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Thaindian News reports:
People living in and around a special economic zone in Cuddalore are “2,000 times more” likely to be affected by cancer than the normal population, says a report prepared for the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. In a normal sample population, cancer occurs in one person in a million. But in and around the State Industries Promotion Corp of Tamil Nadu known as SIPCOT industrial park nearly 300 km south of Chennai, two in every thousand are likely to have cancer, say anti-pollution campaigners.
The Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has prepared the report.
The study confirms the decades-old complaints by local residents that pollution from the chemical factories in the park is worst at night, especially in the village of Eachangadu.
The NEERI submitted the report in August 2007 to TNPCB without any public information. It came to light after an RTI plea by the local environment watchdog, Community Environment Monitoring (CEM).
[...]
The NEERI study found that areas near Shasun Chemicals, and the village of Eachangadu, were the worst affected.
Risk levels near Asian Paints and Tagros Chemicals are also high, the report said.
According to the report, children, elderly and the infirm were the most vulnerable. NEERI attributes this to “air transport of pollutants”.
Levels of Benzene – a chemical that causes blood cancer among children – were 125 times higher than safe levels.
Other carcinogens like chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride and trichloroethylene were 881, 553, 32.5 and 21.8 times respectively higher than acceptable levels, the NEERI report said.
NEERI says “the results are a conservative estimate” as “most of the industries are not operating to capacity on days of sampling”.
“If all the industries in the study area function to the full capacity, it may be expected that concentrations of pollutants will increase three-fold,” the institute told TNPCB.
The Community Environmental Monitor website provides this table of the actual pollution levels discovered:
List of Chemicals Detected with Highest Levels Recorded
| Name of Chemical |
Highest Level (microgram/m3)
|
Location |
Times above safe levels
|
| Benzene |
31.174 |
Asian Paints |
125 |
| Carbon tetrachloride |
72 |
Tagros Chemicals |
553 |
| Chloroform |
74 |
Shasun |
881 |
| Methylene Chloride |
133 |
Tanfac |
32.5 |
| Trichloroethylene |
24 |
Aurobindo Chemicals |
21.8 |
Read the full story here.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:
A dry-cleaning shop on busy U.S. 1 has been proposed as a federal Superfund site after tests found nearby soil and groundwater contaminated with hazardous chemicals.
An Environmental Protection Agency official said the site presents no immediate health risk, but Broward County’s pollution prevention chief said he isn’t so sure.
Flash Cleaners, at 4131 N. Federal Highway [map], polluted the ground with a variety of chemicals used in the dry-cleaning business, most likely through spills and disposal of waste through a septic system, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Tests of soil and groundwater found concentrations of several chemicals exceeding federal safety standards, including dichloroethene, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethylene and vinyl chloride.
Although the shop still takes in dry cleaning, it no longer processes it on site.
Barbara Schuster, project manager for the EPA, said there’s no immediate danger to public health. Eight drinking-water wells, serving Hillsboro Beach and other portions of northern Broward County, are within a mile of the site. But Schuster said there is little danger to the wells because they lie northwest or southwest of the site and the groundwater flows east, away from the wells.
Jeff Halsey, Broward County’s director of pollution prevention and remediation, said there is not enough information to determine how much danger is posed by the underground spread of hazardous chemicals. Among the possible health effects of these chemicals are liver and kidney damage, neurological diseases and cancer, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Until we can get an assessment done and know exactly where the plume is going, we’re going to be very, very concerned,” he said.
The exact cause of the contamination is unknown, although environmental inspectors documented unsafe practices at the shop, according to EPA records. They found machinery and waste containers on a bare concrete floor without secondary containment. Wastewater from the dry-cleaning work was discharged into an on-site septic tank, which caused contamination of soil and water, according to the EPA.
The Superfund program, established after the discovery of thousands of tons of hazardous waste in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y., takes on the most serious contaminated sites. Under the program, the EPA tries to find the parties responsible for the pollution and make them pay for cleanup. Failing that, the Superfund pays, although its funds have dwindled since the expiration of a special tax on industries that pollute.
The owners of the shop, John and Susan Ferrel, say they didn’t cause the contamination and can’t afford to pay for cleaning it up. They bought the store in 1977 after working there for a year, and they’ve worked there ever since. They said they disposed of the waste properly and have been forced to pay for a preliminary environmental study because a state inspector found a small amount of dry-cleaning chemicals at the bottom of an unused machine.
“Because of that one thing, we spent a lot of money over the years trying to do what the county wanted and what the EPA wanted,” Susan Ferrel said, speaking from their home in Sebastian. “We just can’t afford this. It will take all our retirement.”
The EPA will conduct a study of the site and figure out a cleanup plan. Among the most likely options are digging up the soil and taking it to a landfill or pumping up the water and treating it to remove the contaminants. It is unknown what will happen to the business.
The one-story, peach-colored shop stands just back from the noisy traffic of Federal Highway. An American flag hangs in the window. A sign in the door states that it is closed Monday. Behind the shop is the Beacon Heights neighborhood, consisting of small apartment buildings and one-story houses.
“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” said Bob Manko, standing on the porch of his house on Northeast 42 Street. “If there’s something bad there, it ought to be cleaned up.”
But he said he hoped a small business wouldn’t be harmed by having to spend an excessive amount, unless the cleanup is necessary.
