The 7 Most Toxic Places in the US (Do Not Go Here!)

There are some places on Earth that are downright toxic due to catastrophes caused by humans. From mining and manufacturing to leaving behind hazardous waste, here are 7 places that should be on your 'do-not-visit' list!
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Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters -- we couldn't make SciShow without them! Shout out to Patrick Merrithew, Will and Sonja Marple, Thomas J., Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters, charles george, Kathy & Tim Philip, Tim Curwick, Bader AlGhamdi, Justin Lentz, Patrick D. Ashmore, Mark Terrio-Cameron, Benny, Fatima Iqbal, Accalia Elementia, Kyle Anderson, and Philippe von Bergen.
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Sources:
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[@TheRumpletiltskin]

I don't understand why the companies that do this crap aren't forced into bankruptcy cleaning up THEIR mess. A small fine isn't gonna keep these companies from exploiting the system.

[@ModernGameArmy]

Because the government has to much power. Ironically speaking less government would give companies less power.

[@spacecadet2827]

they usually paid lots of money to locals when they were set-up. And they employ half of the locals. this way the locals feel responsible on the way out and don't say much

[@spacecadet2827]

***** it's always the locals who sell them the land in the first place, and the mining rights. you do understand that yeh?. and it's always the locals who get the jobs. once again you do understand that yeh?? and the local shops suddenly double their trade overnight, oh yeh i bet they hate that too. without these things it would NEVER HAPPEN, that's the whole point. This is how they buy what they need.

[@NobodyNowhereKnowhow]

+Space Cadet uhhh, yeah, local GOVERNMENTS, typically. The sites that they build most on are typically held by local governments or are confiscated under the guise of eminent domain where the owners usually paid pennies on the dollar of what the actual property is worth, or will be worth after being rezoned by the zoning board and then those savings are passed on to the corporations through tax incentives like rebates and credits. Those are the "locals" that are selling their land to big corporations like this.

[@spacecadet2827]

***** you're speaking a whole bunch of shit. I live in australia. we see it happen all day long. they sell their land, they get the jobs. I have no idea why you're throwing away all your credibility. Govts dont usually mine on or rent their own land. it's called "crown land". it's dumbfuck broke locals who let it happen. your misaimed butthurt is annoying and not helping things by filling up the space with misinformation

[@lexhdz5803]

this video should be called "7 times company greed exceeded common sense by a LOT"

[@mam362]

how does that apply to the senate building?

[@lexhdz5803]

@@mam362 if you dont think the government rn acts as a glorified company ur literally blind

[@rdspam]

Damn greedy Congressional staffers!

[@danielhavoc889]

@@lexhdz5803 ah yes, so greedy of the government to get hit by a bio-terrorism attack....

[@TheHallamski]

Another 7 times capitalism has failed the 99%

[@richardlong172]

The toxic chemicals at Love Canal were never relocated, as you mention in this video. They were covered with a clay cap and surrounded with a chain link fence, and remain on site where they were a century ago. The chemicals have leaked into local swage pipes in recent years which are located well outside of the confined area. People continue to live in close proximity to the site believing that it is safe, but I guarantee they at putting themselves at a higher health risk compared to anyone else not raising their family nearby the area

[@Namastephie]

0:40 Love Canal 2:20 Reed-Kepler Park 3:20 Hart Senate Office Building 4:49 Blackburn and Union Privileges 5:40 Berkeley Pit 7:22 Hudson River 8:31 CTS of Asheville

[@nathanreid2974]

that cts one has to be camp lejeune

[@southwestontario]

The Love Canal area in NY is STILL contaminated. It was not cleaned up completely, despite their claim that it was safe in 2004. To this day, the residents surrounding the area are having serious health problems. Only SOME of the material was removed and moved. There are still serious chemicals like dioxin in the ground. The large main area remains fenced off.

[@eddiebrevet4000]

ON TARIO whole area ought to be covered by heavy duty tarp, with wire mesh over that. Stop water contamination. If water drains in, divert around.

[@cookieshousecannabisco6963]

@@eddiebrevet4000 Lol that's exactly what they did...except sometimes it floods.

[@gateauxq4604]

The claims of safety really made my nose itch. Our government has been available to help companies for the right price for decades now. Id be shocked if any of the ‘safe’ sites were actually safe.

[@2410jrod]

Same thing on Times Beach Missouri still is contaminated yet EPA say it’s all cleaned up. They got screwed over big time they dealt with the same stuff that was used to make Agent Orange

[@ilikefood2052]

That's NF, New York for you

[@Ryukachoo]

for a long time i thought "superfund site" was "superfun site" and thought 'wow that's some dark comedy on a political scale'

[@hd_inmemoriam]

In fact, there were some instances in this video where I thought Hank was being sarcastic, but then I remembered. :D

[@parkerbilbro3651]

+Sean Mcgrew Who exactly is Juan Gabriel?

[@annamoon8684]

+The Frenzied Wolf He was one of the best mexican songwriters. A party here isn't a proper party unless they play at least 5 of his songs. He is a legend.

[@ParanoidAlaskan]

That's would have been some Dwarf Fortress style humor.

[@StephandaSilva]

+

[@NightcoreGirl98]

I was expecting the Hanford nuclear mess in Washington to be on this list, its leaky tanks of nuclear stuff hasn't been fixed even though millions of dollars have gone towards fixing it.

[@goodun2974]

Nightcore, I upvoted your comment, not because Hanford is a good thing but because you were right to point out that giant radioactive facility most definitely belongs on everyone's short-list of Superfund sites.

