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The Walt Disney Co. has been sued by several groups of plaintiffs for dumping wastewater and contaminating Polliwog Park and the surrounding area with Chromium 6, TCE, and PCE.
As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other toxic chemicals, stories of ill health from the plaintiffs are beginning to emerge.
In the latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Sacramento-based firm Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP on behalf of 16 people with strong ties to the Rancho District, the plaintiffs claim Disney dumped wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the so-called Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel near the studio’s Imagineering facilities.
“The water, without warning, would rush down like a flood,” said resident Bob Bell, who in 1945 paid $25,000 for his home at the corner of Parkside Avenue. “Water hopped the curb and flooded the streets for hours on end.”
The contamination was recently brought to light by Environmental World Watch, a party to one of the lawsuits. EWW claims that Disney has dumped air cooling water and the chemicals into curbside drains every day for the past 21 years.
Plaintiffs are seeking compensation for property damage caused by the contamination. No word yet whether any personal injury claims have been filed.
A UCLA study recently linked increased physical activity at work with a decreased chance of developing prostate cancer. In addition, it linked exposure to TCE (amongst a handful of other chemicals) with increased rates of prostate cancer. According to UCLA’s Johnson Cancer Center:
Researchers studied more than 2,100 men who worked at the Rocketdyne facility in the San Fernando Valley, many of whom were exposed to radiation and chemicals that may have increased their risk for certain cancers. The research team identified 362 men who developed prostate cancer and compared them to 1,805 men of similar age and socioeconomic status who did not get prostate cancer.
The study, done in conjunction with researchers at the Olive View-UCLA Education and Research Institute and the University of Michigan, appears in the February issue of the journal Cancer Causes Control.
“The message from this study for today is that if you’re more active, you may be able to prevent this cancer from happening,” said Beate Ritz, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher, an associate professor of epidemiology in the UCLA School of Public Health and the study’s senior author. “If you have a desk job, do something physically active to counterbalance it.”
[...]
The study found that the men who developed prostate cancer were less likely to hold the more physically active jobs. Those that got cancer also were more likely than the control group to be highly exposed to the chemicals that were evaluated, including hydrazine, benzene, mineral oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trichloroethylene (TCE), which are known or suspected carcinogens.
Though the focus on physical activity appears to be the main thrust of this research, we think the TCE-related finding is worth highlighting.
Read the news about the study here. For the study itself (”Nested case–control study of occupational physical activity and prostate cancer among workers using a job exposure matrix”), see here.
Representatives Al Wynn (D-MD), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, and Hilda Solis (D-CA), the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee, are calling for a probe into a number of issues that affect American’s water and health. In a letter to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the lawmakers asked GAO to investigate bottled water, TCE, and the EPA’s rule-setting for other contaminants.
You can read more about the full range of investigation requests in the official press release. Here, we are focused on the TCE-specific portion:
Wynn and Solis are also asking the Government Accountability Office to
examine EPA’s failure to update its current drinking water standard for
Trichloroethylene (TCE). An EPA 2001 assessment found TCE was far more
likely to cause cancer than previously believed. Despite this assessment
and a recommendation from the National Academy of Science, EPA has
failed to update its national drinking water standard for TCE.
“The evidence of the dangers of TCE keep piling up and the EPA keeps
failing to act,” Wynn added. “Hopefully, GAO can shed some much needed
light on the reasons for EPA’s inaction.”
The EPA’s current drinking water standard for TCE allows a maximum of 5
parts per billion, but some have called for a revision of that standard
to reduce the maximum amount of TCE allowed in water.
From the text of the letter sent to GAO [PDF], we learn even more:
[We] request that GAO review the EPA’s failure to update it current drinking water standard for Trichloroethylene (TCE) following its August 2001 draft risk assessment entitled “Trichloroethylene Health Risk Assessment: Synthesis and Characterization.” The EPA 2001 assessment found that TCE was far more likely to cause cancer than EPA had previously believed. We note that in July 2006, the National Academy of Science (NAS) found “that the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001” and recommended “that federal agencies finalize their risk assessment with currently available data so that risk management decisions can be made expeditiously.” EPA does not appear, however, to have acted consistently with respect to the findings and recommendations of these major scientific studies to protect the public health.
