Former Army Bio Weapons Fort Under Scrutiny for Illnesses and Deaths

By: Duane Craig

Fort Detrick, located at 810 Schreider St. in Frederick, Md., is under scrutiny for possible links of contamination to cancer illnesses and deaths, according to an article in The Baltimore Sun. What started as one man looking for answers to questions the locals had been asking for years, has turned into a full-blown effort to definitively link the fort to human health mayhem.

Fort Detrick suspected of environmental contamination

The man who started it all lost one daughter to cancer and recently had another diagnosed with it. He is fortunate enough to have the money necessary to pay for independent scientific investigations, medical tests of area people and now a lawsuit, in his quest to find answers about Fort Detrick's potential role in illnesses and deaths in the nearby communities. He has already spent $1 million, and some locals say they're glad someone with enough money came forward to shine some light on the issue so it could no longer be ignored.

Fort Detrick is home to medical research and development today, but from the 1940s into the 1960s, it was where biological weapons were experimented with, including anthrax and smallpox. The western side of the fort was a testing ground for biological weapons delivery systems and served as a discard site for lab equipment and materials. Perhaps ironically, the fort is also currently home to a National Cancer Institute facility.

Fracking Hearing in Colorado Challenges Gas Industry and Citizens

By: Duane Craig

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for natural gas has been blamed for making western Wyoming's air dirtier during winter than Los Angeles' air, according to this article in the Houston Chronicle. The claim was brought up during a public comment session on new rules for fracking held in Colorado by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Those new rules would reduce the air pollution from fracking by 25 percent and would boost oil and gas industry profits by capturing gas that could be sold instead of being lost to the atmosphere. Industry groups aren't sure about that and want more time to study the new rules. Colorado residents contend the industry has had enough time to clean up its act, and they want action before Colorado's mountains become socked in by haze, hurting tourism and jobs related to the outdoors.

Health issues were also cited at the hearing, with the American Lung Association urging the EPA to go further and limit methane emissions more directly. Others want the wholesale burn off of natural gas, also known as flaring, to be stopped, and still others want existing facilities to fall under the new rules as well.

Supporters of the oil and gas industry said more regulation will limit exploration, thereby reducing jobs and taxes. No new perspectives there.

Environmental Activity Creates Jobs Too

By: Duane Craig

Who says protecting the environment doesn't create any jobs? It does in West Virginia where Arch Coal Inc. will fork over $2 million that will hire "a lead land-use attorney, two supporting attorneys and an experienced land-use planner … along with a full-time office manager and an additional faculty member" for the West Virginia University College of Law, Land Use and Sustainability Clinic, according to this article in the Houston Chronicle.

Arch will also install equipment to treat and monitor selenium pollution it left behind as it took the tops off mountains to get coal. Involved are Arch's subsidiaries, Coal-Mac Inc. and Mingo Logan Coal Company, and five active and inactive or reclaimed sites. Arch will pay $200,000 to the federal government and $145,000 to cover plaintiffs' legal costs. That's money that has a direct impact on jobs, too.

Installing the treatment and monitoring systems adds even more jobs, and, if the company violates any more Clean Water Act rules it must pay $25,000 per incident. Earlier this year, Arch paid $5.8 million in fines and penalties related to its pollution legacy including iron, aluminum and manganese contamination released between 2003 and 2010. Some or much of that money will no doubt end up paying somebody for doing something.

Hanford Superfund Site Stands as Huge and Complex

By: Duane Craig

Dubbed by the Environmental Protection Agency as "one of the largest and most complex cleanup projects in the U.S.," another part of the Hanford Superfund site in Washington will enter the cleanup process soon. The EPA and the Department of Energy decided on using a combination of techniques for the cleanup because of the variety of ways plutonium has contaminated the soil, according to this news report.

In some soils, the plutonium was mixed with nitric acid, turning it from a relatively soil-stable material into one that migrates through soil more readily. In those places, more soil will be removed. Then, for the remaining areas, the soil will be stored in-situ at a designated, lined landfill at the Hanford site or be sent to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project in New Mexico if it has high levels of plutonium.
This Superfund site sits in southern Washington state, north of Kennewick and east of Yakima. It is right next to the Columbia River, and it is huge. It covers 586 square miles and is divided into four National Priorities List Sites -- 100, 200, 300 and 1100 Areas, according to an EPA fact sheet on the site. This particular cleanup action focuses on four soil waste sites where water and steam contaminated with plutonium 239 were disposed of. Plutonium 239 takes 48,000 years to decay. The area encompasses 10 square miles.

For most of the years between 1943 and 1989, the Hanford site produced plutonium for use in nuclear weapons. At one time, there were six nuclear reactors operating along the river and using its waters to cool their operations. Making plutonium created 43 million cubic yards of radioactive waste, more than 130 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris and allowed 475 billion gallons of contaminated water to be dumped on the ground. There are now 80 square miles of contaminated groundwater that have contamination exceeding groundwater protection standards. It poses a risk to the Columbia River and to the people living in Richland, Pasco and Kennewick. Those communities take their drinking water directly from the river. The population of people within 50 miles of Hanford is about half a million.

