Not only will homeowners in Mayflower, Arkansas have to deal with collapsed property values, but also, according to Exxon, cancer.
ExxonMobil documents released by a federal agency investigating the spill of an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil into a residential neighborhood, spell out a litany of dangerous compounds associated with that particular type of crude.
Under a section titled “Potential Health Affects” ExxonMobil says its so-called Wabasca heavy crude “may cause cancer.”
“If anything happens in the next 10, 20, 50 years of my children’s lives, you think, ‘I wonder if that was caused by any kind of long-term affects from the spill,’” said Chris Harrell, a resident of the Northwoods subdivision where the spill happened.
Another section of the documents warns that the crude is “toxic to aquatic life” and “may cause long term adverse affects in the aquatic environment.”
“That’s a big deal economically for the area, because sport fishing is major here,” said Harrell.
But I’m sure they’ll continue to vote for members of Congress who are ass-deep in oil money. Because Obama.