In conducting your review of the regulatory review process, and associated issues specific to TCE, please examine the following issues:
- The extent to which EPA’s efforts to revise the TCE drinking water standard complies with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s requirements, and facilitate improvements to public health protection.
- The obstacles, if any, that have interfered with EPA’s ability to expeditiously revise its standards for TCE.
- The latest research and what it suggests about TCE’s effects on human health and the environment, including information from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s study related to Camp Lejeune.
- The number of Department of Defense sites contaminated with TCE and the Department’s role, if any, in delaying or interfering with EPA efforts to update a drinking water standard for TCE.
Of course, we already know part of the publicly-accepted answer to #4: There are 1,400 military sites contaminated with TCE. We have reason to believe the actual number may be higher – more on this, and DOD’s interference, another time.
In 1997, the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin, a source of drinking water to tens of thousands of San Bernardino County residents, was found to be contaminated by TCE and perchlorate. According to EPA, “the contamination has forced the closure of numerous public drinking water supply wells and caused hardships for Rialto, Colton and neighboring areas dependent on the basin for their drinking water.” Ever since, the City of Rialto has attempted to treat the contaminated wells, remediate the perchlorate and TCE, and also recover costs for its efforts from a number of potentially responsible parties (PRP’s).
In a 2005, when EPA granted the affected cities more than $400,000 towards the cost of clean-up, the San Bernardino Sun (CA) explained why this money was “just a drop in the bucket”:
It costs more than $1 million to install perchlorate filters on a well, and about $500,000 a year for maintenance.
…
Fontana Water Co. General Manager Mike McGraw said the city spent about $3 million to set up treatment for two contaminated wells.
…
[Colton] has spent more than $4 million to date treating three wells for perchlorate, Medina said. He wouldn’t rule out a rate increase.
…
Rialto is suing the Department of Defense and 42 of its contractors, as well as fireworks manufacturers, for perchlorate contamination. One defendant, B.F. Goodrich, gave $4 million to the cities and district.
Rialto has spent about $7.6 million on legal fees and cleanup. It is treating two of its wells for perchlorate contamination.
Fast forward to 2008. After spending nearly $20 million trying to “hold dozens of suspected polluters responsible,” Rialto has just fired their city attorney (Bob Owens, who allegedly was quarterbacking Rialto’s strategy for recovering costs from other polluters) and is facing significant uncertainty as it prepares to determine what’s next.
Meanwhile, on the City of Rialto’s website, in addition to tracking the latest clean-up/lawsuit news and developments, the following declaration appears:
The City will continue to provide the citizens of Rialto with clean, safe, and affordable drinking water. It will also pursue parties that are responsible for the perchlorate pollution to pay for the clean up of the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin. It will repay Rialto’s ratepayers for the costs incurred in forcing the polluters to clean it up.
Henry Garcia, City Administrator
As always, we’ll try to keep you posted.
There’s a decades-old plume of TCE and PCE in Chico, CA that migrated nearly two-miles from its source and has contaminated residents’ well water for years:
The Skyway plume was discovered when area residents asked for wells to be tested because they were concerned a nearby tank farm might be leaking petroleum-based contaminants into their groundwater. Instead, unacceptable levels of chlorinated solvents were found and traced back to an operation that manufactured aluminum shower enclosures on Speedway Avenue from 1962 until 1976.
Preliminary tests revealed the contamination extends about two miles from its origin, flowing under Skyway and Cessna avenues and ending along Hegan Avenue near the Chico State University farm. [see map]
Just this week, ABB, the company being “held responsible for clean-up costs,” agreed to pay for 63 residential hook-ups to the water system run by California Water Service Company (a.k.a. Cal Water). Meanwhile, the investigation into the overall size of the plume continues.
