3 years after initial discovery, Alabama residents finally learn of lead contamination

July 29, 2007 - First Avenue Park seemed to have everything for the close knit community nearby open spaces to play, ball fields and plenty of room for having fun.

But the recent disclosure of lead contamination discovered in the park has residents worried.

First Avenue residents first learned of the lead contamination when EPA officials approached them in May about testing the soil in their yards even though documents obtained by The Daily Home show officials with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management knew of the lead contamination more than three years ago. No records could be located showing that ADEM ever informed residents living around the foundry of their test findings.

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New York State links chemical hazard in Brighton neighborhood with dry cleaner

July 27, 2007 - A Brighton neighborhood already dealing with two hazardous sites now has a third — the former Speedy's Cleaners at 2150 Monroe Ave.

Tetrachloroethene (or PCE), a chemical commonly used by dry cleaners, was found in high levels in recent groundwater samples and now has been linked by state environmental officials to Speedy's, which moved from the Monroe Avenue site about two decades ago.

Officials have been investigating a PCE plume they believed originated at a second dry cleaner on the other side of Monroe Avenue, as well as a substantial gasoline leak from a neighboring service station in 2003.

All three contamination sources apparently affect the same neighborhood just southeast of Brighton's Twelve Corners.

The Speedy's contamination likely will add to existing concerns about toxic vapors rising from the groundwater and pooling in basements. At least 11 homes or commercial buildings in the area already have had ventilation systems installed to remove petroleum or PCE vapors.

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Vapor intrusion in Ithaca New York

July 27, 2007 - Department of Environmental Conservation crews will be working in the 300 block of North Meadow Street in coming weeks.

Their goal will be to determine the scope of contamination from a former dry cleaning operation in the area.

Investigators will be looking for perchloroethene, or perc, which is a common dry cleaning solvent. From the 1920s until 1999 perc was used by owners of the building that is now Angelo Dry Cleaners. In 1999 owner Jim Kellogg switched away from using perc because of concerns about its toxicity. Perc is a known carcinogen and long-term exposure can adversely affect the liver, kidney and nervous system.

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Texas residents learn their water is contaminated

July 25, 2007 - Residents got a letter stating the "water being supplied to customers had exceeded the maximum contaminant level."

This means the combination of chemicals and chlorine in the drinking water is causing high levels of acids, which could cause "an increased risk of getting cancer."

The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality says the letter they sent out is standard. But because Edcouch has had water problems before, TCEQ is asking the people who live here to be vigilant.

A report was also sent with the letter. It tells residents the people most likely affected by the water would be the elderly and young children, who have weak immune systems.

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Utah Lawmakers Considering New Laws for Homes Used as Meth Labs

July 26, 2007 - When they bought the house the Alkinani's had no idea the home and the shed were once used as meth labs. When they found out, Salt Lake County assured them it had been properly decontaminated. It was even in writing.

Cleaned and cleared once, now the county says the Alkinani's must pay to clean it up again.

Jaimee Al-Kinani says, "The minimum we're talking is about $30,000."

n light of the Alkinani's case, Rep. Ray and other lawmakers are now considering new state laws for meth homes. "I'm hoping to see a process set up where every home is safe," Ray said.

On his list:

define the meaning of clean for health departments;

more funding for home cleanup programs;

possibly change real estate disclosure rules, so people who buy meth homes are told.

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Study finds TCE, possible vapor intrusion in West Endicott New York

July 26, 2007 - Groundwater testing wells in the June Street area on the west side of Endicott have detected trichloroethylene, a chemical solvent, above acceptable levels, according to a state official.

Sally W.W. Dewes, an environmental engineer with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said Wednesday night that further testing would be conducted in the area to try to identify the source. The testing area is bounded generally by the Nanticoke Creek to the north and west, Maple Street to the south and Nanticoke Avenue to the east.

Dewes spoke during a Stakeholders Coalition meeting at First United Methodist Church in Endicott.

She said the DEC also will test homes at the June Street site this winter for vapor intrusion, in which subterranean fumes push into basements.

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Waste Site Plan Angers Connecticut Residents

July 25, 2007 - When 27-year-old Meredith Gabris bought her ranch-style house five years ago on Patterson Avenue that abuts the former Raybestos Memorial ballfield, the lifelong Stratford resident wasn't too concerned about living so close to one of New England's most massive toxic Superfund sites.