[@macalister8881]

Hanford dumped 1.34 trillion gallons of nuke puke from 1948 to 1954 , they still have 120 tanks under ground that contain 64 million gallons of plutonium sludge , they leak and vent gasses up into the air , sickness is the biggest industry

[@katyungodly]

@@macalister8881 if this were the Fallout universe there would be glowing ghouls all over that place ☢🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️☢

[@macalister8881]

@@katyungodly just watched a documentary about glyphosate aka monsantos round up weed killer sprayed on all crops around the world , 48.6 billion tons is years each year only 10 % stays on the crops the rest is air born and finds it,s way in all rain fall , all drinking water , all organic food grown unless it is produced in a hot house . Levels are so toxic most sickness and cancer is from this chemical and yet no one cares , radiation from nuke puke is our last concern me thinks

[@r3nchCS]

It's not considered a superfund site because the leaks aren't considered a risk to life or health currently. The waste is low activity and fairly well contained.

[@YTN3rd]

I couldn’t stop hearing “super fun site”

[@WouldntULikeToKnow.]

Super fun for the corporations that made them because they also made a pretty penny and hefted the clean up costs onto the tax payers. Yay!

[@ichaukan]

It's the politically correct way to say "Toxic waste dump"

[@DiscoChixify]

Yup, so much fun! 😂

[@j-sant-animations8105]

So fun, you’ll stay for the rest of your life!

[@eliunderwood2246]

@@j-sant-animations8105 Search "Picher, Oklahoma" it's basically like Pripayat except it's problem was from mass production and littering of led.

[@baddriversofcolga]

Anniston, AL had a huge contamination of PCBs from Monsanto when they were just dumping it into a creek for many years. It's amazing what these companies will try to get away with. And yet some people don't want them to be regulated at all...it's insane.

[@dankendra5093]

But what about our jobs? Lawl

[@elizabethsullivan7176]

There was a creek near where I grew up in London, Ontario that was contaminated with PCBs that we used to play in when we were kids in the 1970s. The source was a Westinghouse factory about 10 minutes away from us and they built hydro transformers. The building sits empty now and for years the contaminated soil was buried in huge oil drums on the property until about 10 years ago. Might have something to do with why I have hypothyroidism now.

[@colatf2]

Yea I cannot comprehend why people think regulating business is unnecessary; it’s a one way trip to some massive fuckup.

[@neuswoesje590]

@@elizabethsullivan7176 that is awful I´m so sorry. I´m sure they were fully aware that they contaminated the creek and that kids were playing in it too, but didn't say anything because money. disgusting.

[@aoiahiru670]

According to the EPA, "hazardous and non­hazardous wastes were disposed in several areas, including the West End and South Landfills that are adjacent to the plant. Surface water containing PCBs and other site related contaminants flowed into the 11th Street ditch, Snow Creek, Choccolocco Creek and the Coosa River." Bad news for the environment for sure, but not quite the same thing as "just dumping it into a creek."

[@ChunkNinja]

You forgot the most toxic US site: The youtube comments section.

[@DBZHGWgamer]

Thats actually world site, not US exclusive.

[@cjkavy2299]

Racist little Minecraft shit

[@XL1813]

Oh shit whaddup?!

[@SuperExodian]

toxic you way? how about most of the middle east.. bloody terrorists making everything a pain..

[@Justin-jh3kb]

+Bart De Bock why are you guys taking him seriously he was making a joke

[@theclockworksolution8521]

I'm surprised there was no mention of Picher, Oklahoma, which I'd always heard was the most toxic superfund place in the US. Also no mention of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in California (neither of these places have been fully cleaned up), but mostly Picher. *Picher is a nightmare*.

[@McGreasyjesus]

I expected to see pitcher too....or North st louis and the currently burning landfill filled with nuclear waste and coldwater creek ....or times beach.....or...jeez we really are terrible

[@elliethecat5973]

Picher is flint mishagen but with more lead and it's a goast town

[@juliewillson3378]

Was surprised neither Picher, Oklahoma nor Times Beach, Missouri were on this list.

[@BluetheRaccoon]

I remember watching a documentary about Picher, and how the lead chat was being used in sandboxes. I can't imagine how much brain damage was caused by the lead exposure, and that it was done knowingly is ghastly. It stuns me that Eagle-Picher is still around today, and weren't bankrupted and made pay for the town they destroyed.

[@freshrot420]

@@BluetheRaccoon Gotta study lead exposure somehow! They really dropped the ball with leaded gas too. That stuff went everywhere and small planes are still allowed to use it. There's now an "acceptable amount" in almost everyone's tap water. I've got a hunch it's why our world is so screwed up and likely why these idiots made such poor decisions with their waste, not to mention our lackadaisical response to pretty much all of it. These companies and more should have been boycotted out of existence long ago.

[@mhail7874]

I like how you guys made the whole United States in the thumbnail look like it’s just one toxic place

[@amber1685]

You're going to look at him and your going to tell him that he's WrONG?!

[@wovengoal6641]

He isn’t wrong

[@squiddiot5477]

As someone who lives in the U.S, I can confirm that it is

[@WhiskMyEggs]

it is

[@superspicy8740]

@@squiddiot5477 this year proves it

[@springranch1384]

"Hauled away to a landfill." How many times was that said - - as if that was the end of things. Where are these landfills. How closely are they being monitored?

[@lochnessamonster1912]

Spring Ranch The landfills are where all of our recycling is going, too. Vote republican! >snickers

[@kylestanley7843]

I imagine in most cases they are being considered. You wouldn't want a landfill near your water supply no matter what you put into the damn thing lol

[@gateauxq4604]

On secret sky islands our government made just for this sort of thing of course.