Investigative journalist Michael Collins alerted us to this news about newly disclosed TCE detects in Runkle Canyon near where KB Homes has plans to build:
KB Homes had hoped to build 461 residences in the 1,595-acre canyon, but those plans have been delayed since the summer of 2006 when Southwick and a cadre of residents who call themselves the “Radiation Rangers” (See: “Dirty Business,” Nov. 1, 2007) questioned the safety of the project.
[…]
The Reporter has obtained a December 2007 study of offsite pollution around SSFL prepared by an Arcadia-based environmental engineering firm MWH for Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy which shows that TCE has been detected in approximately 10 percent of several dozen groundwater samples collected on Runkle Canyon property.
[…]
Around 1.73 million gallons of TCE were used at [Santa Susana Field Laboratory] as a solvent to hose down rocket engines, as the Reporter first revealed during its investigation of the Runkle Canyon-adjacent Ahmanson Ranch development. That project tanked over toxic troubles in 2003 before becoming state park land (See: “Air Apparent,” Feb.13, 2003). Approximately 530,000 gallons of the carcinogen, which is a volatile organic compound, have seeped into the area’s groundwater. With the current rate of remediating TCE being less than 10 gallons a year at SSFL, it will take more than 50,000 years to clean up.
Read more in Down the Test Tubes at the Ventura County Reporter (CA). For additional documents that Michael uncovered and ongoing developments in the Runkle Canyon story, see his investigative environmental news website at EnviroReporter.com.
In a recently launched blog, Robert J.O’Dowd is calling on the Marine Corps to warn all those stationed at MCAS El Toro that they may have been exposed to toxic levels of TCE and PCE while stationed at the base:
The Marine Corps takes great pride “in taking care of its own.” Marines who were attached to Marine Wing Support Group 37 at former MCAS El Toro are at risk for potential exposure to toxic chemicals as a result of the contamination of the soil and groundwater. These Marines may have been exposed to trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), suffered serious health consequences, and have no idea of what hit them.
[...]
Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) El Toro was officially closed in 1999. Prior to its closure, El Toro was the subject of a massive environmental clean-up by the Navy. The first indication of chemical contamination came from a routine inspection off the base in1985 when civilian workers discovered trichloroethylene (TCE) in the groundwater. Before its closure, some 25 contaminated sites were found at El Toro. Site 24, the MWSG 37 was one of the most toxic sites and the source of the TCE toxic plume spreading several miles off the base. It took a number of years before the source of the toxic chemicals was known. Most Navy and Marines veterans not living in southern California who were stationed at El Toro have no knowledge of the toxic chemicals found on the base, its eventually closure in 1999, and sale at a public auction in 2005. Some of these veterans were exposed to these toxins and likely became seriously ill.
[...]
The Marine Corps can remedy this situation without incurring great costs by: (1) establish a link on the existing 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing website (http://www.3maw.usmc.mil/) to register and inform all MWSG-37 Marines stationed at El Toro of the potential exposure to contaminated soil and groundwater; (2) request the various Veteran Service Organizations to alert their memberships of the contamination associated with former MCAS El Toro; and (3) and use Public Service announcements to alert Marines who do not have access to the internet.
Be sure to check out more of the MCAS El Toro history at Robert’s blog.
For our previous coverage of contamination concerns at El Toro (some of which came from the mysteriously-no-longer-active Tox News website), see here.
Big day in the TCE world today, marked by 1 word: LEGISLATION.
Okay, maybe two words: PROPOSED LEGISLATION
Today, Senators Clinton, Dole, Boxer, Lautenberg, and Kerry introduced a bill that proposes to:
Amend the Safe Water Drinking Act to protect the health of susceptible populations, including pregnant women, infants, and children, by requiring a health advisory, drinking water standard, and reference concentration for trichloroethylene vapor intrusion, and for other purposes.
Cited formally as the “Toxic Chemical Exposure Reduction Act of 2007″ (get it? “TCE Reduction Act”?) the Senators have proposed that EPA revise the national standard for allowable TCE levels in public drinking water, create a national standard for allowable TCE in indoor air, and enforce nationwide monitoring and cleanups based on these new standards. All of this is proposed to occur within the 3-18 months of the bill’s enactment.