“Common sense should prevail,” he said.
David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.
This is hardly breaking news, but we’re still catching up on things we missed. Since receiving this press release, we have also obtained a copy of the complaint or, as it’s known in Canada, the statement of claim. The facts are just enraging (e.g. TCE levels in the air inside the Vitez’s home were discovered above 200 ug/m3). We’re still deciding how to make these available on the blog since they are lengthy. In the meantime, if you’d like a digital copy, feel free to contact us.
For now, here’s the official press release:
Toxic air and contaminated groundwater blamed for chronic illnesses in multi-million dollar lawsuit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MARCH 14, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, ON – Northstar Aerospace, GE Canada and Rozell Inc., are amongst the Cambridge-based businesses named in a multi-million dollar environmental lawsuit. Spearheaded by Denis and Deborah Vitez, the suit points to these businesses as being responsible for groundwater contamination and toxic air in local residents’ homes, and in the case of the Vitez family, resulting in chronic breathing problems, Parkinson’s Syndrome and neurological damages which have escalated over the past five years. The suit claims that the companies were aware that toxic levels of the human carcinogens Trichloroethylene (TCE) and Chromium were seeping into the groundwater in the vicinity of their Bishop Street plants.
The Vitez family is seeking punitive and general damages, citing negligence, failure to disclose information, misconduct, and failure to comply with the Environmental Protection Act, among other claims against the defendants. TCE, a solvent used for degreasing metal parts, is considered a toxic substance and probable human carcinogen under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Chromium is also classified by health organizations as a human carcinogen. Due to the companies’ failure to properly handle, store and dispose of the substances, the Vitez family has suffered through years of discomfort and pain, culminating in the diagnoses of asthma and severe sinus infection in Mrs. Vitez, and symptoms indicating Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinsonism – a group of nervous disorders with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease – in the case of Mr. Vitez.
Paul Mann, Counsel for the Vitez family, and one of Canada’s top litigators in health-related matters, explains, “These companies knew they were contaminating the water and air with toxic chemicals, failed to warn homeowners that levels were in excess of Ministry of Environment (MOE) standards, and failed to prevent further release of the chemicals after they first learned of the leakage and discharge. Denis and Deborah Vitez may never get their health back as a result and it is time for justice to be served.”
Denis and Deborah Vitez married in November 2003, and she moved into the house that the widower had shared with his first wife Donna since 2000. Donna had often complained about a strange odour in their house before she died in 2002 from brain cancer that had mysteriously resurfaced after three years in remission. Additionally in late 2003, Northstar Aerospace conducted tests on their Bishop Street property and concluded it was contaminated with TCE and Chromium at levels that exceeded MOE standards (a reading of over 230). Testing was expanded to include a wider area, but it took the company over a year to publicly state that the property was severely contaminated, that TCE had migrated through the groundwater and that TCE vapours had seeped into some of the buildings and properties in the area.
The company promised to take measures to resolve contamination issues in affected homes, including gutting and resealing basements, and removing toxic vapours through the installation of Heppa filters and air exchangers. Work at the Vitez residence commenced in December 2005 with a promise of completion within two months. Just days into the process, the Vitez family was forced to vacate for 11 days due to a noxious odour. Then, in early 2006 their recently resealed basement was torn up for plumbing modifications by Northstar’s contractors. During the three weeks of this construction, the Vitezes remained in their house, assured by company PR representatives that the toxicity levels were nothing to worry about. However, no air quality tests were conducted during this time period. Work was still underway well into May 2006.
Denis Vitez’s first tremors appeared in late autumn 2005. He was also waking nightly for months due to tingling and pain in his extremities. Deborah Vitez subsequently began having breathing problems and embarked upon an exhausting and frustrating course of treatment for what would be diagnosed as severe asthma, throat and sinus infections. For the next two years both would see various doctors and specialists, including a neurologist for Denis, who ordered numerous tests, blood work and brain scans. The ultimate diagnosis was Parkinsonism, with additional symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis.
“We were devastated by this news,” says Denis. “We were both feeling unwell and dealing with so much stress. Then in August 2006, Northstar began digging on our property without our consent. Two weeks later, we learned the contamination under our home was dangerously high. We moved out immediately on our own expense, and haven’t returned since. It’s too much of a risk. We want the responsible parties to own up to their negligence and irresponsibility.”
Paul Mann is a sole practitioner who operates his practice in the City of Cambridge, Ontario. He has been litigating complex medical malpractice issues, for plaintiffs only, for approximately 30 years. Mr. Mann has won the Bruce Hillyer Award for litigation and the advancement of justice on two separate occasions. He was also honoured by the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association with the “Celebration of the Personal Injury Bar” award as a leader in his profession for the year 2007. Ron Culley, co-council on this case, has extensive experience with health-related matters as a trial lawyer and practises in Waterloo, Ontario.
For further information or to arrange an interview with Paul Mann, Denis or Deborah Vitez, contact: Sandra Perron or Pat Hayward at 519-623-0700.
Update: Since many folks have arrived here looking for it, you can now download the Statement of Claim here .
EPA recently added twelve new contamination sites to its Superfund list. TCE is a known contaminant of concern at at least five of the twelve sites. These five TCE sites include:
Read more here. For new readers arriving here in search of information about TCE contamination at these sites, welcome.