[@y0nd3r]

Pretty sure his comments were tongue in cheek. Like, oh look, they're putting another hazardous chemical in a landfill, boy I feel safe.

[@davidfortier6976]

The quality of landfills themselves and the quality of their monitoring varies to an unsettling degree. Some of them are really well managed, others aren't monitored for "toxic seepage" at all. And you probably already knew that.

[@jamesporter1991]

The youtube comment section?

[@jacob_90s]

Always breaks my heart to hear companies do things like this. I naively keep hoping people will one day learn from history that greed never pays off. Might make you a little money now, but it always costs more in the long run.

[@Brett_S_420]

It pays off for the jerks running the companies that do this stuff. Usually by a lot. Until that changes, they keep killing us all.

[@JeepartN]

Well they wont learn tho? Since its not the companies paying for the cleanup right... the people who made the decision to pollute these places probably got away with alot more money than they started with 🙃

[@awaredeshmukh3202]

Unfortunately, if it's not them paying, it only costs the rest of us money and they learn the opposite

[@ujustgotpwned2008]

But greed does pay off; that's how billionaires are made. It sucks, sure, but greed pays.

[@truth4004]

They don't care they're loaded and will live somewhere clean.

[@triciafleckenstein9472]

I grew up near Love Canal! It was crazy for sure. They rebuilt a school in too of the canal inspite of warnings!

[@pbreedu]

You got to feel sorry for the teachers who want to talk about the Love Canal. Not only does it sound like an adult movie but add to the fact that it was polluted by the Hooker chemical company and any grade 6 class will be a huge challenge to keep from laughing.

[@fluffydevil13]

pbreedu i took AP environmental science my senior year of high school and it was so hard not to laugh. My desk partner had a really gallows sense of humor too.

[@michaellevengood8278]

Make them laugh about it, make it a joke. That's a great way to help them remember.

[@phantomaviator1318]

Just laugh top

[@marnenotmarnie259]

@@michaellevengood8278 generally those kinds of jokes from teachers are discouraged lol

[@deanronson6331]

If wingnuts like SeSatanis become president, they will probably strike teaching of business-caused disasters from history books, like they did with Black history or banning books from school libraries.The next step is the burning of books they don't like. Stalin used to order removing subjects he didn't like from history and other books, and he had persona non grata removed from historical photos by the then technique of photo-shopping, called retouching.

[@benfrechette9873]

#8 BuzzFeed Studios

[@sneeder351]

Edgy

[@Neonmonkey42]

+Samuel Myers True, though.

[@barginprice]

damn I don't even like Buzzfeed and I felt that

[@Neonmonkey42]

· 0xFFF1 "As Sonic the hedgehog once said: That's no good." Fantastic.

[@NoahMiclette]

+· 0xFFF1 triggered

[@abethepunk]

My grandmother worked near Love Canal while she was pregnant with my mom! My mom was born with a cleft palate, same with my nephew and cousin. A lot of us also have Sticklers Syndrome.

[@alexk628]

What is Sticklers Syndrome?

[@guillermo3564]

@@alexk628 either Google it or ask your mommy. People aren't online to provide you with an education.

[@onloct7417]

People are online to communicate and converse with one another. Idk why you people get angry when someone asks a question. Insecure I guess

[@CherryCowgirl]

@UCB7-k4YP5RoOSGD7ZrEd_mA oh grow up Jesus ever heard of a hug ? You fingg need one 🙄

[@neuswoesje590]

@@guillermo3564 literally just keep on scrolling if you don't want to answer a question. you just put effort into this for absolutely no reason

[@robertlinscott7719]

I remember kids picking up rocks from the love canal, throwing them down and they would explode like pop rocks.

[@NorthernChev]

Rocks that explode in the love canal... Well said, sir. Well said.

[@mariastevens6406]

Wtf

[@XPRykan]

I was hoping Berkeley Pit would be on here. As a fellow Montana resident I was constantly told of this site through my school years. I'm constantly surprised that something so awful has been allow to fester like that, and it serves as a good reminder to be conscious of the things you do to the environment. This was a pretty neat episode.

[@joeharris3878]

Flew into the airport there once. You could see the big blue-green spot way off. A strange sight. You'd think the city would actually be moved. Might happen someday I suppose. I bought my Montana Tech Orediggers tshirt there.

[@thegirthquake8574]

Attention: If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you may be entitled to compensation. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer.

[@jljordan1]

I’ve had a few patients with it.

[@rebeccaj210]

I love how he says "we" as if every day Americans had a choice in dumping this waste in the water they drink.

[@trishayamada807]

But WE do get to PAY for it. 🤬

[@KellyClowers]

We as in we humans

[@truth4004]

Yeah he shouldnt say we.

[@grmpEqweer]

Something scary: fracking fluid can now be dumped on agricultural land. It can contain all sorts of contaminants, including radiation from radium deposits.

[@redtopaz]

The Love Canal Hole was contaminated by Hooker Chemicals... (I know it's a serious story. I can't help myself T_T...)

[@cruz1816]

love anal hole

[@il-dottore]

( ͡ ° ͜ ʖ ͡ ° )

[@gnomesmcgee3362]

What about filthy sex now?

[@gnomesmcgee3362]

@Frisky Bottomsuuater do you roleplay? I soo wanna rp whit you

[@missprimrose4132]

@Rulya Mórrigan Ard Mhacha then you know people including children died of cancer because the contamination drained into their basements & back yards. Yep, real F'n funny...