Since the details of the bill are interesting and worth comment, we’ll post them here shortly. For now, we’ll say this: We think this bill, if passed and enforced, could go a long way towards better protecting the public from TCE.
Of course, if the EPA chooses to or is forced to play politics, we also envision ways that they could still stagnate change even if the bill is passed…
As we said, more to come from us on this. Meantime, you can download the full bill here.
Lastly, we are in the process of contacting Senators from our home state, Connecticut, to ask for their support for this legislation. We strongly urge readers to contact their state Senators as well.
(If any readers do contact their Senators for support, please consider letting us know the kind of feedback you receive. If we’re able to keep track of whom has pledged their support, we’ll keep readers posted by running updates on this blog. What could possibly be more exciting?)
UPDATE: For the official press release from Senator Clinton announcing the proposed legislation, see here.
Each of these stories deserves its own post and and, almost certainly, some commentary. Until we get more time for this, please be sure to check them out directly via the links below. All of them come courtesy of the Google. (Sorry to do it this way, we’ll try to get the full versions up soon. That reminds us, we’re still looking for local correspondents).
- Sen. Schumer calls on EPA to clean up local TCE sites
Times Herald-Record, NY
- Schumer: Sidney sites contaminated
The Daily Star, NY
- Get it right – Tallevast cleanup must be thorough
Bradenton Herald, FL
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Experts claim plan to clean up Tallevast flawed
The Bradenton Herald, FL
- Schumer wants EPA to clean up dangerous water contaminant
Herkimer Evening Telegram, NY
href=”http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/5-0&fp=4684bdbd3d60ce1a&ei=Z5CERrK2B4KcrQPkmc3YDg&url=http%3A//www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/5493/1/268/&cid=1117655826″>
Hawaiian Activists Fight US Military Bases
Political Affairs Magazine, NY - Schumer: Feds dragging their feet setting tougher drinking water and clean-up standards
Little Falls Evening Times, NY
-
Schumer blasts EPA over handling of pollutant
Poughkeepsie Journal, NY
-
IBM workers’ records pushed for TCE study; Researcher cites worldwide interest
Press & Sun-Bulletin, NY
- IBM Cancer Study Could Apply to Endicott
WCIZ TV News, NY
Protect Victor residents from poison
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY - Victor needs swift cleanup
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY
- Leaders seek action on TCE, cite Victor
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY
State to open cancer cluster study in Victor
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY
href=”http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct=us/6-0&fp=4684445378348abb&ei=ZZGERriAL4z2qgOGiqTNDg&url=http%3A//defense.iwpnewsstand.com/showdoc.asp%3Fdocid%3D6262007_june26a&cid=1117656704″>
Democrats Stepping Up Scrutiny of DOD Environmental Compliance
InsideDefense (subscription), DC
EPA settles for $1.7M in CA groundwater cleanup of San Gabriel Valley Area 2 Superfund Site
Water Technology Online, NY - Village of Hempstead feud lingers
Newsday, NY
- Study works on bacteria-eating toxin
United Press International -
- TI faces toxics lawsuit re: Hamilton Park, TX
EETimes.com
Victor pollution clues come up dry
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, NY - US EPA settles with Poway firm for $63100 over toxic chemical
WebWire (press release), GA
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Council waives water cleanup in three districts
Fort Worth Star Telegram, TX
- Interview with Dr. Michael Gros, a victim of water contamination at Camp Lejeune
World Socialist Web Site, MI
From two Friday’s ago, the Lodi News-Sentinel (CA) ran this story:
As litigation from Lodi’s groundwater contamination case comes to a close, cleanup has already begun.
News-Sentinel reporter Matt Brown recently discussed the status of the remaining litigation and the cleanup with City Attorney Stephen Schwabauer.