We learn this by way of the Environment News Service:
The Natural Resources Defense Council and two residents of Dickson, Tennessee have filed a lawsuit against the Dickson County and city governments. They allege that trichloroethylene, TCE, an industrial chemical disposed at the Dickson Landfill that has been linked to neurological and developmental harm and cancer, poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment.
Dickson, a town of some 12,000 people is located about 35 miles west of Nashville. [map]
The Dickson County Landfill, 74 acres off Eno Road, sits within 500 to 2,000 feet of approximately 40 homes, most owned by blacks.
This community group is fighting to rid their area of contamination from the Dickson County landfill.
One African American family in particular, the Holts, a family of black landowners, has been especially harmed by the chemical. Many Holt family members are struggling with cancer and other illnesses, and two of its members are plaintiffs in this lawsuit.
The environmental group and Sheila Holt-Orsted and Beatrice Holt allege that TCE pollution has seeped beneath the landfill to underlying groundwater and has spread through a large area of Dickson County.
TCE contamination has rendered water from wells and springs as far as two to three miles from the landfill unfit for human consumption, the plaintiffs claim.
Polluted spring water is flowing directly into the West Piney River, a fishing stream and a major source of drinking water for the Water Authority of Dickson County. Several square miles of Dickson County have been recognized as an ‘imminent threat’ area by the county.
TCE contamination above drinking water limits, and orders of magnitude above U.S. Environmental Protection Agency screening levels for drinking water, has been found in at least one well even beyond that threat area.
In some areas, this TCE contamination may be growing worse, the plaintiffs claim, but the city and county have not done anything to remove the contamination.
“Some two decades after TCE was first detected in nearby drinking water sources, those responsible have not even fully characterized the present extent and likely future spread of the contamination. Defendants have, in effect, surrendered the ground and surface water of Dickson County to the slow spread of an invisible and toxic chemical,” the complainants said in a statement.
The complaint asks the Court to require the defendants to investigate the present extent and future spread of TCE contamination from the landfill in the soil, surface water, and groundwater of Dickson County; to remediate and abate TCE contamination.
Holt-Orsted has undergone six surgeries and chemotherapy for breast cancer. The Holts originally filed lawsuits in 2003 and 2004, naming the city and county of Dickson and the state of Tennessee, and claiming the family was a victim of negligence that resulted in their cancers and other health problems.
Attorneys for the county and state deny the claims in the earlier lawsuits.
An article [entitled Deadly Tenessee Two-Step Pushes Leaky Landfill Away from Officials' Homes] by Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, gives background and detailed water test information.
The Earth Times recently reported:
The Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public meeting at 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, March 26, in Collegeville to update residents on efforts to reduce airborne trichloroethylene (TCE) levels in that area of Montgomery County.
The meeting will be held the Perkiomen Valley Middle School East auditorium, 100 Kagey Road.
“Since releasing our January 2007 air monitoring report, our agency has worked closely with Accellent and Superior Tube to develop emission reduction strategies that would effectively reduce TCE emissions by these narrow tube manufacturers,” said DEP Regional Director Joseph A. Feola. “The department has been, and will continue to be, fully engaged in this effort, and will use this opportunity to update the community on the significant emission reductions that have been achieved to date.”
Recent data from the stationary air monitor in Evansburg State Park show levels of airborne TCE are diminishing, with many days registering no measurable levels of TCE in the air. That trend is expected to continue at both the existing and planned monitoring stations given the companies’ voluntary efforts to reduce emissions.
Superior Tube completed reformulation and degreaser removal projects that are expected to reduce TCE emissions by more than 50 percent this year. On Feb. 13, the company announced it is taking steps to eliminate the use of TCE from its manufacturing process completely.
The company is seeking approval from DEP to replace TCE with an alternative approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — n-propyl bromide, or nPB. Unlike TCE, nPB is not considered an air toxic.
Accellent, meanwhile, is operating the first of two carbon absorber units to control TCE emissions from the company’s large degreasers. Accellent had the first unit operating on Oct. 2 and received the second unit on Feb. 8. This second unit is being installed now and should be operational by early March.
While the manufacturer for the carbon absorber equipment guarantees an overall emission reduction of 35 percent, DEP believes this is a very conservative estimate. Emission reductions of 90 percent or greater usually result from this type of installation.
Complete progress reports and other related information have been posted on DEP’s Southeast regional Web page since a public meeting in February 2007. DEP created this web-based resource so area residents and local officials could obtain news and background information about Collegeville-area air monitoring and TCE emission reduction efforts.
The site can be accessed at http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/, keyword: Collegeville.
A recent addition to the Web page, “Additional Monitoring Under EPA Grant,” provides a link to DEP’s December 2007 work plan for additional monitoring efforts. The agency was awarded a $269,000 grant by EPA to expand its air monitoring efforts for TCE and other compounds in the Collegeville area.
This community-wide monitoring project will develop baseline references of airborne TCE concentrations to support exposure estimates. The project will track long-term measurements of air toxics following the already implemented emission reduction strategy in the area.
Residents who have questions or concerns prior to the meeting may contact DEP Community Relations Coordinator Lynda Rebarchak at 484-250-5820, or by email at lrebarchak@state.pa.us.