[@kenobi1985]

Anyone remember the Erin Brockovich movie from 2000? For years, the people of Hinkley, CA drank water contaminated by hexavalent chromium (Chromium-6), which causes cancer. And Hinkley isn't the only place with this kind of problem. It's still an ongoing cleanup site with the pollution plume reported to still be growing!! Reportedly, Hinkley has become something of a modern-day ghost town. California is my home state so this really P.O.s me, especially since I still have family out there, though not in that area specifically. And even earlier this year the SCGC was trying to downplay the effects of a major gas leak in L.A. Unbelievable. And they seem so surprised that people have stopped believing their so-called assurances concerning their health! Especially after Flint, which I notice didn't make the list. You could make a whole series about these places, easily. Money-grubbing a-holes. Makes me sick that people still get away with it over and over again all over the world. Wake up people!!!

[@chubbyraycactus3246]

Now we're tracking.

[@freshrot420]

There's a nice map online where you can see which waterways and water plants Chromium-6 has been detected and their percentages. It's kinda crazy. "EWG estimates that water supplies serving 218 million Americans - more than two-thirds of the population - contain unsafe levels of chromium-6." I don't think governments should have as big of roles as they do, yet they can't even do the few things they really should do.

[@truth4004]

@@freshrot420 its not the governments fault its the factories dumping their runoff.

[@JonMartinYXD]

@@truth4004 It is also the electorate's fault for electing representatives that instead of believing in the science believe that the 'free market' will make corporations properly regulate themselves.

[@tarajoyce3598]

Ohio just labeled her a terrorist threat because she had been to East Palestine Ohio twice after overwhelming residents asking for her help. Her townhalls are on YT.

[@zekenelsons2069]

Love that this got rec'd now. East Palestine, OH is about to get added to this list lol

[@snookieg2409]

I live in southeast Kansas, not too far from a superfund site: Pitcher, OKlahoma. It was a mess to get cleaned and a mess to get people evacuated and resettled. The whole thing, soup to nuts, was a chaotic mess. My heart really went out to those people. Great video!!

[@AidanKedzierski]

This video makes me even more excited to become an environmental engineer.

[@ModernGameArmy]

Good, then you can convince people that electric cars are actually bad for the environment. And that wind and solar are not the future.

[@Gothead420]

Please, enlighten us. What is THE future?

[@MilitantPacifista]

+Gothead420 there is the argument that the production of necessary resources for batteries and wind power is more harmful than plain petrol cars or gas power plants

[@Gothead420]

MrEppart Using cheap production-methods and not caring about pollution leads to such problems, not renewable energies per-sé. E.g. the mercury in solarpanels only has to be handled properly, its not leaking out for no reason or something... Humankind ONLY has this one chance to become truly sustainable, otherwise our civilisation will go down...

[@ModernGameArmy]

Gothead420 Then there is also the fact that solar doesn't work while cloudy and at night. They don't produce much in the first place. And wind is costs a ton of money for little power and can only operate under specific conditions. Nuclear energy is the future Electric cars are probably the future just not right now. Just making an electric car battery will create more co2 than a gasoline car will in it's entire lifetime.

[@johndavis9487]

1) LOVE CANAL 2) REED-KEPPLER PARK 3) HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING 4) BLACKBURN AND UNION PRIVILEGES 5) BERKELEY PIT 6) HUDSON RIVER 7) CTS OF ASHEVILLE

[@lalaithan]

Thank you kind person.

[@madisonwagnon894]

Pitcher should be on here

[@stringcheese4592]

@@madisonwagnon894 agree Madison! Picher s/b 💯% on the list!😱😭👍

[@gateauxq4604]

Keep going...

[@michaelhorn9114]

The UNIONTOWN OHIO INDUSTRIAL LANDFILL!!!!!!!!

[@stephenbrand5661]

When I looked it up I found evidence of there being 43 EPA Superfund sites in my grandmother’s small town in New Jersey less than 10 miles outside of Manhattan.

[@BrentTJo]

New Jersey is the worst, if you look at the national map of superfund site all states have many of them but New Jersey is completely covered with dots.

[@daffers2345]

I remember the anthrax scare. People were warned to watch out for letters with dust in them. There was one year when an elementary school in my district was moldy when school started. Some mold had gotten into the air conditioning units and spread all over the building. They had to shut down the building for some time and send the kids to other school buildings for classes while they cleaned it up.

[@EMAngel2718]

How about you say "corporations" instead of "we", since 99% of people aren't making these decisions?

[@rstriker21]

There are still humans making these decision, at least I think so...

[@EMAngel2718]

+StrikePlaysGames 99%

[@NightDoge]

+Pikirion Mallea -- most of us? some of us? Will that do?

[@EMAngel2718]

Rainbow Bubbles Some of us I guess. I just don't think it's fair to blame the entirity of humanity for the actions of the apathetic and powerful.

[@EMAngel2718]

I'd also like to apologise if I came off as aggressive, condescending, etc. That was not my intention.

[@angelswithmolotovs9857]

It's like Minimata disease, caused by the company Cheeso dumping industrial waste into the water in Minimata, Japan. Because the Japanese have such a fish-based diet, many suffered severe mercury poisoning from the metal waste that had accumulated in their fish. It was first seen in cats (because their bodies are smaller, the effects took hold quicker), who would have a dance-like seizure, earning the illness the nickname "Dancing Cat Disease". Why Cheeso would dump it into the place they get their own food, I have no idea. Humans disgust me sometimes. (I do believe the citizens of Minimata won a large lawsuit against the corporation, though. So that's good)

[@99kdaniel]

Reading this book in my toxicology class alone with Silent Spring made me change from medical to environmental.

[@nathanmiller1383]

Nice! New holiday vacation bucket list

[@silenceiscompliance4131]

The Zoo.. 👋 hello .. Fellow missoulian ..Heard Clark Fork and wow, glad others know and or care.. Great video. The more we know 💕

[@Snowl11]

I don't understand how people thought like "hey lets just dump all this in the ground, its fine" like how stupid can you be

[@azraelle6232]

A lot of the time these chemicals were dumped before we knew they were so dangerous.