In 1989, officials discovered that the groundwater in some areas of Downtown was contaminated with the chemicals PCE and TCE, which are used as industrial solvents and in dry cleaning. The chemicals spread out to five different plumes in the city’s groundwater.
In the mid-1990s, the city’s outside attorney, Michael Donovan, crafted a plan to sue insurance companies of local businesses, including the News-Sentinel, for their role in the contamination. After a number of negative court rulings, the City Council in 2004 fired Donovan and City Attorney Randy Hays.
The city has since sued Donovan for fraud and malpractice, and Donovan has countersued, claiming the city owes him millions in legal fees.
The city has sought to settle out of court with the parties responsible for the contamination.
Read the interview here.
The Sacramento Bee (CA) reports:
State health officials are considering a proposal that would have Rancho Cordova residents relying for the first time on treatment technologies to remove rocket fuel chemicals from their drinking water.
The proposed change in contaminant cleanup strategy comes as concentrations of chemicals are creeping up in several Rancho Cordova drinking-water wells.
The fixes, however, are expected to be completed before the contamination reaches unsafe levels, utility and state officials said.
[...]
The contaminants are perchlorate, an oxidizing component of solid rocket propellant known to cause thyroid disorders and NDMA — n-nitro-sodimethylamine — a “probable” cancer-causing combustion product of liquid rocket fuel, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The chemicals are linked to historic disposal practices at Aerojet. In the 1950s through 1970s, the defense contractor disposed of residual rocket fuel and metal-cleaning solvents in unlined open pits, allowing the wastes to seep through the soil and into the groundwater tapped for Rancho Cordova homes.
The most pervasive Aerojet pollutant is trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent that has been linked to brain damage, liver cancer, skin diseases and immune disorders.
Read the full story.
The folks near Rocketdyne apparently have way more to be concerned with than just TCE or perchlorate contamination. According to this front-page story from Friday’s Los Angeles Times:
Radioactive emissions from a 1959 nuclear accident at a research lab near Simi Valley appear to have been much greater than previously suspected and could have resulted in hundreds of cancers in surrounding communities, according to a study released Thursday.
Chemical contamination from rocket engine testing at the site continues to threaten soil and groundwater in the area around Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the study also found.
The nuclear meltdown, which remained virtually unknown to the public until 1979, could have caused between 260 and 1,800 cases of cancer “over a period of many decades,” the study concluded.
But the advisory panel that oversaw the five-year study, conducted by an independent team of scientists and health experts, said it could not offer more specifics about potential exposure to carcinogens because the Department of Energy and Rocketdyne’s owner, Boeing Co., did not provide key information.
“This lack of candor … makes characterization of the potential health impacts of past accidents and releases extremely difficult,” the panel concluded.
AP Reports also add:
The lab’s former owner, Rocketdyne, has said for years that no significant radiation was released. But the independent advisory panel said the incident released nearly 459 times more radiation than a similar one at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island in 1979.
[...]
The Energy Department, Boeing [the site's current owner] and the state have been involved in efforts to decontaminate the site. The state has estimated that more than 1.73 million gallons of toxic trichloroethylene was dumped on the grounds and that 500,000 gallons have saturated the bedrock beneath the lab.
The panel concluded local soil and groundwater also may have been contaminated. The rocket fuel additive perchlorate has been found in a well, but Boeing has disputed assertions it came from the lab. Long-term exposure to high levels of perchlorate can cause thyroid problems.
Read the full LA Times article, Study Says Lab Meltdown Caused Cancer. Or check out AP’s report here.
Last week’s Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) reported:
Members of the city’s community group on Wyle Labs lashed out at city and school officials Thursday night for not doing more to inform the public about pollution from the testing facility.
The Wyle Community Advisory Group called on Norco officials to honor a 2-year-old commitment to the Riverside County grand jury to monitor clean-up efforts at Wyle Labs and communicate with residents about it.
“It’s the city’s job to protect the public,” group Chairwoman Celeste Tittle said.
Representatives from the school district and the city have not attended an advisory group meeting for more than a year, she said.