Recently, the Queens Tribune (NY) reported:
Advocates and community members gathered Tuesday in front of State Senator Frank Padavan’s Bellerose office to protest his lax legislation concerning environmentally contaminated school sites and to announce a leafleting campaign to educate constituents in Padavan’s district about the issue.
The meeting was hosted by Dave Palmer, a lawyer for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which represents community groups dealing with environmentally contaminated school sites. School sites leased by the City do not require the same type of community, political and environmental review processes as schools owned by the City. This loophole allows for schools to be located on contaminated sites posing health threats to children, according to the organization.
“All of that we think places children at risk,” Palmer said.
“Children are most vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals.”
In June, the State Assembly passed a bill sponsored by Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood) that NYLPI believed strongly addressed the issues surrounding leased school sites. Palmer said community groups also had an assurance from Padavan that he would sponsor an equally strong bill in the Senate, though they say the bill that was past last session did not contain strong enough provisions for community notice, City Council review and environmental review.
Padavan said in a June statement, “Through discussions with
the City and environmental advocates, we have crafted legislation that addresses concerns relative to school leasing in the City. The legislation that we have developed ensures that any proposed leased site for a school undergoes a two-phased environmental review process with adequate time for public review and comment on any site remediation plan impacting students, parents and community.”
Advocacy organizations and community groups plan to begin distributing leaflets Saturday throughout Padavan’s district, which encompasses parts of northeastern Queens, in an effort to get his constituents to pressure him to draft legislation that more closely reflects their concerns about leased schools.
At the meeting Tuesday, Katie Acton, whose daughter attended PS 65 in Ozone Park from 1999 to 2002 spoke about the toxins beneath the school that she believes led her daughter to develop asthma. Acton belongs to PS 65 Parents and Neighborhood Against TCE, which now has a lawsuit against the City. The school is located is a former airplane parts factory.
“Leaving the school, her health has improved and so have her grades,” Acton said. “It is my understanding that the Department of Education knew of the contamination before the families.”
It has also been reported that the site of the Information Technology High School in Long Island City, a former factory, is contaminated.
Recently, the Dayton Daily News (OH) reported the Behr Dayton Thermal Products Plant has been proposed to EPA’s National Priority List (NPL) for clean-up:
Groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the Behr Dayton Thermal Products Plant is severe enough to merit putting it on the National Priority List of the U.S. EPA’s Superfund program, federal officials said.
The list represents the highest level of urgency for cleanups in the nation.
If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approves later this year, an effort to cleanup groundwater at the site would rank among five others in Montgomery County on the National Priority List.
There are 22 active Superfund sites in the county where work is being planned or is under way.
Priority sites are considered the worst in the nation in terms of hazard and are eligible for cleanup using Superfund Trust money. The Behr project is still in the investigational stages, which typically can take two years and cost millions, officials said.
So far, the contamination has led to the closure of McGuffey Elementary School, 1032 Webster St., and the installation of air evacuation systems in 100 homes affected by indoor air fumes from the groundwater, which is tainted with the degreaser trichloroethylene — TCE — and other organic chemicals.
It’s unknown when the school will reopen. A handful of homes that have dirt basements still have indoor air contamination slightly above strict exposure levels. In the Superfund program, those responsible for the contamination fund the cleanup.
According to documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News, federal investigators believe four industrial businesses could share responsibility: Gem City Chemicals Inc., Aramark Uniform Services, Chrysler, and Behr Dayton Thermal Products.
Aramark didn’t return a call for comment. Gem City declined comment.
In a follow-up article, the Daily News also reports that a survey of local cancer incidence is planned:
Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County is launching a cancer incidence survey among residents near the Behr Dayton Thermal Products plant, where groundwater pollution has prompted regulatory action to address indoor air quality.
Mark Case, director of environmental health for the agency, said Monday, March 10, that the survey could take up to a year and is being conducted with the Ohio Department of Health.
The survey will examine medical records and compare cancer levels in the neighborhood with overall cancer levels in the county, state and nation, he said. “By comparison, you get a sense whether something is out of line or not,” Case said.
The Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System will be tapped for data, he noted. All diagnosed cancer cases in Ohio are supposed to be reported to the system. The area will include the census tract of the Behr plant and residential neighborhoods where 100 or so indoor air vapor abatement systems have been installed.
A similar survey was performed in 2005 in Kettering neighborhoods near the former Gentile Air Force Station. Residents of the Wiles Creek neighborhood there complained about pollution from the former Defense Electronics Supply Center. The survey found no abnormalities.
Case acknowledged that a cancer survey could have some limitations.
“We don’t know how long the vapors have been in people’s homes,” he said.
The exact chronology of Behr plant pollution is unclear. Former plant owner Chrysler has said it discovered TCE, or trichloroethylene, contamination in 1996, but it wasn’t until Ohio EPA tests in 2006 that hazards to homes were suspected.
Cancer can develop over decades and take the form of many different types of tumors, Case said. In its Ninth Report on Carcinogens, the federal National Toxicology Program determined that TCE is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that TCE is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.
In a related development, a community outreach survey sponsored by the Environmental Sustainability Research Group at the University of Dayton will examine health problems in the area. A public meeting on the survey could occur in April, a spokeswoman said.
