Despite efforts to curb pollution, Escambia County still struggles with its haunted past

Article Reference: Despite efforts to curb pollution, Escambia County still struggles with its haunted past

Kevin Robinson, Pensacola News Journal
Published 6:05 a.m. CT Nov. 20, 2019 | Updated 4:53 p.m. CT Dec. 4, 2019

Despite Escambia County’s outward beauty, our community has long been plagued by pervasive pollution from industrial plants, landfills, septic tanks and the like. 

Pollution was so bad that in 1999, a special grand jury was convened to assess local air and water quality. The jury found that local regulators were falling down on the job, that local elected officials were serving corporations rather than citizens and that we needed to take immediate action to stem the tide of toxins in our community.

The grand jury issued an array of recommendations to improve pollution control, environmental monitoring, government accountability and other issues, but 20 years later, we’re still seeing a lot of the same old problems.

In this special series, the News Journal will look at the state of our natural resources to help answer: Have we squandered paradise?

An Escambia County grand jury in 1999 stated in no uncertain terms: the people who were supposed to be protecting the environment were failing.

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