South Park Says *&#!@! You, Southwest!

Apparently some residents of Seattle's South Park neighborhood feel that having a Superfund site in their backyard is enough, the rotten shirkers. They say it should disqualify them from helping cutting a few minutes off greater Seattle's freedom to jet about the country. Seattlest admits the discussion of Southwest's proposed move to Boeing Field hasn't exactly centered on environmental impacts so far. (But editorial boards tend to have their seats in lofty crags.)

The P-I reports that this kind of oversight isn't unrelated to the income level of the people who live in South Park. If there's a clearer example of getting a poke in the eye by the short end of the stick, Seattlest doesn't know of it.

The interesting thing about the accompanying air pollution map (thanks, NRDC) is that toxics get over everything, no matter where their source is sited. The Cascadia Scorecard reports:

A new chemical analysis, being released today by California EPA scientists at an international scientific conference in Toronto, shows that 30 percent of Northwest moms tested had higher levels of the toxic flame retardants PBDEs in their bodies than of well-known chemical threats PCBs.

The reason for fear of this string of alphabetical elements is that like PCBs, PBDEs promote developmental disorders and are present in breast milk. These kinds of accumulative toxic burdens may be behind the meteoric rise in developmental disorders such as autism, which would complete the loop, really. After the poor, infants have the least voice. The Community Coalition for Environmental Justice seems to have plenty of work cut out for it.