Though the meetings announced in this article have since passed (the article was originally dated March 10), this Rochester Democrat & Chronicle article highlights 3 separate site clean-ups that are under way:
Costly taxpayer-financed plans to address toxic-chemical contamination in residential pockets of northeast Rochester and central Brighton will be detailed at separate public meetings this week.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday evening to discuss a $1 million proposal to remove tainted soil and take other steps to address contamination at a now-closed business at Fernwood and Portland avenues in northeast Rochester.
The DEC first learned in 2000 that Preferred Electric Motors had spilled solvents and other potentially harmful materials in the course of its work refurbishing electric motors. Trichloroethene (TCE), tetrachloroethene (PCE) and other solvents are contaminating groundwater near the former business, prompting the state to install ventilation systems in two homes to guard against the build-up of toxic vapors.
The proposed cleanup would remove about 450 cubic yards of contaminated soil and include steps to speed the degradation of solvents in the groundwater. The floor of the building, which is contaminated with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), would be cleaned and sealed.
The building was purchased three years ago by a Greece carpet company that stores product there, according to the DEC.
On Thursday, another group of state officials will convene a meeting in Brighton to discuss a proposed $3.7 million plan to address a complicated PCE contamination problem underneath a section of Brighton just southeast of the Twelve Corners.
The solvent contamination there first came to light during investigation of a 2003 petroleum spill at a service station at the corner of Brooklawn Drive and Monroe Avenue. Officials first pointed the finger at Carriage Cleaners, at that same intersection, as the source of the PCE, a common dry-cleaning solvent.
Then last year, DEC said they had found high levels of PCE in soil and groundwater near a former Speedy’s Cleaners just across Monroe Avenue from the other two businesses. It also was identified as a likely source of the solvents. Vapor ventilation systems had been installed in at least 11 structures to address petroleum vapors. PCE vapors prompted installation of systems in three residential and one commercial building.
As part of its long-term cleanup plan, the environmental agency now proposes to install systems that would extract both air and groundwater from below the surface for treatment to remove any solvents. About 720 cubic yards of tainted soil also would be excavated.
Both central Brighton and northeast Rochester are served by public water, meaning no one should be drinking the contaminated groundwater. But in recent years, officials have recognized that solvents can evaporate underground and rise through the soil — and can, in some cases, the vapors can accumulate inside homes or businesses above.
Both TCE and PCE may cause cancer or other serious health problems in people exposed to high levels. The affects of low-level exposure are less clear — but the DEC and the state Department of Health have given special attention in recent years to possible intrusion of solvent vapors.
Both cleanup projects would be paid for with money from New York’s Superfund, which finances work at hazardous waste disposal sites when the responsible parties do not step in. The DEC’s written cleanup proposals, provided by the agency Friday, indicated that companies judged responsible for the Rochester and Brighton contamination have declined to pay for the work. The DEC may pursue legal action against them to recover its costs, the proposals said.
Residents of the neighborhood affected by the petroleum and PCE spills in Brighton filed a civil suit in 2004 against the companies that owned the service station and the two dry cleaners, as well as the town of Brighton.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Alan Knauf, could not be reached for comment late Friday. But a January letter from Knauf in the case file in U.S. District Court said the plaintiffs had reached a settlement agreement with all the defendants except for Speedy’s.
The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (NY) recently reported this news:
Barring a flood of public comments, state environmental officials could decide early next month on a cleanup option for a site in northeast Rochester where soil and groundwater are contaminated with toxic solvents.
And judging by attendance at a public meeting on the site Tuesday evening, a flood of further comments is unlikely. “It’s sad in the neighborhood — there’s just no interest,” said Sue Buehner, one of two or three citizens who attended the meeting in the library at School 36.
The session focused on problems at 42 Fernwood Ave., a small commercial building where Preferred Electric Motors reconditioned motors from the early 1950s until the business closed eight years ago. In the process, the company spilled or dumped toxic solvents, including trichloroethene, or TCE.
After an anonymous tip about leaking chemical drums in 2000, state Department of Environmental Conservation officials found solvents in soil and groundwater.
They also discovered very high levels of TCE vapors infiltrating a neighboring rental home, and health officials ordered that it remain unoccupied until a system was installed to pull the potentially harmful vapors from the soil.
The DEC paid for removal of soil and an underground storage tank in 2001. In more recent years, state officials returned to the area to test a dozen structures for vapors, and installed a ventilation system in one home.
Now the agency has proposed a permanent cleanup that would involve removal of more tainted soil, capping that area with asphalt, cleaning the building’s floor and placing material underground that would promote degradation of the remaining solvents.
The work would cost $1.1 million. “It blows my mind that they’re going to spend $1 million to do what they’re going to do,” said Buehner, whose home abuts Preferred Electric’s former property.
During the session, she asked DEC and state Department of Health officials several questions about how much contact they’ve had with residents since the contamination was found.
“We tried to inform the surrounding community as best we could,” responded Melissa Menetti, a public health specialist.
After the meeting, Buehner said she was pleased that so many experts — about 10 — were present to answer questions. She and her husband John, who also attended, said they were assured Tuesday that their home would be tested for TCE vapors next year.
A formal cleanup decision likely will be made in April, said Valerie Woodward, the DEC project manager. Work would start in one to two years.
Still catching up on old news, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (NY) reported this news in late February:
Even as state environmental officials are publicizing cleanup plans for two Rochester-area toxic dump sites, another local contamination site has been placed on the to-do list.