[@anyfoolcanknow]

It's all an equation. The profit margin is destroyed if you actually use the money you make to clean up all the mess made in the process. It's hard to handle but most of the things you use in modern Life have nasty biproducts, that's why green chemistry is such a big deal. There's better ways of doing things but often times it's unavoidable. Unless you want to pay 4 times as much for the same product it's a fact you have to live with.

[@p51mustang24]

In a lot of cases they actually thought it was fine. It wasn't until well into the post ww2 era that most began to understand the environmental impacts of dealing with harmful chemicals.

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

Old generations.

[@breezybaby6430]

I think what you meant to say is how ignorant can you be, and the answer is very ignorant. Dilution was, and still is, thought to be a satisfactory waste disposal method. Dilution definitely can be a viable waste reduction method, but the degree of dilution necessary for a chemical/compound to become non-harmful varies greatly. The science that identifies how much of/if a chemical is hazardous usually lags behind its production and application. Many times though, even with substantial evidence to back up a claim that something is toxic, it takes an immense effort to get people to make any change away from what is easy and readily available. Again, as someone else already pointed out, people that dump toxins are not idiots (for the vast majority). Ignorance or greed is often the problem, and sometimes it's indifference. Stupid people aren't usually in a position to be able to make harmful choices that have such a large impact. Only when idiots group together and vote can they make such choices (see almost every politician in the last 100 years for examples).

[@Hannah_Em]

And this is why getting rid of the EPA because it "stifles business" is a *bad* idea

[@llaneelyort5599]

this is only the sites that we know of. imagine what has been dumped into the oceans.

[@uncle1886]

Llaneel Yort look into cruise ships and where they dump their waste....and how much one ship on one trip pollutes the air. It’s mind boggling

[@zerocooler7]

@Rulya Ard Mhacha Farley I've read comments from several conservatives that do indeed want to get rid of the EPA.

[@yodaguy6956]

The EPA as it is now needs to be completely overhauled so it can concentrate on important stuff like this rather than enforcing pointless nonimpactful legislation. The entire safety industry has become a bloated monstrosity whose primary purpose seems to be creation and enforcement of unimportant regulations, "justifying" many useless programs that are really just about maintaining jobs.

[@nosuchthing8]

In other words, money is more important than humand

[@liamg1995]

Good list! Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado is another one that deserves mention.

[@kayleighfredericks5495]

Very apt that it was recommended to me now, when the CDC was sent to East Palestine, Ohio within the past few days because of a train derailment that held toxic chemicals, and yesterday, Jimmy Carter's family announced he is in hospice.

[@ihydgm6991]

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with meselthemeola you may be entitled to compensation

[@kaworunagisa3391]

I was looking through the comments to see if anyone already said that...

[@MooshieGaming]

Meselthemeola? Pls search up how to spell before you make memes xd

[@Backyardmech1]

You must be thinking of Jim Adler and his ambulance chasers.

[@siriustheislandprotector9720]

MooshieGaming I

[@yeehaw289]

IHYDGM Navy, shipyard, mills, and heating

[@kweenyasmine5324]

When I clicked on this I was like “I probably don’t live too close to any of these” and then the first one is in Niagara Falls, NY... and I live in Buffalo, NY. -.-

[@hughdanielson]

Would you believe that isn't the only site up there?

[@zoecoffee9054]

I hear everyone hates Niagara Falls, NY who lives there bc of the environment

[@agonicole]

And Hudson river, and dioxin plant...

[@AOk-by4pi]

I was thinking the same except I’m on the other side of the border :( sad how greed and willful ignorance make corporate profiteers apathetic and corrupt.

[@TheParadoxGamer1]

Try bein near Picher Oklahoma

[@Mr500sheetsofpaper]

I grew up near Fernald Feed Materials Production Center. They DOE enriched uranium for weapons use. It was shut down shortly after a whistleblower was found incinerated in one of the furnaces. Lovely sight today. Now it is a nature reserve although I highly recommend staying on the trails.

[@robj2704]

For a number of years, I used to pass by the CTS site on my work. I remember, suddenly, one day it was declared a Superfund site. But, for whatever reason, seems it took a good ten years for the EPA to do anything about it.

[@DavidDylanFisher]

Important point about the Love Canal case: the company that dumped the chemicals wasn't the bad guy. The real-estate company that knowingly bought the contaminated land and built housing developments on it and sold them to unsuspecting buyers without telling them was the bad guy. The dumpers made sure the developers knew the land was unsafe and tried to dissuade the developers from buying it.

[@foxymetroid]

To be fair, the company that dumped those chemicals there isn't exactly blameless either.

[@jamesmiller4054]

DavidDylanFisher weeeeelll i mean they still killed millions of innocent creatures because they it was cheaper and they could and did get away with just throwing it in a lake rather than safely disposing the chemicals

[@southwestontario]

Actually the true factual story is that the Hooker Chemical Company sold the land with all that buried waste to the Niagara Falls School Board for $1. They sold it to them under the stipulation that they were not to build anything on the land. Instead of following tthe NFSchool Board, built an elementary school, the 99th street school on it. For sure the NF School Board did a terrible thing, but the Hooker company, they KNEW it was toxic and they sold it to the school board? What did they think the school board wanted to do on the land?? Also, there were many houses built around the area, almost all of which have been destroyed .