According to the second five-year review in 2007, the remediation of strontium-90 contamination in the groundwater was not effective, and the strontium-90 along the shoreline was not being reduced by the pump-and-treat system installed there. At the time, the EPA pointed to new work underway that would bring that remediation up to standard and make it protective of health.

Part of the overall remediation of Hanford meant setting up places to store huge amounts of contamination, forever. But the storage plan had to make sure the contaminants would not migrate through soil or into water or air. One such place is called the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility. From 1996 to 2001, the ERDF received two million tons of nuclear debris, and by 2007, the total was more than seven million tons. It still receives about 3,000 tons of waste every day, according to this EPA document. This disposal area lies between the western and eastern portions of the 200 Area. Hanford is a legendary reminder of World War II and the Cold War, and it shows just how easy it is to create messes that may never really be cleaned up.

Hewlett Water Contamination Cleanup Set to Begin

By: Duane Craig

A mysterious plume of groundwater contamination is getting the cleanup go-ahead, according to this article in The Five Towns Patch. The Peninsula Boulevard Groundwater Plume describes a Superfund site in Hewlett, N.Y. that doesn't have a named source.

Early in the investigation, it was thought the former Grove Cleaners was responsible, but that was ruled out, according to the Environmental Protection Agency report. The contaminant is tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, and the contaminated groundwater flows toward a drinking water source called the Long Island American Water Plant 5 Well Field. Beginning in 1991, that well water has been treated with a packed power aeration system, or air stripper. The site was proposed for and listed with Superfund status in 2004.

Contamination Clean up begins in Hewlett, N.Y.

There is a school nearby but vapor intrusion tests have shown no problems there. The agency also sampled nearby building slabs with the plan to install remediation systems if vapor intrusion was detected.

The cleanup plan is to drill wells allowing the solvent to flow into them. Pumps will extract the water and send it through a treatment process before retiring it to the ground. The cleanup process may take 15 years or more. PCE easily evaporates into air where people can be affected by breathing it. It is considered a carcinogen.

Uranium in Drinking Water? It's Not Our Fault, and Stop Telling Us What to Do

By: Duane Craig

Cotter Corp. of Colorado, a subsidiary of General Atomics in San Diego, is glowing as the poster child for uranium misbehavior, and state authorities are nearing their limits in putting up with the errant corporate child's tantrums.

Beginning in April 2010, the state started telling Cotter to clean up one of its defunct mining properties, according to this report. Then, about a year ago in September, Cotter said 'no' to those orders and refused to clean up the Schwartzwalder mine. State regulators alleged the mine was leaking uranium-tainted water into Denver's water supply. Mine water contained uranium at 310 parts per billion, 100 times greater than acceptable levels. Then, in a subsequent act of disobedience, Cotter refused to pay the fines -- about $55,000 at the time.

Next, Cotter sued the state, claiming that regulators didn't have enough evidence to tell it to clean up its messes and that the contaminated water in the mine was not getting into the ground water or into nearby creeks that drain into Lake Arvada.

In June 2011, Cotter was still refusing to obey, and by September, uranium had tainted the water supplies of three water suppliers, Denver Water, Arvada and North Table Mountain, according to this report. Those water supplies serve about 1.3 million people in Colorado. Levels of the radioactive material are low, according to environmental officials, and the water is still okay to drink.

Not in My Backyard. But It Already Is.

By: Duane Craig

You don't find refineries placed near homes worth millions of dollars, and homes with ocean vistas don't have their views obstructed by polluting industries. It's an economic fact that some properties are worth more than others, and it's also a fact that high-value properties face less environmental contamination issues than low-value properties -- with perhaps the exception of air pollution.
While there is talk of class warfare being waged on the rich these days, class warfare through environmental degradation has always been waged on lower-income people, and that was publicly recognized in the U.S. as far back as the 1960s, according to this archival reference.

As developed nations glanced around at their legacies of contamination, they started to strengthen their environmental rules to tranquilize the madness. But an unintended consequence was that polluters just started shifting their operations to countries where regulations were not as strict. They also started to simply ship the wastes and pollutants to other lands, as written about here and here. The "not in my backyard" syndrome continues playing out globally, just as it does locally, with polluting companies, and countries, discovering new ways to unload their pollution on others.

While it's true that contamination in America disproportionately affects middle- and lower-income people, the powerful, famous and wealthy are not immune. What's more, many of the privileged might be surprised to learn just how close they live and work to contaminated soil, air and water, a quiet trend that promises to evenly spread the effects and threats of pollution across all of America's classes. Here are some specific cases that show just how cozy everyone is becoming with contamination.

