成了，居民們不再相信住在那里是安全的。

在皮歇爾鎮被人們放棄之后，特萊塞鎮的政府也要求聯邦政府出資“買斷”。

最終，美國環保署給每位搬離居民補貼了大約4萬美元。截至2010年，64戶居民中的63戶搬離了小鎮，他們的房子也拆毀了。

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（中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯：陳丹妮）

Vocabulary:

stay put: 停留不走，待在原地

chat: 碎石

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