The new site, off Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road, is a commercial property where the once-ubiquitous industrial solvent trichloroethene, or TCE, was used — and apparently spilled. Groundwater near the building at 235 Metro Park in Brighton contains relatively high concentrations of TCE, as well as other solvents.
A fact sheet from the state Department of Environmental Conservation said the solvents apparently originated with Fischbach & Moore Electric, a large commercial contractor that occupied the building for years.
The DEC notified nearby property owners last week that it has added the site to its registry of hazardous waste disposal sites. It is listed a Class 2 site, meaning it poses a significant threat to the environment or public health, and must be cleaned up.
Note: We can’t locate the DEC fact sheet. When we do, we’ll provide link here. Meantime, you can read the full Democrat & Chronicle article here.
According to this recent EPA Press Release:
St. Louis Park, Minn., Vapor Intrusion Study Update Meeting March 19
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 will host a public meeting to update residents on findings of the vapor intrusion study being conducted in the vicinity of Highway 7 and Wooddale Avenue. The meeting will be 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 19 at the St. Louis Park Rec Center, 3700 Monterey Drive, St. Louis Park, Minn.
Vapors from volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, have been found in some area ground water and could get into homes and commercial buildings. EPA has screened about 250 St. Louis Park properties since December. A Web site is at http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/stlouispark/index.htm
Officials from partner agencies are expected at the meeting. Partner agencies include Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota Department of Public Health, Hennepin County and the city of St. Louis Park.
For more information or special accommodations at the meeting, contact EPA community involvement coordinator Don de Blasio, 800-621-8431, Ext. 64360 (weekdays 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.) or deblasio.don@epa.gov.
SOURCE U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5
The following opinion piece by Donna Jackson Nakazawa originally appeared in the Washington Post as an article entitled “Diseases Like Mine Are a Growing Hazard” on Sunday, March 16, 2008.
Autoimmune diseases — a group of about 100 conditions in which the body’s immune system turns on the body itself — are reaching epidemic proportions. In the past decade, 15 top medical journals have reported rising rates of lupus, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma, Crohn’s disease, Addison’s disease and polymyositis in industrialized countries around the world. Over the past 40 years, rates of Type 1 diabetes have increased fivefold; in children 4 and under, it’s increasing 6 percent a year.
If I wanted to make a movie about my life, I’d pitch it to Hollywood as “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” meets “An Inconvenient Truth,” the Academy Award-winning Al Gore documentary about global warming. Rising levels of autoimmune disease may well prove to be the next environmental disaster — only in this case, the changes taking place degree by degree are in the interior landscapes of our bodies.
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I’ve spent the past two years interviewing leading experts at top medical institutions nationwide to find out why cases of autoimmune disease are skyrocketing. In recent years, many allergists and immunologists have been attributing the rise to the “hygiene hypothesis” — the theory that our germ-free homes and childhood vaccinations have eliminated challenges to our immune systems so that they don’t learn how to defend us properly when we’re young. The scientists I interviewed tended to discard the idea that this alone is responsible. They agreed almost to a person that our day-to-day exposure to environmental toxins — through the air we breathe and the chemicals we absorb through our skin — is a major trigger of autoimmune disease. “Exposures from our environment are a significant contributor to today’s rising rates,” says Douglas Kerr, director of the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center and a top clinician at the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center.
In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sampled 2,500 people nationwide looking for the “body burden,” or amount of chemicals and pollutants each individual carried. They found traces of all 116 chemicals and pollutants they tested for, including PCBs, insecticides, dioxin, mercury, cadmium and benzene, all highly toxic in higher doses. Then, in 2005, researchers from the Environmental Working Group found something more alarming: a cocktail of 287 pollutants — pesticides, dioxins, flame retardants — in the fetal-cord blood of 10 newborn infants from around the country. [Ed. Note: More on these can be found in the following PDF: National Learning and Developmental Disabilities Advocacy
Groups Analyze Body Burden Studies]
Because most toxins are found in only trace amounts, it has been difficult to gauge what effect they might be having on our health. Yet studies of both lab animals and people provide disturbing insights into how even low exposures can cause our immune systems to go haywire. Mice exposed to pesticides at levels four times lower than the level the Environmental Protection Agency sets as acceptable for humans are more susceptible to getting lupus than control mice. Mice that absorb low doses of trichloroethylene — a chemical used in dry cleaning, household paint thinners, glues and adhesives — at levels the EPA deems safe and equal to what a factory worker might encounter today, quickly develop autoimmune hepatitis. And low doses of perfluorooctanoic acid, a breakdown chemical of Teflon found in 96 percent of humans tested for it, impair rats’ development of a proper immune system.
Read the full Washington Post piece here.
Meanwhile, we should point out that permanent, quantitative immune system changes have been documented in workers (not just mice) exposed to low levels of TCE.
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reports that the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to take over clean-up of TCE resulting from a FUDS (Formerly Used Defense Site):
The Army Corps of Engineers will apparently “do the right thing” when it comes to taking responsibility for treating one source of Cheyenne’s drinking water for trichloroethylene, or TCE, which is a result of Cold War-era nuclear missile maintenance east of Cheyenne.
Paul Johnston, public affairs officer for the Omaha district of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps is charged by the Department of Defense to administer the FUDS (formerly used defense sites) program.
