User:Jewelchloe/sandbox

=Water Gremlin=

Chemical Leak Protest
Protesters gathered on the sidewalk in front of Water Gremlin on August 19, 2019, in regard to the recent leak of the chemical trichloroethylene (TCH) and lead poisoning to the children of the employees. The townspeople brought signs, chairs, and expressed their displeasure with the company's malpractice and failure to regulate their chemical output. After the initial discovery of emissions, the company was no longer reputable in the public eye, and the residents demanded a shutdown. Amongst the public demands was the need for transparency in regard to the company’s methods of regulation. However, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency was partially to blame for the lack of chemical regulation because they failed to update Water Gremlin’s required emission output testing. Discontented with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) failure to comply with requests for public information on Water Gremlin under the Data Practices Act, attorney Dean Salita filed a lawsuit against the MPCA on August 20, 2019. Salita with the Minnetonka law team's personal injury lawyer has been waiting since early May for MPCA to comply with the data practices request for records regarding Water Gremlin's emissions and the agency’s attempts to regulate them. Nevertheless, further information regarding Water Gremlin’s chemical output was withheld from the public until late 2020.

Data Practices Act
The Data Practices Act presumes that all government data must be made available to the public. For the government to limit access to data, state or federal law must specifically classify it. The Act also specifies the government's obligation to respond to data requests made by members of the public or the subject of the data. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency failed to operate under the Act's statutes, therefore threatening their integrity and causing displeasure amongst the townspeople.

Lead Poisoning
About 150 people living or working near Water Gremlin were exposed to trichloroethylene (TCE) levels that exceeded the state’s permitted amount. TCE is a hazardous chemical used by Water Gremlin to degrease battery terminals, and elevated levels may increase the risk of different types of cancers and birth defects. Along with the trichloroethylene leak, a series of reports of increased levels of lead in the blood of adolescents were received by Ramsey County Public Health in 2017. Initially the source of the lead was unknown, however, the county found that these were the kids of Water Gremlin employees after an inquiry. The children's homes were not the source of the lead, according to testing and analysis, rather, the county determined that the source was second-hand lead dust, most likely brought home by the employees.

Timeline
According to local accounts, the company has been emitting trichloroethylene into the atmosphere for at least 17 years. A Water Gremlin spokesman apologized on behalf of the company's 300 employees for leaking a contaminant into the air that affected around 5,000 people. In response to the chemical leak, resident Kerri Luecke was determined to participate in Salita’s lawsuit against the company. After hearing of the TCE leaks, Luecke was one of the first to contact Salita for an interview. Luecke and her family lived for 24 years within a quarter mile of Water Gremlin. “The MPCA and Department of Health tell us there’s nothing to worry about,” Luecke expressed. “Yet the settlement with Water Gremlin was the second-largest in state history. Nothing to worry about? What are they not telling us?” Luecke said she beat the odds after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer, while her daughter suffers from epileptic seizures, and her son has asthma. “We never put two and two together until this came out. It’s scary.” Like many other residents of White Bear Lake, Luecke blames the company for her family’s declining health and is seeking legal action for the damages.

Unemployment Backlash
Despite the closure of Water Gremlin for the safety and health of the residents, former employees took to the streets in the second wave of discourse and protested the loss of their jobs. Over a dozen employees met up outside the Minnesota state capital to encourage officials to reopen Water Gremlin. The former employees were distraught about the loss of their jobs due to the shutdown and demanded the company reopen. While reports indicated that the children of the employees were experiencing elevated levels of lead in their blood, the workers insisted that their children were healthy and that the officials were “overreacting” about the severity of the situation. "We as the Water Gremlin employees are here today to make it clear to you guys to work with Water Gremlin and not shut Water Gremlin down," a worker in the back of the gathering hollered. Despite the dispute, further testing had to be implemented before approving the company to resume production.