[@nukemanmd]

I don't understand how the Wikipedia article gave you the impression that Hooker was blameless. To the contrary, it knew that it had serious liability exposure, and elected to give the land to the City in return for a release of liability by the City. Clearly, City officials were unaware of the extent of the danger. Nevertheless, the City was clearly culpable for not investigating the site before building a school. Hooker DID NOT do things properly. It carelessly disposed of dangerous chemicals. It failed to disclose the nature of the waste to the City. It basically washed its hands of the situation and tried to "dump" the problem on others. It deserved its fines.

[@prepperjonpnw6482]

DavidDylanFisher but they still sold it to them lol

[@kingjames4886]

"there are thousands of these sites... here's 7."

[@ItsmeStudios]

These must be the worst

[@Draber2b]

A good starting point xD

[@l.m.2404]

This video is now 6 years old. I would really like to see an update episode. Thanks.

[@thesidewalksaint6236]

knowledge is power and thanks guys

[@abiparedes2001]

I live in an 11 minute ride away from a landfill that contains nuclear waste that is super close to a huge underground fire that will burn for decades because they don’t know how to put it out and it’s at risk of getting to the waste

[@dendrobialbright7616]

Eastern PA

[@offhandacoustic]

@@dendrobialbright7616 Westlake landfill in Missouri. It's an abandoned landfill that has radioactive material,trash and God knows what else mixed all together and it just happens to be on fire. It's a dirty secret that some people are doing all they can to keep a secret. I moved my family as soon as I could after finding out I lived 2.1 miles east of this place. I've lived around this burning landfill my entire life and only learned about it 3 years ago,I am in my late 30s.

[@dendrobialbright7616]

@@offhandacoustic man..i'm so sorry.. What a sick mess!

[@fab0392]

U must live in pa. I know the site

[@fab0392]

Centralia Pennsylvania.

[@DustinRodriguez1_0]

I grew up in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, right near the Ohio River (most polluted waterway in the country! Woohoo!). There was one place that I was always told to stay away from and which was always fenced off for a long ways around it that I later found out was a Superfund site. It was the previous location of a chemical plant of some sort (there are still several chemical plants in the region, my dad still works at one... and there was a chlorine gas pipeline leak at one of the other ones just the day before yesterday that required evacuating hundreds of homes). My grandfather told me that before the place was recognized as a Superfund site, the place had been abandoned for a long time and they used to play there when he was younger. Apparently there were loads of arrowheads you could find buried there... in the soil that was declared contaminated down to a depth of something like 10 feet. He also told me about how they would go to the shoreline of the river that was on the same property and that you could reach down into the mud and pull up just handfuls of mercury. Apparently it has since been cleaned up, though. Now that there are oil and gas companies everywhere in that area thanks to the recently discovered natural gas deposits, one of them purchased the whole area and built a bunch of structures on it (I believe gas storage tanks judging by the appearance of the things built there). I imagine they had to foot the bill to clean it up but I'm not sure. They also just recently (like a month ago) spent in the neighborhood of $300 million to tear down an abandoned coal power plant right across the river from the Superfund place. Apparently their plan is to build a $2 billion cracking plant there. We'll see just what they leave behind...

[@JamesAllmond]

In Macon, Georgia we have a superfund site, in town! Was used to prepare telephone poles for use, with creosote and DDT in the 50's through the 70's. Right next to a small lake, and near a ball park and public pool. But wait, it gets better! The same site used to be the site of the Confederate Munitions Lab. It was the only property owned by the Confederate States of America... Now just an empty field with some odd looking wellheads and some old concrete pads, historical marker is across the railroad tracks and US 41...

[@xyz7572]

You should make another video just like this, but with places all around the world! :D

[@randomvideosn0where]

In addition to the pollution they have generated, GE doesn't pay a single cent in taxes. What a lousy company.

[@DBZHGWgamer]

Blame Obama for literally creating tax cuts specifically designed for GE. I'm not kidding either. Obama tells them what all of the future tax cuts are going to be for their industry so they can set themselfs up to catch all of them.

[@ewoodley82]

I find it interesting that Obama is responsible for laws that were passed in the 1990s and early 2000s that precipitated much of General Electric's tax breaks. Especially since these were passed before he was even a senator(Last big tax break bill that benefitted them was passed in 2004, Obama didn't start serving in the Senate until 2005)

[@DBZHGWgamer]

Eric Woodley I'm talking about recent clean energy tax cuts.

[@Caleb.Brockie]

You forgot to talk about the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington State that has nuclear waste leaking into the Columbia river

[@animalizzed]

Another one in North STL county ongoing is the Westlake landfill superfund site which contains radioactive material dating back to the Manhattan project days. Many people are coming up sick with chronic illnesses and unusual cancers from this.

[@alex-po2lr]

The Hudson river isn’t the only superfund site in the area. In the 60’s and 70’s, Ford motors dumped insane amounts of toxic chemicals (mostly paint sludge) into empty mine shafts on Ramapough lenape tribal land. It has been delisted and relisted from the Superfund priority list multiple times and they still haven’t been able to fully clean the area. Children were especially attracted to the colorful paint sludge. Even to this day Ramapough families have hugely elevated rates of cancer and other illnesses

[@JoeSkylynx]

I think it's worth mentioning - West Valley, New York has had a huge nuclear waste issue thanks to used-bars of radioactive material being buried under the ground without a whole lot of protection, and it's been effectively contaminating the Cattaraugus Creek basin. It's not uncommon for fishermen of the prized Lake Erie steelhead to find their catch with numerous birth defects.

[@oonaalexandra6311]

I live near by a toxic clean up sight. Most of it is fenced off and it's really nice to see that dandelion and other weeds have found there way in there.