That means taking care of a range of sites, “from missile sites to old training grounds to WWI and WWII bombing ranges and old munitions storage; the whole gamut,” Johnston said.
But right now, the city is paying the $20,000 a year it takes to remove the TCE from the water before it arrives at residents’ taps.
It also paid $600,000 for the aeration basin that removes the chemical when it was first found in 1998, Jane Francis, geological supervisor at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said.
“Our first priority is safe drinking water,” Bud Spillman, manager of the water treatment division of the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, said in a news release. “We can remove the TCE at the treatment plant and do not allow any water contaminated with TCE to be piped to town.”
But before the water from the newly-acquired Belvoir Ranch can be sent to Cheyenne, the aeration basin at the treatment plant will need to be increased, according to a BOPU news release.
“The cost to increase capacity at the aeration basin is a cost that Cheyenne’s residents shouldn’t have to pay,” Spillman said in the release.
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The Army Corps has been studying the contamination in Cheyenne for the last seven years, Francis said.
They’re making slow progress in trying to find out how long the contamination plume is, she added. It is the position of the department that there is one large plume of TCE that is a result of the chemical being used at the Atlas No. 4 missile site.
Johnston said there are two areas of contamination. One is obviously because of the work at the missile site.
The Army Corps is taking full responsibility for that site, he said, and taking steps to clean it up.
But there is a 2- to 3-mile stretch where there is no contamination, and the TCE picks up again about 10 miles from the missile site. The source of the contamination at that site isn’t clear to the Army Corps, Johnston said.
Working with the Environmental Protection Agency and BOPU, “all of us cannot find a firm link between the two contaminated areas,” he said.
That’s as of yet, anyway. In June, Johnston said the Army Corps plans to have more people out in the field doing studies to determine the source of contamination for the second plume.
If it is found that the water is also contaminated because of the missile maintenance, the Army Corps will take full responsibility and clean it up, he said.
Read the full story here.
According to ABC News (that’s the Australian Broadcasting Company, by the way):
The Health Department says another 900 residents could be affected by contaminated bore water in Adelaide’s western suburbs.
They live in Findon, further west of the Beverley and Woodville South residents who were warned back in December not to use ground water because it an industrial cleaning agent had been detected.
Hydro geologists have advised that the area affected by trichloroethylene is wider than earlier thought.
Acting chief medical officer Paddy Phillips says letters are being sent to residents of the newly-identified problem area.
“The zone will now extend westward to include Findon Road to the east, Balcombe Avenue to the south, Pioneer Street and Todville Street to the west and Ryan Avenue to the north,” he said.
“We’re now letting people know that the area has expanded slightly and again reminding people to take appropriate precautions and that is to not use bore water in that area for drinking or swimming or irrigation.”
Best we can tell, bore water=private well water.
Surprisingly, there has been no mention of the danger of toxic vapors or vapor intrusion even though contamination has clearly been discovered under and near buildings and homes. These communities should be warned of the risk of vapor intrusion, and tests should be conducted to rule it out.
EPA owns a bad-ass mobile toxin detector. Officially, it’s known as the Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer (TAGA). According to EPA:
The Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer (TAGA) is a self-contained mobile laboratory capable of real-time sampling and analysis in the low parts per billion level of outdoor air or emissions from various environmental sources and concerns. In addition, the TAGA has specialized sampling equipment for measuring indoor air and at remote locations.
As we understand it, EPA has a limited supply of these mobile labs. Apparently, one of them is headed to Dover, DE this spring:
Federal pollution investigators will dispatch a mobile laboratory to Dover this spring as part of an expanded probe of toxic vapor risks from chemical contamination in groundwater flowing under the state’s capital.
The Environmental Protection Agency work will target pollutants spilled into the soil from a former coal gas plant and dry cleaning operation west of the city center.
Studies of the Dover Gas Light Company Superfund site have been under way since the mid-1980s. More than a decade later, officials acknowledged concern that vapors from some of the contaminants might trickle into buildings after escaping from shallow, tainted groundwater.
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Part of the work scheduled for this spring includes use of a mobile Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer (TAGA) bus to sample vapors under the bottom slabs of buildings along the contamination plume.
The TAGA samples can be drawn from a small hole drilled into the floor of buildings, in a process that takes about 30 minutes. Some indoor air sampling work also is planned, using small, portable devices that collect samples over a 24-hour period.
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Although public water supplies are considered safe from the pollution, past tests have found shallow groundwater contamination levels in worst-hit areas thousands of times higher than federal drinking water standards.
Chemicals most often mentioned include tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), solvents used in dry cleaning that are known to cause cancer or other health problems after long-term exposure at high levels.
Read the full story here.
In late February, the Evening Sun (Norwich, NY) reported:
The Chenango County Industrial Development Agency agreed last week to postpone taking steps that would alter a 1982 tax agreement held with the New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad.
Consulting attorney James Downey said if the agency wanted to change or terminate the payment-in-lieu of taxes agreement this year, it would have to do so by March 1. “Do it today or don’t do it,” he said during the meeting Feb. 20.
The IDA’s economic development activities have been thwarted ever since the 2006 flood shut down rail transportation through most of the county. And, because of its inactive status, officials have been revisiting the agreement which exempts the railroad from taxation.
