That company makes raw materials for plastics and dumped more than 3 million pounds of toxic waste into the Savannah river. It shut down the same year the Cold War ended and was converted to store a large part of the deadly remains of Americas nuclear arsenal. Willar Hightower retired from the bomb plant in 2000 after 33 years. He strolled along a tree-lined path accompanied by a breezy ditty: Dum, dum, dittle-dum, there was a turtle by the name of Bert. . The port is next door to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to 10 threatened or endangered species, according to the U.S. Many of those kicked out scattered across the country, but most resettled in nearby communities, particularly the cities of Augusta and Aiken. No injuries or pollution were reported. Walt Joseph and his fellow bomb plant engineers and scientists credit that collapse to the technology America created that the Soviets went broke trying, and failing, to match. Georgia water is considered soft water. One out of every billion neutrinos that pass through the water tank hits a proton, producing the telltale burst of radiation. Tritium standards: Tritiated water is far more dangerous to children and developing fetuses than to adults. Many of us hit a glass ceiling.". Yet DOE funding to the State of Georgia for environmental monitoring related to SRS is set to expire April 30, 2004. Louise Cassels would later write in a memoir: "our little town of Ellenton is just a beautiful memory The sacrifice was heartbreaking." Now the world had a long-range missile race to go along with an H-bomb race. 4) To involve all interested citizens and appropriate organizations in plan development and implementation. A week later, President John F. Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of the island and drew a line in the sand: The United States would not tolerate Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Studies would later show that blacks experienced higher incidentsthan whites of some cancers and early deaths. HARDEEVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA Five alligators slid from a muddy bank into the lower Savannah River, disappearing beneath the black water that flows through the Georgia-Carolina . They pointed to automated systems that could shut down reactors when necessary and an advanced training simulator that helped technicians prepare for the worst. The missile crisis ended peacefully with a negotiated settlement and the immediate withdrawal of Soviet nuclear-armed missiles from Cuba. The plant also studied ways to beef up pest control. Their spies were said to have infiltrated the government. In December 1986, an oil spill caused by an oil tanker docked at the port of Savannah resulted in approximately 500,000 US gallons (1,900,000l) of fuel oil leaking into the river. Another prominent feature are the numerous large bluffs that line the river in some locations. One morning in August 1953, the Soviets detonated their own H-bomb, just nine months after the Mike explosion introduced the world to thermonuclear destruction. The most significant problem for water quality nationwide is nonpoint source pollution (NPS), which comes from many unknown sources, such as urban and industrial runoff. Water pollution occurs when harmful substancesoften chemicals or microorganismscontaminate a stream, river, lake, ocean, aquifer, or other body of water, degrading water quality and . | Terms of Use| Privacy Policy. One or more of these programs affects activities in the Savannah River Basin. The reactors also were aligned along a long, sharply curved horseshoe shape to prevent a straight-line bomber run. We had to figure out what was basically unknown. Today, the local community is suffering the health . Dorothy Dandridge found the days preceding the announcement exciting, yet mysterious and unsettling. Houses in the foreground were abandoned by Chernobyl plant workers a few days after the explosion. Then, on Nov. 22, 1955, the sky over the Soviet test site at Semipalatinsk, in what is now Kazakhstan, ignited with a power 100 times that of the first Soviet atomic bomb. Injecting material containing iron filings into wells at the Savannah River Site is a multi-step process. All rights reserved. The report used data from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory to analyze levels of dangerous chemicals found in Georgia's waterways. DuPont, the company that helped build the atomic bombs that ended WWII, also was entrusted by the government to build and run the bomb plant. About 1,500 families would have little more than a year to leave their farms, homes and shops. Tall chain-link fences and coils of razor-sharp wire encircle the gray monolith. From this encounter, regarded as one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution (1775-83), emerged two of Savannah's most notable military heroes, Sergeant William Jasper and Count Casimir Pulaski, both of whom were killed during the unsuccessful assault on the British lines. The Savannah River Plant was recruiting scientists and engineers.