[@mariawhite7337]

I live near a uranium tailings pile. The only problem I have is that I cant sleep because I glow in the dark.

[@nuclearannihilation1475]

@@mariawhite7337 OMG

[@neuswoesje590]

@@mariawhite7337 dude you have a build in nightlight, that's awesome!!

[@GenRN]

Site; not sight. Sight is vision

[@setpunks13]

Love Canal always scared the crap out of me. The local grammar school was right on top of the waste area and toxic materials were breaking up out of the ground. Kids were literally playing in toxic waste in their backyards.

[@americansmark]

We have one in my city that just finished being deconned. It was an old lighting factory that used a number of hazardous chemicals to manufacturer lights in the early 20th century.

[@nacoran]

Yea!!! We made the list!!! HUDSON RIVER in the HOUSE!!! FML.

[@regan3873]

Right?

[@Cardboardangele]

My mother was a child who lived in Love Canal! She actually raised mice for the health department to study the effect the toxic chemicals had on birth defects.

[@ReaganHautautamaki1984]

theres one on dixie farm and Interstate 45 by friendswood, tx called the brio supperfund site when they dumped waste until the mid 60s put dirt on top of it then built a neighborhood on top of the waste 10 years later.

[@junctionwr]

Grew up next to the Elizabeth Copper Mines which are also Superfund site and seem very similar to "The Pit." Swam in the water there pretty much every hot summer day growing up.

[@Vinnini]

Since Asheville is on the list, might as well throw in the Duke Energy coal ash spill in the Dan River.

[@sjpugsie]

Hey Hank, big fan! I worked at the top 2 and a short stint with # 6 on your list. Guess what, huge neurologic and autonomic health problems. In case you were (really) wondering, that stuff will mess you up. Then there were others that didn't experience the same problems.

[@mindycatriz5195]

Steven Puglisi You worked on the issue @ Reed Keppler Park/ Kerr- McGee? Grew up there, played at the park. Always wondered if the cancer in my family & my best friend was caused by the Thorium ...

[@milesviscogliosi6483]

I live in West Chicago. Always go to turtle slash (the water park talked about here) and just recently learned about the radioactivity in the area. Fun stuff.

[@pfcrhoadescartersteven3879]

There’s 3 out where I live near St. Louis Missouri that have quite a bad reputation, and for good reason. One was a town that was contaminated by dioxin, another was a uranium refinery that was buried under gravel, and the final is a landfill with nuclear waste in it that is on fire(or at least was).

[@keenandoesntexist8953]

#1. KZbin comment sections

[@ESmaniak]

I disagree. It always depends on the video.

[@goravm1365]

#1 is you keenan

[@Jjdb8211]

a person is not a site, try again

[@twonumber22]

Yahoo comments are much worse.

[@waeyo]

League of Legends

[@MrJesusdoesntsave]

I've fallen in the hole.. just binged like 30 of these vids

[@lzylifeguidesubscribe2124]

That's some good research there!

[@Tiger-Baby]

I'd love a segment about areas on the planet, that are deemed inhabitable forever... And maybe how many new sites have been polluted since this episode... :)

[@tunneloflight]

Plutonium valley, Nevada Test Site. Central Hanford, Washington State. Savannah River site, South Carolina. To name but a few.

[@spudnugget6255]

I just discovered this channel today, and I love it. o-o

[@alonjudkovsky5137]

Do you still?

[@sancharino6878]

Lol #1 love canal. I'm watching this on 97st in approximately fifty yards from the fence.

[@beebeemcgee4047]

Sanch Arino I'm on 67th 😉

[@weathermayne61]

I'm less than an hour from Asheville :)

[@mdenz3]

Go pee on it.

[@sandangels73]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Picher Oklahoma. It's a superfund site and is still contaminated.

[@ettanasf]

Hank! This is a GOOOD look for you!

[@madeline9538]

learned about anthrax from my bacterial diseases class in college... probably my favorite class ever tbh

[@ShakespeareCafe]

Bio-remediation is the answer...selecting bacteria and fungi that can both metabolize the toxic substances or sequester them for safer disposal.

[@nobodysbaby5048]

Just saw a clip that said fungi can uptake both toxins & radioactivity.

[@Stranded73]

For some crazy reason, I find it easier to comprehend and remember these videos if I slow down the video speed slightly...

[@sophierobinson2738]

There was a super fund site in my little town, next to a creek (for some reason they call it a river), across the street from the elementary school. Someone said it was because of lead. It was fenced off, and looked like large piles of limestone rock. Never saw anything happening there. Now the gas station that was next to it expanded into a convenience store, covering the site.

[@Malidictus]

I may be hearing this wrong, but it sounds like Hank is talking about "superfun" sites, which seems... Funny, somehow.

[@DBZHGWgamer]

When i learned about these in high school, i thought the teacher was saying "superfun sites" for about two weeks before I got to the test and saw it was superfund, not superfun.

[@DBZHGWgamer]

***** They do, but I don't read them usually, and i was absent from school the day she went over the powerpoint.

[@DBZHGWgamer]

***** Uh, what is this word "study" you speak of? I ace all my tests just attending class.

[@Whatwhat3434]

+DBZHGWgamer that'll change kiddo

[@itsbtwnyouandi]

+James Scott They're mostly online now. ;)

[@myrobotfish]

Just lost a little respect for GE. Come on, how do these companies go about dumping shit without considering the consequences? I understand it's often times an accident, but there are still plenty of incidents where they deliberately chose the cheap route (though it would come back to bite them after all the lawsuits).

