MIT Media Lab Didn't Just Take Jeffrey Epstein's Money - It Also Illegally Dumped Toxic Wastewater

[hatrack]

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab have dumped wastewater underground in apparent violation of a state environmental regulation, according to documents and interviews, potentially endangering local waterways in and near the town of Middleton. Nitrogen levels from the lab’s wastewater registered more than 20 times above the legal limit, according to documents provided by a former Media Lab employee. When water contains large amounts of nitrogen, it can kill fish and deprive infants of oxygen.

Nine months ago, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection began asking questions, but MIT’s health and safety office failed to provide the required water quality reports, according to documents obtained by ProPublica and WBUR. This triggered an ongoing state investigation.

After ProPublica and WBUR contacted MIT for comment, an institute official said the lab in question was pausing its operations while the university and regulators worked on a solution. Tony Sharon, an MIT deputy vice president who oversees the health and safety office, didn’t comment on the specific events described in the documents.

The state’s investigation adds to recent scrutiny of the Media Lab for accepting donations from Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who was charged with trafficking minors before he died in jail last month. Joichi Ito, the director of the Media Lab, has resigned, and students have called for the resignation of MIT President L. Rafael Reif, who signed off on at least one of Epstein’s gifts.

EDIT

https://www.propublica.org/article/mit-media-lab-kept-regulators-in-the-dark-dumped-chemicals-in-excess-of-legal-limit

[hunter]

1. Waste always goes somewhere.

The "flush it and forget it" mentality always ends poorly.

The same is true of gaseous and solid wastes.

Where is all that trash going?

Where is all the exhaust from fossil fueled power plants and vehicles going?

What are we doing with nuclear waste?

I live in a place where nitrogen pollution of groundwater is a very serious problem. Nitrogen fertilizer is inexpensive enough that farmers use it to excess, figuring it's better to have a little too much than too little. The excess nitrogen accumulates in groundwater. Horrifyingly this groundwater ends up in the well water of mostly poorer communities populated by farm workers.

"Blue baby syndrome" is one terrifying consequence of this. But lower levels also cause developmental problems.

Between that and insecticide exposure, the children of many farmworkers don't grow up to be as healthy as they might have been.

Occasionally more affluent communities have problems like this but they are more likely to be discovered and dealt with aggressively.

This article notes "There are more than 650,000 of these “Class V” wells across the country."

How many of them have similar problems?