City and school officials could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
People who contact the city for information about Wyle are told that it’s not a problem or that they can’t review regulatory reports, Tittle said.
“I don’t believe the school (district) has been active in getting out the information as they would like us to believe,” Tittle said.
Read the full story here.
Recently received a nice note from Lizzie Grossman, author of High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health. She sent the following invitation for TCE Blog readers:
What: A reading and discussion of “High Tech Trash: Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health,” my new book about the environmental and health impacts of the entire life-cycle of high tech electronics, just out from Island Press. (see http://www.islandpress.org)
C-Span Book TV will be coming to film, so here’s your chance to reach an audience of thousands when you ask that important question! Seriously, this is a great opportunity to help promote understanding of these issues, so come prepared to have a lively conversation.
Where & When: August 15, 7 pm, at Book Passage in San Francisco, in the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero — (415) 835-1020 for directions
The Los Angeles Times’ Ralph Vartabedian, author of an important series of articles on the politics and health impact of trichloroethylene (TCE), got his hands on an advanced copy of the National Academies’ TCE health risks report (slated for official release later today). He writes:
After a detailed study of the most widespread industrial contaminant in U.S. drinking water, the National Research Council will report today that evidence is growing stronger that the chemical causes cancer and other human health problems.
The 379-page report clears a path for federal regulators to formally raise the risk assessment of trichloroethylene, known as TCE, a step that has been tied up by infighting between scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Defense Department.
If you recall, in 2001, EPA’s Draft Health Risk Assessment for Trichloroethylene found TCE to be more toxic than previously thought and characterized TCE as “highly likely to produce cancer in humans”. According to the Department of Defense, these findings were to be the basis for more stringent clean-up standards at thousands of TCE-contaminated sites across the country and were likely to cost billions of dollars for DOD, the world’s largest and most powerful TCE polluter.
The EPA attempted to issue a risk assessment in 2001 that found TCE to be two to 40 times more carcinogenic than previously thought, but that action was opposed by the Defense Department, the Energy Department and NASA. The Pentagon has 1,400 properties contaminated with TCE.
The Bush administration sent the matter to the National Research Council for study, based on military assertions that the EPA had overblown the risks. But the new report does not support that criticism.
“The committee found that the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001,” the report said.
The report urged federal agencies to complete their assessment of TCE risks as soon as possible “with currently available data,” meaning they should not wait for additional basic research, as suggested by the Defense Department.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) was part of the congressional briefing on Wednesday where the NAS presented their findings. In Hinchey’s district, where widespread TCE contamination has impacted the air inside people’s homes, a health study found that rates of kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and birth defects were elevated with statistical significance. On the Academies’ report, Hinchey says:
“It is the strongest report on TCE that we have had,” said Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.), whose district includes hundreds of homes that have air filtration systems to eliminate TCE vapors from the ground. “The fact that we have this TCE-laden drinking water used by millions of people is abominable.”
Reached for comment by the Times, the National Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Gina Solomon offers:
“That is a very strong statement, a ringing endorsement of the EPA’s 2001 draft risk assessment,” said Solomon, an associate clinical professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and a staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Solomon said the report also rejected a key position of the chemical industry and Pentagon environmental experts that TCE was not dangerous at low levels of exposure.
Jerry Ensminger has been engaged in a 9-year battle with the federal government over a community’s exposure to TCE at Camp Lejeune, NC. He was reached for comment by the Times:
“We can’t afford any more delays,” said Jerry Ensminger, a former Marine drill sergeant who served at Camp Lejuene, where drinking water supplies were tainted. His daughter died at age 9 in 1976 from leukemia, which Ensminger blamed on TCE exposure.
Ensminger said he was heartened by the report’s conclusions, but remained concerned about whether the government would move quickly to deal with the chemical contamination.
“I want to know why the Bush administration does not err on the side of life when it comes to the environment,” he said.
The report becomes available to the public at 4 pm EDT today. It will be posted to the National Academies website and linked here as soon as we can get to it. For the full LA Times story, see here.