[@zeevtarantov]

www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html?smid=re-share

[@osmarbatalha6831]

Money

[@cpob2013]

a lot of these were from before people realized what pollution really was

[@myrobotfish]

Connor O'Brien Um, all of these were from like the past 60 years. We've known what pollution is for _way_ longer than that. This isn't the industrial revolution or something

[@dogeasaurusrex7421]

+Zeev Tarantov that's intense

[@sferg9582]

I'm so glad that they figured out that drinking straws were dangerous and put a stop to their use. Dodged a bullet with that one....whew!

[@saltinecrackerz7402]

I live in Asheville and had a teacher that lived near the site, he started getting sick and made a film about it

[@joshstans]

So basically they just moved shit around. "Yay we cleaned this land fill by moving contaminates to a different landfill" lol how the hell does that fix anything?

[@Shattered_Universe]

Energy Man it does so mostly because the previous sites had insufficient control mechanisms to prevent the material from escaping into the surrounding environment, whereas the new sites would be better equipped to handle the material.

[@p51mustang24]

you move it to a site where leeching is not a concern.

[@henrybyers5557]

@Wei Zhao leaching is a concern no matter where you put the waste (short of specialized pollutant-specific measures like glass fusing for radioactive waste). A well designed landfill with a waterproof lining and active leachate pumping and treatment systems is the best we can do for large scale waste containment.

[@the11382]

How about Flint, Michigan?

[@davidfortier6976]

That's a different sort of issue. Lethally flawed plumbing is different from contaminated soil. The end result is about the same though, probably worse.

[@tamekkaknuth9612]

Drop like flies in my candles I love my candles here; especially since I moved here in apr of 2009. Gotta go do April art and design and color sweeps.or swipes and be jeewrled games and my word games

[@transce]

Yeah, this is what happens when you don't have (or dismantle) environment protections.

[@A1Sauce_]

8: Most of your CSGO teammates.

[@jackdaniels4975]

9: The CoD franchise

[@jeremiaholszewski1844]

10: Musical.ly

[@philofarm9342]

11: undertale fandom

[@credocooperative]

13: Jake Paulers

[@elchungo5026]

A1Sauce 14. Some political ideology

[@Medic19039]

WHEN YOU SAID MISSOULA I GOT SO HAPPY (not in the toxic water context lol) I JUST MOVED HERE AND IVE BEEN WATCHING THIS SHOW FOREVER AND I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THAT YOU GUYS WERE HERE 😂

[@hailervin]

Me too I live in Helena though but I moved here from Alabama of all places.

[@anniepettersen878]

Lol yeah whenever I here Montana I get really excited because people actually remember we're a state😂

[@MrDeathBunny]

Same!! I'm in Poplar

[@ryanm3749]

@@anniepettersen878 I wish they would forget, they keep coming here and screwing things up.

[@cheems6373]

its weird seeing people from montana online cause it just feels like I forgot other people lived here asdfyujhgfgj

[@ianhall7513]

Haha the title caught my eye and my first thought was a list of places on the internet. Truth be told, I find the more literal use of toxic to be a much better video

[@grmpEqweer]

I used to live near a very high level superfund site, one of the top ten...which was in a swamp, a floodplain of a nearby river, fed into a bay in which a lot of seafood production occurs... They did clean it up, bioremediated it, but it smells weird. What bright spark thought that was a good site???

[@wlil8889]

#8 Keemstar's Channel

[@DBZHGWgamer]

#1 Keenstar's channel

[@googleeatsdicks]

rooooight

[@everyonesfavorite7804]

+Anticonny into

[@MasterGXD]

+Tyler Sessions the

[@googleeatsdicks]

MasterG noooose

[@paulmanly1990]

How about the Blizzard forums? Each one of em.

[@paulmanly1990]

Oh wait, that is most salty.

[@stxnw]

+Paul Manly HAHAHAHA THATS FUNNY. fuck off dry fuck

[@illusiveman9512]

Sanders > Trump/Hillary, when you think about it he's one of the better ones.

[@maiqtheliar301]

M'iaq for president

[@ChangelingKingdom]

Paul Manly a

[@BlakeTWiley]

Thought my Ex might be on the list.

[@kylestanley7843]

There had to be one lol

[@taizu55]

Ikr to find this comment here

[@goodun2974]

The sediment in coastal Long Island Sound is contaminated with PCB's and heavy metals. The Hudson, Housatonic and Connecticut rivers have all had upstream manufacturing facilities at one time or another that dumped their waste in the river. Transformer manufacturers used to fill the devices with PCB-laden cooling oils. The Thames river is also host to a submarine manufacturer and sub base.

[@Reromer13]

Which have the most LoL players I bet...

[@elusivejet2846]

Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha

[@nicolasbastos133]

Too true.

[@pramitbanerjee]

ohh its funny because LoL players are considered verbally "toxic"!

[@GregtheMad]

You found the "off-site landfill" he mentioned throughout the video.

[@mikillatja]

You got it sherlock!

[@christinahunt9644]

"The Love Canal" Does anyone else think that Hank was really tempted to include a subtle vagina joke? XD

[@bloodyshanex7883]

no

[@duckman2376]

no

[@Erikatharsis]

Yep.

[@UltraGamma25]

why would he? he doesn't seem too interested in the topic it seems. Also, no one says "vagina" it's pussy.

[@TorquemadaTwist]

Just because this problem came from a company named Hooker doesn't mean... Wait a minute

[@bellablue5285]

Hudson River cleanup also impacted western MA, though doesn't help that with their own formerly GE sites, there are places separate from the Hudson watershed which have the same issue (Silver Lake will at times freeze now, but that's a fairly recent development)

[@markarca6360]

TEC (Trichloroethylene) is also used as a cleaning agent in dry cleaning, however, it was phased out due to its ODP (ozone-depleting potential).