John Gilbertson, AVX Corp.'s chief executive officer, said Thursday his company will not seek money from residents of a neighborhood where the manufacturer has contaminated groundwater with a toxic chemical.

Read it here in the Sun News.

David Wren's excellent coverage of developments in Myrtle Beach, SC continue with this latest installment in the Sun News (SC). In it, we learn that South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) put too much faith in a polluter's promises at the expense of public health:

S.C. officials told AVX Corp. as long as eight years ago to test for groundwater contamination at property adjacent to the manufacturer's headquarters, but the state backed off after AVX said all contamination from its use of a toxic chemical had been contained on the company's land.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control now knows that wasn't the case, and agency representatives say they should have been more insistent on testing rather than being swayed by the electronics manufacturer.

On Tuesday's meeting with the Myrtle Beach Town Council, DHEC geologist Carol Minsk sounded defensive:

DHEC asked AVX at that time to test groundwater on property across the street from the manufacturer, but AVX "made the argument that their [cleanup] system was effective," Minsk said.

Results from test wells on the perimeter of AVX's property showed little or no TCE contamination, Minsk said, and "logic would tell you the contamination wasn't beyond those wells."

Minsk said DHEC also was at a disadvantage because AVX did not tell state officials about the contamination until 14 years after the manufacturer first tried to clean it up.

"We didn't know how much [TCE] had been spilled," she said, adding that such knowledge might have prompted DHEC to order the off-site testing. "Based on the data we had, it showed the contamination was contained."

[...]

Minsk said the evidence AVX presented at the time was convincing, but in hindsight DHEC made the wrong decision.

Yeah, like it's hindsight that's needed to realize blind trust in a polluter might be bad policy for a state agency. Give us a break.

Read the full story here.

In a blog entry entitled "AVX Corporation hoping to screw over innocent South Carolinians," staff writer Stratton Lawrence writes:

What dirt bags. If there was ever a case to bring back public shackles and rotten fruit style ridicule, it’s with the scum behind this lawsuit.

File this under questionable legal tactics: According to The Sun News (Myrtle Beach, SC), AVX filed recent court documents seeking to stick residents and other property owners, some of whom have sued AVX, with part of the tab from AVX's TCE investigation and clean-up:

The electronics manufacturer filed a proposed amended complaint last week in federal court that would make those property owners subject to federal laws that require shared liability for environmental contamination.

That means property owners living near AVX could be forced to pay the manufacturer a prorated share of whatever amount AVX spends for "investigations, containment, removal or mitigation of the contamination at the properties," according to the proposed complaint.

That amount could be measured in the millions of dollars.

AVX also wants property owners to pay "interest at the maximum rate allowable by law" for any amount they might owe to the manufacturer.

A judge has not made a ruling on the proposed complaint.

Gene Connell, a lawyer representing property owners near AVX's headquarters at 801 17th Ave. S., said the proposal is an unconscionable scare tactic.

"It's audacious that AVX would try to blame its pollution on the poor people who've worked all their lives for their homes," Connell said. "These are innocent landowners."

[...]

AVX, in its proposed complaint, wants a federal judge to rule that contamination has not damaged any property near the manufacturer's headquarters because the TCE eventually can be removed from the groundwater.

[...]

AVX also wants a judge to rule that property owners are entitled to no compensation for any possible damage to their land or property values resulting from the contamination.

Though we're reluctant to play armchair legal quarterback without seeing the court-filed documents (yeah, we'll do it anyway), we'd say the first part of the complaint, the move to pin costs on property-owners, may be designed to discourage public participation in litigation against AVX (almost as if to say, "Hold us accountable and you'll literally pay for it.")

The latter two issues, that no property was damaged and that owners aren't entitled to compensation for certain damages, sound to us like they depend on questions of fact that a trial must ultimately decide. But we are not attorneys nor familiar with all the applicable facts or laws in this case, so really, what do we know?

Read the full story at MyrtleBeachOnline.com.

Back in December, news stories revealed that Myrtle Beach, SC has been contaminated with TCE for decades. Despite knowledge by the polluter and state regulators, the public was never warned:

Toxic contamination at the AVX Corp. facility in Myrtle Beach was kept secret for 26 years, and that has some environmental experts and residents questioning why state regulators never did anything to inform the public about a potential health risk.

Even when tests last year indicated the contamination had spread to property adjacent to AVX located on 17th Avenue South in Myrtle Beach, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control did not notify residents, city leaders or adjacent landowners.

DHEC officials say they usually don't notify anyone unless there is an immediate health danger.

The case is drawing attention from environmentalists nationwide, including Robert Kennedy Jr., whose Kennedy & Madonna law firm has offered to help residents fight AVX in court.

'It's hard to believe everyone just sat on all this information for so long,' said Kevin Madonna, who, with Kennedy, works with community groups nationwide on environmental issues.

Last week, a follow-up article on Myrtle Beach Online revealed:

Electronics manufacturer AVX illegally dumped groundwater laced with TCE, an industrial degreaser, into the sewer at its 17th Avenue South facility from at least 1985 to 1996, according to a consent order the company signed with DHEC in 1996.

[...]

AVX learned it had high levels of TCE contamination in groundwater at its property as early as 1991, but did not tell state regulators or city officials about the problem until 14 years later.