While she made concessions, such as not planting tomatoes and other vegetables in her backyard because, "I didn't want to end up with these gigantic, toxic vegetables that could give me cancer in 10 years," Gabris said she figured with the ballfield capped there wasn't much else to worry about.

Now, she's worried.

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Homebuyers research environmental hazards prior to buying

July 25, 2007 - Hire an environmental research group to do an appraisal of the neighborhood. Each state has different laws governing what sort of potential health hazards have to be disclosed and how far away those hazards have to be from the house to be considered serious. Outside health and environmental factors should be considered as important to price negotiations as interior tests for lead or structural damage.

"Environmental research in commercial real estate is common practice, but for some reason people don't always do it with their homes," says Robert Barber, CEO of Environmental Data Resources. "Most of the time there's no problem, but it's worth it for the peace of mind."

An environmental data firm, like Barber's, can tell you every potential concern within a six-acre circle of your lot, whether that involves a leaking gas tank, the location of a former drug lab, any possible water pollutants or logged Center for Disease Control concerns. A standard report costs between $100 and $150.

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Washington State Replacing Contaminated Soil at Schools

July 25, 2007 - Don’t let children dig in the dirt.

That’s been the public health mantra for years in areas where windblown arsenic and lead from the former Asarco copper smelter has contaminated soil.

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Contamination at Illinois Beach State Park

July 25, 2007 - Nearly a decade ago, the Chicago Sun-Times first exposed asbestos pollution at the park near Zion. Now, according to a letter from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official, "significantly elevated" levels of the most toxic form of the known carcinogen have been found there.

The far north suburban beach remains safe, federal and state authorities said in interviews. But an April 24, 2007, letter from an EPA official to a federal health official in Chicago raises concerns. In the letter, Brad Bradley, a U.S. EPA project manager, cites "concerns regarding the safety of human use of the beaches."

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Early test says thorium still poisoning Chicago suburb

July 21, 2007 - If correct, the findings will be the first evidence to validate new suspicions that the cancer-causing radioactive element thorium could remain on some residential properties in West Chicago.

By Friday afternoon, Riess said she was considering moving out of her house.

“I am terrified,” she said. “I can’t even breathe right now.”

Well-chewed dog toys rested on the floor a few feet away from the sewer lid. They had belonged to Riess’ two Saint Bernards, Oscar and Siren, ages 10 and 11, who played often in the basement until recently, when they died of bone cancer within a week of each another.

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11 years later the fight for answers on childhood cancers in Toms River New Jersey goes on

July 22, 2007 - TOMS RIVER — In the beginning, more than 1,000 people poured into the Toms River High School North Auditorium in search of answers.

Eleven years later, only a fraction of them continue to ask publicly for the cause of the high number of childhood cancer cases in Toms River.

Those left vow not to give up until it is found and remedied.

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Massachusetts bill seeks environmental disclosures in home sales

July 20, 2007 - DANVERS - Tim and Stacy Creamer moved into their Burley Street home on Oct. 28, 2005. A day later, fumes from an oil spill from years earlier forced them out. Two weeks ago, the house was demolished and crews began removing the contaminated soil.

Tim Creamer hired a real estate agent - a so-called buyer's broker - and a home inspector to look out for him. Yet he didn't find out about the oil leak until after he'd bought the house and the sellers had moved to California, he said.

"It's pretty obvious there were undisclosed problems," Creamer said.

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Grand Island Nebraska Grapples with Superfund Plume

July 20, 2007 - Members of the public were most concerned with vapors from contaminated soil and groundwater leaking into their homes via basement flooding.

Curtis said the contaminants found in air or water in homes haven't been at high levels. He said this is probably because the chemicals are heavier than water and have sunk to the bottom of the water table, no less than 40 feet below the surface.

Curtis suggested that people worried about vapor intrusion can install barriers and fan systems in homes.

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Sayerville New Jersey is one of Money Magazine's best places to live (despite all the contamination)

July 19, 2007 - The publicity comes at a time when Sayreville is contending with several major issues, ranging from the proposed redevelopment of a 400-acre brownfields site once home to National Lead, to a dispute over whether a cancer cluster exists in town.