A presentation from DTSC this past Thursday reportedly stirred angst from residents:
“Even though the levels found in the buildings are less than in the science building, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to get worse,” said Tony Mauro of CAG.
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control presented CAG and concerned residents with the latest developments in the ongoing Wyle Labs Inc. investigation and cleanup Thursday evening.
[...]
Don Hamann, a Norco resident, said he believes the low levels of vinyl chloride may be the reason his niece, Nicole Schulz, 14, was recently diagnosed with leukemia.
“They keep saying the levels they find are safe,” Hamann said. “There’s no way.”
Pat Brunell said she attended the meeting for answers. Her home was one of 27 that were sampled for contaminants.
“I guess we have a plume under our house,” she said. “Our house is for sale, but obviously no one will buy it. They checked the air and drilled in our backyard two months ago, and we still haven’t heard the results or what to do.”
Read the full story in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (CA)
In what appears to be a recap only (i.e. it doesn’t appear that any new vinyl chloride discoveries are being reported in this article), the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA) reported:
Low levels of contaminants have been detected in buildings adjacent to the Norco High library, and the state wants to know where the chemicals are coming from and why.
Norco High sits near Wyle Laboratories and was among several areas tested for cancer-causing chemicals that leaked from the former munitions-testing site and into the community.
Rafat Abbasi, senior project manager for the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the agency overseeing the Wyle cleanup and investigation, said low levels of vinyl chloride were detected in the school’s Buildings B and D, located in the northern section of campus, in May.
[...]
“Once we have completed the investigation on the high school, we’ll be in a better position to say what the source of the vinyl chloride is,” Abbasi said. “We need to find the source, but the investigation is complicated. That’s why we’re requiring (Wyle) to do an extensive investigation.”
DTSC has asked Wyle to submit a proposal on how it will conduct the testing at the buildings.
Wyle Labs tested munitions, rocket motors and electronics at its site – not far from the high school – from the 1950s to 2002. Cancer-causing chemicals leaked from the site into surrounding areas.
The contaminants included vinyl chloride, a chemical found in pipes and trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent.
Abbasi and Sandy Friedman, DTSC public information officer, said the new levels may be the result of TCE in the groundwater breaking down into vinyl chloride. The groundwater under the school has been tested and shown to be contaminated with TCE.
Vinyl Chloride has been found in the air in another building at Norco High School. Officials claim they are still trying to pinpoint the source.
Last week’s Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (CA) reported:
This weekend, while Norco High School students enjoy their summer, air flow enhancer devices will be installed in three of the school’s science rooms to reduce the levels of cancer-causing chemicals that leaked from the 429-acre Wyle Laboratories site nearby.
And officials from the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the state agency overseeing the Wyle Labs cleanup, are still trying to persuade residents within the contamination plume to let them test for contaminants inside their homes.
Read the full story here.
Last week, in the first of a two-part story, the Lodi News-Sentinal (CA) reported:
Lodi city staff suggested deep cuts to city services today when asked to describe how a ballot initiative to overturn the city’s water rate increase would affect the General Fund’s bottom line if the initiative is successful.
The city needs to raise nearly $50 million to clean the solvents PCE and TCE from groundwater under the central part of the city. To do so, the City Council late last year passed a rate increase that over three phases would add $10.50 to the bill for a three-bedroom home.
Measure H, the voter initiative that will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot, would reverse that increase and the city would need to find money to pay for the cleanup plan this year, not to mention later years.
Members of the Lodi City Council heard city staff’s ideas today on how to make up a $3 million shortfall if the measure passes. Those ideas include:
• Eliminating two downtown bicycle patrol officers, three traffic officers, a sergeant and school resource officers from the Lodi Police Department.
• Eliminating eight positions in the Public Works Department, including street sweeping and graffiti abatement.
• Eliminating arts grants, the Youth Commission and First Friday Night Art Hop from Hutchins Street Square.
• Reducing Lodi Public Library hours from 64 to 53 and cutting some literacy programs.
Read more here: Part I, Part II
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