December 7, 2001, was the greatest independence day in the history of Cleveland, when a hopefully new real NEO economy received the greatest gift imaginable with the closing of the toxin-spewing 1,200 acre LTV brownfields in the flats. This gave NEO's 1,000,000s of citizens independence from asthma and cancer and the freedom to breath clean air, redevelop a new city worth of prime real estate where the sprawling LTV-cyst finally sat idle, and the opportunity to resuscitate entire communities in the former LTV pollution fall-out zones spanning from Central and Slavic Village east to Brooklyn and Valley View south to Tremont and Ohio City west, literally saving the lives of 100,000s of our citizens and making Northeast Ohio more attractive to all who seek a good home and place to raise children. The freedom to breath was felt immediately, and for six months Northeast Ohio was a far better region.
But the politicians and industrialists would have none of that clean air and good health for their people - they marched across bridges, held town halls and plotted, and venture capitalists swooped into Richfield with promise of foreigner-charity, and $ billions changed hands at huge profit to a few, and in a few wretched years we went from enjoying the gift of breathing the cleanest air in our modern times to suffering from the worst imaginable health conditions, with steel literally raining on our communities, and unimaginably worse toxic blight expectations ahead. The promise to the citizens in all of this was that it would "save" 3,200 good jobs, which it certainly did not... it seems there are now around 1,200 Clevelanders working for the now-Indian-billionaire-owned hell-furnace and they are far from treated well, and have far from good jobs. What was preserved in all of this was great wealth for those in shipping, and port operation, and trucking, and railroads, and perhaps fast food and some service sector businesses in the periphery of the toxic site. But at what cost to the neighboring businesses, the plant workers, and the rest of the region?
Consider, from Ohio Citizen Action, the state's largest environmental organization, with 100,000 dues-paying members:
The Cleveland Works is the single largest polluter of the air and water in Cuyahoga County, according to reports submitted to the Ohio EPA. It released 76 million pounds of air pollution in 2003 (Source: ISG 2003 Title V fee emissions report).The plant sits on the Cuyahoga River, and discharges 100,000 pounds of pollution into the river (Source: Ohio EPA Toxics Release Inventory, 2001). New data submitted to the Ohio EPA show that the asthma and cancer-causing pollution has risen over 30% from 2003 to 2004. Because the plant is so close to Lake Erie, both its air and water pollution can endanger the lake. Since the steel mill reopened, pollution problems in nearby neighborhoods have included metal flakes and soot covering people's cars and homes, nauseating odors including strong sulfur smells, loud noises, and visible orange and yellow clouds coming from the stacks.
So here was the cost to real NEO in 2003 for the 1,200 "good" jobs that came from all the politicing, and town halling, and backroom dealing, and foreign venture capitaling, per job, in 2003 - and for 2004 we know "the asthma and cancer-causing pollution has risen over 30% from 2003 to 2004" so it is imaginable the results are much worse today, in 2006:
- 72,500 pounds of air pollution spewed upon our neighborhoods per Mittal employee, in 2003
- ... that's 31.25 tons of air pollution per employee in 2003
- 83.3 pounds of pollution discharged into the Cuyahoga River and so Lake Erie per employee in 2003
- 1 acre of land kept out of clean, sustainable development per employee
- ... that's 43,560 square feet of blight per employee
- Small particles (invisible; can damage lungs): 801.82 pounds per employee
- Large particles (visible soot and flakes; can cause property damage): 343.3 pounds per employee
- Sulfur dioxide: 1,236.65 pounds per employee
- Organic chemicals: 185.83 pounds per employee
- Volatile organic compounds: 185.83 pounds per employee
- Lead: .2 pounds per employee
Looking at the tight satellite hybrid map of the Mittal site and surrounding areas above (larger view here - 560k [1]) one sees the neighborhoods most immediately impacted by Cleveland Works fallout, including Cleveland Mayor Jackson's Central and Slavic Village to the east, which seems most in the site's prevailing winds) and up and coming Tremont to the west, where developers build condos literally with views of this ecological disaster. As the population of Cleveland is about 500,000, that is the number of most immediate victims of Mittal. Likely outcomes for those victims are asthma and cancer, which will reduce their life expectancies to some degree, and earning potential, and healthcare costs, and property value.
- For the sake of illustration, I'll suggest the life-long exposure impact results in a reduction in quality of life and/or life expectancy of 5 years per person, making the tight-community generational impact of Mittal on Cleveland longevity a reduction of 2,500,000 full time equivalent life years.
- Further, just for illustration, the earning potential per life year eliminated can be estimated at $20,000 per year, so the generational negative impact of Mittal on the tight economy, just in lost earnings (and so spending in the community) is around $50,000,000,000 (that's billion).