TCE contamination now has migrated from AVX to groundwater in a 10-block section of Myrtle Beach, environmental tests show. The contamination is not in the city's drinking water.

Myrtle Beach officials did not learn about the sewer dumping and contamination problems until recently, when the issues were brought to the public's attention through a series of reports in The Sun News.

DHEC last month narrowed the area where TCE contamination exists to a 10-block parcel north of AVX, sandwiched between Beaver Road and Kings Highway.

Environmental tests last year showed TCE levels as high as 19,200 parts per billion on land near AVX. The EPA has set the safe level at five parts per billion.

We'll keep you posted as updates become available.

There's a joke in here somewhere about something rotten, but there's a fine line between funny and crass and we're unlikley to find it this morning. As such, without our snarky commentary or attempts at mood-lightening humor, here's the story from The Times and Democrat (Orangeburg, SC):

A revised “fact sheet” released Wednesday by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control identifies the now-closed Colonial Cleaners as “a potential source” for tetrachloroethylene, or dry cleaning solvent, detected in two of the city of Denmark’s wells.

The city has taken two of its three wells out of service as a precautionary measure after recent samples contained elevated levels of solvents.

Tetrachloroethylene, also known as PCE, was commonly used as a dry cleaning solvent before it was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency. Trichloroethylene, another solvent, was found in another Denmark well.

The Bamberg Board of Public Works has been furnishing water to Denmark since about 6:55 p.m. Thursday at the request of DHEC, according to BPW Manager Bruce Ellis.

[...]

ˇWednesday’s revised fact sheet from DHEC said the city is taking action, with DHEC’s support, to ensure that all customers continue to be provided with safe drinking water. Recent samples of two of the town’s three wells detected contamination above an EPA-established Maximum Contaminant Level, it states. Neither well has exceeded the MCL in the past, DHEC notes.

According to the fact sheet, “The most recent Brooker Center Well test showed slightly elevated levels of tetrachloroethylene ... The Brooker Center well is within 1,200 feet of the closed Colonial Dry Cleaners, which is a potential source for this PCE contamination.”

[...]

Another contaminated well cited by DHEC is Denmark’s Legare Street/Clark Street well, which has shown contamination of trichloroethylene, also known as TCE. DHEC officials say they are actively investigating the source of this contamination.

[...]

According to DHEC, federal regulations do not require the well to be taken off-line unless the readings over four quarters (a year) average more than the MCL. However, to be sure that safe water continues to be provided to the residents of Denmark, the city took the wells off-line and is supplementing its water needs with assistance from the Bamberg Public Works, DHEC’s release states.

Read the full story here.

According to this report by WLTX-TV News 19 (SC):

As of Monday night's Restoration Advisory Board meeting, Shaw officials say Sumter residents no longer have to worry about their drinking water because all known contaminated wells have been treated.

You may remember a similar meeting was held back in February. For many Sumter residents, that was the first time they learned about a potentially harmful chemical - known as TCE - contaminating their water.

Since then all known contaminations have been eliminated. But for at least one resident, that's not enough.

"I've lived here probably around eight years," says Ralph Oxendine.

Up until February he got his drinking water from a well he had installed on his property when he moved in. But he says he stopped using it when Shaw tests found unsafe levels of TCE - an industrial-strength degreaser - in his well water.

"The EPA limit is 5 parts per billion and he was just above that - around 8 parts per billion," says Capt. Travis Guidt, a spokesman for Shaw.

[...]

Base officials told [Oxendine] to get checked out by a doctor and then to file a claim with Shaw.

Base officials say that believe they've contacted everyone who could be affected by TCE contamination, but if you have a well adjacent to Shaw and Highway 441 that has not been tested, contact the base at (803) 895-2019.

We wonder if base officials told Oxendine that diseases linked to TCE and similar VOC's reportedly take years, sometimes decades, to present themselves in the body. This is what is commonly known as a latency period - the period of time between toxic exposure and the onset of illness/disease.

A clean bill of health today - especially after at least eight years of drinking and bathing in dangerous levels of TCE - is guarantee of precious little. While the recommendation to see a medical expert about the possible impacts of the exposure is a good one, the possibility of TCE-induced disease is not something that can be ruled out with a single visit.

Separately, it is hard to tell from the limited reports if Shaw has ruled out the prospect of vapor intrusion into homes sitting above the TCE contaminated soil/groundwater for all those years. As Walter Mugdan, from EPA Region 2, reminds us:

Indoor air problems may occur even when levels of groundwater contamination are quite low. Moreover, the model most commonly used to make predictions about vapor intrusion, the “Johnson-Ettinger” Model, has been found to significantly under-predict indoor air vapor levels in a variety of situations.

If vapor intrusion into buildings near Shaw AFB has not been ruled out with any certainty, officials should ensure that this happens.

According to this brief report:

On Monday, you can meet with Sumter, DHEC, Shaw Air Force Base and US Air Force officials who are holding a public meeting about groundwater cleanup efforts.

There is trichloroethylene (TCE) in the local groundwater, and the meeting will be an update on the investigation and cleanup process.

The semi-annual Restoration Advisory Board will be Monday at 6:30pm in the New Beginning Banquet Facility [at 1335 Hwy 441] in Sumter.

More on TCE at Shaw AFB to come...