美国一小镇遭污染变“毒镇” 仅剩唯一住户

中国日报网 2012-06-06 13:11

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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)

美国堪萨斯州的特莱塞镇因受到污染已沦为“毒镇”。现在镇上仅有唯一的一家住户，只剩下蒂姆和妻子德拉-巴斯比。他们依然拒绝离开。因为即使那里变成毒镇，却依然还是他们的家园。

位于美国堪萨斯州东南部的特莱塞曾是一个非常繁荣的矿业小镇，那里曾有学校、数百户居民以及发薪日挤满醉酒矿工的喧闹酒吧。

但曾经把特莱塞变为新兴小镇的矿业最终也使它成为毫无生气的被荒废小镇。

如今这里已经沦为“毒镇”。根据《堪萨斯城星报》的报道，在矿山关闭后，政府向仍然居住在该地的138名居民提供资助，人们陆续搬走，仅剩蒂姆夫妇。

美国环保署称，数十年的锌和铅矿开采已经污染了当地的土地、水源以及空气。

大堆有毒的矿石碎屑凌乱堆积在街头上。地底挖矿使地面呈“蜂窝乳酪”状，全镇遍布大的灰岩坑，很多较大的坑洞深到足以把整个人吞没。

2009年，美国联邦政府开始“买断”该镇的居民，国会还批准了350万美元的资金让居民搬离小镇，并把它改造成一个超级基金场址。

在人们搬离该镇之前，位于州界对面的俄克拉荷马州的皮歇尔镇也由于同样的原因被政府“买断”。数十年采矿使皮歇尔镇遭到严重的铅污染。

皮歇尔镇先于特莱塞镇被“买断”，这是个历史性事件，美国政府付给当地居民现金，让他们搬离赖以生存的小镇。

美国环保署试图拯救特莱塞镇。该镇的16名儿童中，仅有一人在检测中查出体内铅超标。

但特莱塞镇的污染已经造成了，居民们不再相信住在那里是安全的。

在皮歇尔镇被人们放弃之后，特莱塞镇的政府也要求联邦政府出资“买断”。

最终，美国环保署给每位搬离居民补贴了大约4万美元。截至2010年，64户居民中的63户搬离了小镇，他们的房子也拆毁了。

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（中国日报网英语点津 Julie 编辑：陈丹妮）

Vocabulary:

stay put: 停留不走，待在原地

chat: 碎石

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