Downey has advised only a partial termination of the agreement, however. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation funds are currently being used to clean up an old, trichloroethene spill on a portion of the railroad bed in the City of Norwich’s Fourth Ward. Without the IDA’s ownership of the right-of-way, it is prohibited from tapping into remediation funds.
In late February, the Ithaca Journal (NY) reported:
Groundwater testing at Ithaca Gun has identified the presence of TCE above the standard established by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Samples were taken from three groundwater monitoring wells on the property in November 2007, said Mary Jane Peachey, a DEC engineer. Two of the three samples registered trichloroethylene, or TCE, readings above the state’s groundwater standard of 5 parts per billion: one location between the factory and the smokestack was 152 ppb; one location near the smokestack was 98 ppb.
“The groundwater in this particular case is being monitored at a location 50 feet into rock. So exposure is not something occurring here on this site. That’s a good thing,” Peachey said. “What this tells us is that there is a need to do a complete investigation up on the site itself.”
Read the full story here.
In the 1980’s, Stauffer Chemical Co. and its successor, Formosa Plastics, were named as responsible parties for the chemical contamination found in groundwater in the Potomac Aquifer near Delaware City, DE. The toxins discovered included vinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride and trichloroethylene. At the time, officials reportedly expressed confidence that this contamination would not impact nearby water wells. Apparently they were wrong:
Earlier this month, Delaware’s Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control notified owners of four properties near U.S. 13 and Wrangle Hill Road that they would be eligible for free United Water Delaware connections. The offer followed the unexplained appearance of a cancer-causing chemical, ethylene dichloride, in a well near the St. Georges Getty service station just north of the car dealership.
Officials had assured area residents for more than two decades that pollution from the site of the old Stauffer Chemical Co. toxic-waste landfills to the north was under control. That they were wrong underscores how little is known about how toxic chemicals make their way through complex geological formations into drinking-water supplies.
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By 1982, the plant became Delaware’s seventh named toxic cleanup site following passage of the federal “Superfund” cleanup law, and one of the first to become a federally overseen project. Stauffer and Formosa eventually were ordered to remove pits containing vinyl chloride processing remnants, and to begin pumping and treating more than 400,000 gallons of contaminated water daily from around the site.
Investigators acknowledged decades ago that water “goes in all directions” from the site of the lagoons. But their initial confidence in the safety of deep aquifers used by water suppliers proved misplaced.
Although an EPA report in 1986 said that layers of clay shield the deeper Potomac aquifer from chemicals in more shallow wells, federal officials have since reported discovery of ethylene dichloride in the deepest wells, and in 2006 reported “no evidence” that the overall contamination had been contained in one portion of the upper Potomac Aquifer or the shallow aquifer above it.
It may be worth noting that when TCE degrades under ground, it can result in the formation of new toxins including ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride. This is known as TCE’s degradation pathway.
Also, much of the article talks about alternate uses of the contaminated water but fails to mention anything about toxic vapors or vapor intrusion:
“[The water is] just no good. It’s contaminated. The only thing we can use it for is washing the cars,” [resident and local car dealership owner Charles] Stapleford said.
and
Shazim Uppal, who owns the St. Georges Getty station at Wrangle Hill and U.S. 13, said he was unaware of the current cleanup debate. He is sure, though, that the tainted water near his business prevents the company from selling fountain-type drinks or using plain tap water from a company well.
“We bring in bottled water. If they can put in a pipeline, that would be good. We only use the water in the sink here for cleaning the floor,” Uppal said.
Hey folks, these toxins evaporate into the air. They can be toxic to breathe. Why haven’t these people been advised of this by state officials or by EPA?
As always, we’ll keep you posted as we learn more. Meantime, you can read the full story here.
Late in February, the Palladium-Item (IN) reported:
Springwood Lake [in Richmond, Indiana] will remain closed to area fishermen for at least a year and could be closed well beyond that, Richmond park board members were told Thursday.
The reason is contamination, including cancer-causing heavy metals, found in sediment on the lake’s floor during testing over the past few years. State officials also believe that contaminants continue to seep into the lake from industrial sites past and present above the lake on the city’s northwest side.
Some believe that area may include old industrial dump sites.
State officials told Richmond Mayor Sally Hutton and city park department board members that tests found contaminants including lead, PCBs, cadmium, chromium, cyanide, arsenic and trichloroethylene (a solvent) in the sediment.
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“We do know there is historical contamination (in the lake) and we know there is a need for more investigation,” said IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock. “There has not been a fish consumption advisory issued for the lake at this time, but we do support the city’s decision to close the lake to fishing.”
This is a first for us. We’ve never heard of Trichloroethylene being discovered in sediments below a lake. We’re not saying it doesn’t happen, just that it’s the first we’ve heard this kind of story. It raises a number of questions for us:
- What levels of TCE were discovered in the sediment?
- If the sediment contains TCE, does that mean the lake water contains TCE?
- If the lake water contains TCE, is the lake itself a source of toxic TCE vapors (that is, is TCE evaporating from the lake and contaminating the air?)
- And of course, from where did this TCE come?
Note: We recognize there are other toxins involved here and don’t mean to suggest they are unimportant. But as readers know, we have a very narrow focus.
We’ll keep you posted as we learn more. Meantime, you can read the full story here.
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