- Further, it is safe to say each person impacted will have higher medical costs to themselves, employers and society, for treating cancer and asthma alone, which I'll conservatively project at $100,000 per person over their lifetime, impacting 500,000 lives, or a generational cost in increased healthcare burden of $50,000,000,000.
- Further, it is safe to say the public awareness of this health hazard prevents most people from considering living anywhere near this pollution, reducing the value of all property in the areas impacted by a significant percentage, even factored for some positive value to society in lower rental costs for renters willing to live around there. If the negative impact is 25% subtracted from the value of 100,000 properties, and the average cost of a property in Cleveland is $100,000, then the additonal negative impact of Mittal on property values is easily $25,000,000,000.
- All told, the negative one-generation economic cost to society of Mittal being open for business with their version of "Cleveland Works" far exceeds $120,000,000,000 over the next generation of Cleveland, not including hard environmental costs, like:
- perpetuating their 1,200 acre brownfield, which eventually will need to be cleaned
- billions of pounds of air pollution into the world's environment
- millions of pounds of pollution pumped into the Cuyahoga River and so Lake Erie, never to be removed from there or our community's greater Cleveland public water works.
- This cost to society per job at Mittal, for a generation of 1,200 workers, therefore far exceeds $100,000,000 per employee.
- At $50,000 per per Mittal employee pay per year, over a 40 year generational life working at the Mittal works, the generational pay to employee and so possible lifetime positive impact spent in the local economy would be about $2,000,000, being $98,000,000 less than the generational cost to everyone else in that immediate economy.
But those are just some of the costs of Mittal to our economy, and the quality of life of today's generation. This does not consider reduced value of property and business opportunity throughout all of greater Cleveland, or the lower earning potential and so economic impact of everyone here, who have less overall economic opportunity in this less desirable regional economy, nor the lost opportunities of new economy businesses that would never consider locating near a steel mill, and the smart people who would never live near a steel mill, and it is safe to say the fallout from "Cleveland Works" spreads much further than just a few miles, and a wider perspective below would indicate danger and economic harm across all of Cuyahoga County, including the inner and outer ring suburbs, from Rocky River west, to Independence south, to Pepper Pike east, and all surrounding counties that we call our region. To make a conservative estimate of that negative generational impact on our region, just of this one steel mill... "Cleveland Works"... just double or triple the conservative immediate neighborhood cost of $125,000,000,000 and you'll realize the burden on your society in your lifetime in REAL NEO could be as much as $1,000,000,000,000 - that's $1 trillion. But at least we made a few venture capitalists very rich, and the world's reportedly third richest person much richer, and in Cleveland that is what we call a major victory for the regional economy. I call that a disaster highlighting the failure of all supoosed leaders of everything here, and all their followers, and I propose we start working as an activist community to eliminate Mittal and Cleveland Works and all polluters large and small from our region. A good place to begin is by visiting and supporting Ohio Citizen Action here [2].
Much of Cuyahoga County and our 2.4 million person population is within a few miles of Mittal and the tons of pollution it spews on our residents.. do you live, work or play on this map (larger view here - 480k [3])?
And here is the likely fallout path on you today, Independence Day, July 04, 2006, as of 5PM.
Disclaimer on my analyses... for this posting, I just thumbnailed together readily available data and extrapolated economic impact analyses in a few hours and so I offer these observations more for illustration than proposal of exact facts. There may be 1,200 employees or 1,500 employees at Mittal "Cleveland Works" and they may make $75,000 per year or $40,000, and may be viewed loaded or unloaded - there may be 50,000 or 250,000 properties impacted rather than 100,000 - the generational impacts may be twice or half what I indicate possible here - none of that matters. Bottom line, all impacts of Cleveland Works are highly negative to the local and regional ecology and economy in every way but for the immediate employees of Mittal and their billionaire Indian (not of the "American" type) owner and wealthy investors and lawyers, etc., and it is reasonable to say that even for the employees at Cleveland Works the cost to their health and well being is not worth the pay, and there is absolutely no gross or net positive benefit to this community or region from having Mittal and Cleveland Works here, and we as a community and society would be better off just putting all current Cleveland Works employees in very high-paying local government funded social service jobs - say $50,000 a year to clean up our neighborhoods polluted - than to allow Mittal to continue polluting here. I'll spend some time working through these analyses more thoroughly over time and I'm sure with very little effort we can build a very accurate set or forecasts and analytic facts around my larger and back-of-napkin projections here - your observations are welcome!)
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| wind070406.jpg [6] | 109.62 KB |
| mittal.jpg [7] | 7.78 KB |
| MittalCanaryPanLogo.jpg [8] | 47.85 KB |
| MutationPanlogo.jpg [9] | 48.98 KB |
