Forbes: Something stinks in Jacksonville (and they're not wrong!)

Forbes Magazine has ranked Jacksonville 8th overall in this year's "America's Most Toxic Cities" report. The Florida Times-Union noted in their coverage that City Hall is rankled by this report, claiming that they are in fact one of the cleaner cities in this fine nation.

I'm sure you'll be pleased to knoe that everyone and their brother has rushed to refute the claims in the Forbes article. FDEP claims that the study is flawed. Visit Jacksonville thinks the air down here is just fine. City Hall - via Mr. Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi (Director of environmental compliance for the city)  has pointed out that they city is working hard to clean up some of the sites around the city thar need remediation.

All that's great. But Forbes, whether their study was flawed or not, was correct in pointing out that there are hazardous waste sites leaking toxic chemicals into our environment, and that there have been a number of problems around the city that have required action by the EPA (you can see that chart here).

What would be REALLY toxic would be if our City government continues down its current path. As you've seen in this blog and in recent articles in the Times-Union, we need strong, ethical leadership in this city. While I'm glad to see (in this example) that our government is trying to defend itself from what it sees as flawed accusations, I think I (and the rest of the taxpayers in this city) would prefer that they actually go and work on fixing the problems.



Another one looms large: the Trail Ridge Landfill expansion. There hasn't been too much trouble there recently (well, relatively speaking anyway, it is a landfill) and hopefully, after the expansion there won't be. Of course, if the City Council hands the contract off to Republic Services, who knows? Some quick research shows that Republic has been in some environmental trouble recently. Is this the big business partner we really want when it comes to trying to improve the environment in Jacksonville?