Current and past residents of the nation's White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. might be interested in knowing there have been 131 spills, incidents and releases of toxic substances within a half-mile radius of the building since 2001, according to this report.
Environmental Data Resources reports that the residence made famous by the woman who gave birth to eight kids in California has an illegal drug lab minutes from its front door. That residence also has had spills, releases and/or incidents related to hazardous substances within a half-mile radius, and within the same distance, there is a landfill and eight entities permitted to store, transport or generate chemicals that may be hazardous to human health.

The Trump Plaza Residences in Jersey City, New Jersey, bills its location as offering "a vibrant neighborhood" right at residents' doorsteps. What the sales pitch doesn't tell aspiring tenants is that at their doorsteps they'll also have a vibrant collection of 220 spills, releases and/or incidents related to hazardous substances. Included in that mix is one Superfund site. Then too, there are 63 places within a half mile that are permitted to store, transport or generate chemicals that may be hazardous to human health, according to this report.

It may be that we are beginning to run out of places where we can dispose of contamination to keep it out of our own backyards, regardless of social stature and economic power. Even the idea of "dumping it over there, far away from me" is just a comforting illusion because the earth is everyone's backyard -- and the only one we all have.

Responsible Parties in Omega Superfund Site May Be on the Hook for $70 million

By: Duane Craig

The Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund site in Whittier, California, needs $70 million to cleanup the volatile organic compounds in the ground water, according to a recent report at 89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio. The plume of contamination extends 4.5 miles in a southwesterly direction, at least to Los Nietos Road.

Cleanup of the soil and above-ground area began in 1995. More than 100 potentially responsible parties banded together to "remove and treat 3,000 drums of hazardous waste, 60 cubic yards of hardened resin material, hundreds of empty contaminated drums, numerous cylinders and various other smaller containers." The group also emptied two rainwater sumps and four evaporators. It cleaned two cooling towers, removed 67 refrigerant gas cylinders and disposed of 40,000 gallons of contaminated liquids, according to the history of the site kept by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Whittier, Ca needs $70 million to cleanup superfund site

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control had been alerted to problems at the business in the 1980s, and during the 1990s, the department had tried unsuccessfully to get the operators of the facility to remove wastes and clean up the site. The business recycled refrigerants and solvents from 1976 to 1991. Spills and leaks led to soil contamination with tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, trichloroethylene, or TCE, Freons 11 and 113 and other contaminants. One of the operable units managed by the EPA is addressing vapor intrusion in several buildings along the perimeter of the Omega property, while the other two operable units focus on the ground water contamination.

Uranium and Radon Contamination Not Always Linked to Mining

By: Duane Craig

Photo from:
BEAU CABELL/THE TELEGRAPH

There doesn't have to be uranium mining nearby to cause contamination of water supplies because uranium occurs naturally in many parts of the country. Take Georgia for example.
In Macon, some homeowners were recently surprised to find uranium at 21 times the safe limit in their well water and radon in their indoor air. One woman claimed she was drinking nearly a gallon of the water every day, and others who had their hair tested for uranium found it contained high levels of the radioactive material, according to this report in Macon.com.

There is a layer of granite that runs through several southeastern states. Water that lies below that layer can be high in uranium, and radon is more prevalent above ground in those places also. This creates double jeopardy for those living above the granite. Radon inside buildings is thought to contribute to incidents of lung cancer as people bathe and wash clothes in water containing uranium. In other cases, the radon may seep into buildings through the foundations as it naturally rises through the soil. One in 15 radon air tests in Georgia will have unacceptable limits of the gas.

Twenty-two water tests in the Macon area had uranium present in excess of 30 parts per billion, the recognized safe limit, but a few tests had concentrations as high as 300 and 400 parts per billion. Water testing is on the increase in Macon.

Merced Takes on Big Oil Over MTBE Contamination

By: Duane Craig

Merced, California, and its Redevelopment Agency have sued numerous oil companies for their alleged part in contaminating the water supplies there with methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, and tert-butyl alcohol, or TBA, according to this article in the Merced Sun-Star.

Merced, California sues oil companies for MTBE contamination

The city contends that the companies sold gasoline containing the substances to local service stations and those stations improperly handled them, causing them to be released into the environment. The main avenue to the ground water was leaking underground storage tanks. The city also linked the oil companies deeply to the contamination by alleging they promoted the additives as being environmentally beneficial but failed to disclose it would make water undrinkable. The contamination supposedly occurred between 1992 and 2002. The city also alleges the defendants were "negligent, careless, reckless or intentionally failed to prevent leaks of MTBE or TBA through the use of appropriate technology, installation and maintenance of gasoline delivery systems that could prevent leaks or monitor and discover them as soon as possible."

MTBE continues to be a growing contaminant in water supplies across the country, according to the EPA. Even very low amounts of it make water smell like turpentine and taste like chemicals, and in high amounts it is a suspected carcinogen. MTBE is water-soluble and doesn't cling to soil very well, so it migrates quickly to ground water. TBA is used in gasoline to boost the octane rating, but what many people may not be aware of is that it has also been used to coat metal food containers. Studies done with rats, as reported by California, have shown this chemical to be a potential carcinogen.