"We are surrounded by landfills … the Edgeboro Landfill, the Edison Landfill. There are a couple of Superfund sites still left in town," Streck said. "I'm not saying that Sayreville doesn't deserve the ranking, but I was surprised in light of the other circumstances. Sayreville, for a time, had all of the industry."

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After more than 10 years Connecticut residents finally hear cleanup options for nearby Superfund site

July 18, 2007 - More than a decade after one of New England's most massive Superfund sites was discovered at the former Raybestos factory, residents will finally get the chance to learn about potential options for remediating much of the remaining toxic waste scattered across 26 commercial properties.

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South Carolina: Neighborhood wells contaminated by nearby plant

July 17, 2007 - From 1966 to 1982, industries in the area near Williston discharged pollution through a wastewater system originally used by a trailer park. At least six home wells near the site were later found to contain metals contamination.

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Florida Family Sickened for Years by Underground Toxic Contamination

July 17, 2007 - The 72-year-old production-line worker who recently lost her job is about to lose her home, which is right next to the former Loral American Beryllium Co. plant, source of a 200-acre plume of underground toxic contamination.

Last week, Alston learned state health officials have finally confirmed a link between her polluted well, which is just 5 feet from the beryllium company's fence, and an increased risk for cancer.

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Federal government trying to move 55 families from a Pensacola neighborhood contaminated with toxic pollutants

July 17, 2007 - A year after federal efforts began to move 55 families from a Pensacola neighborhood contaminated with toxic pollutants, only six families have accepted offers to sell their homes.

Negotiations are nearing an end to close on four additional properties in Clarinda Triangle, a neighborhood of five blocks sandwiched between Palafox Street and Pace Boulevard, and Clarinda Lane and Loretta Street.

"We grew up here," said resident Tiffany Nickson, 26. "Everybody knows everybody, and most everyone is related. We don't want to leave."

Some 200 residents live in the community across from the Escambia Treating Co. Superfund site.

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Conservative Pennsylvanians Pass ‘Radical' Laws to Protect Themselves from Environmental Contamination

July 16, 2007 - Nearly 220 years after America's Constitution was drafted in Pennsylvania, scores of rural Keystone State communities are declaring the document null and void.

More than 100 largely Republican municipalities have passed laws to abolish the constitutional rights of corporations, inventing what some critics are calling a "radical" new kind of environmental activism. Led by the nonprofit Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, they are attempting to jumpstart a national movement, with Celdf chapters in at least 23 states actively promoting an agenda of "disobedient lawmaking."

"The state and federal environmental protection agencies … support the big corporations, and they really don't look after the safety of the people that I represent," Mr. Morrison told the Sun. Representatives at Lehigh Coal and Navigation did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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Massachusetts bill to require disclosure of environmental hazards to homebuyers

July 15, 2007 - Pamela Wooten says nobody told her when she bought a Charlton home in 2004 that it sat on a former junkyard needing some $150,000 of decontamination work.
“(The seller) didn’t say anything about the property’s condition and we didn’t think to ask,” said Wooten, who plans to testify this week in support of a state bill requiring sellers to disclose environmental hazards.
State Sen. Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy) and state Rep. Theodore Speliotis (D-Danvers) are sponsoring a measure to mandate disclosure of known environmental problems within a half-mile of homes. Sellers would have to either check government environmental databases themselves or hire private firms that specialize in such searches.

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EPA Examins Montana Homes for Groundwater Contamination

July 12, 2007 - The Environmental Protection Agency is returning to Billings this week to look at the source of a decades-old groundwater contamination plume and decide how best to mitigate its effects.

The agency is also planning on testing beneath about 20 more homes southwest of downtown as part of an ongoing investigation into the polluted groundwater.

The plume is more than seven blocks long and several blocks wide starting from around Central Avenue and Seventh Street West and moving northeast to Division Street.

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Alabama Residents Learn of Lead Contamination in the Heart of Their Neighborhood

July 12, 2007 - Residents in the predominately black First Avenue Park community of Lincoln just recently discovered high levels of lead were found at and around the abandoned Lincoln Metals Corporation/Heartland Faucet site at 248 Foundry Lane, in the heart of their neighborhood.

Residents were unaware hazardous waste was 200 feet from their front doors and next door to the neighborhood park until EPA officials asked property owners if they could take soil samples from their front and back yards to determine if there was lead contamination on their property.

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A Washington Family Finds a Hazardous Waste Site in the Backyard of Their New Home

July 9, 2007 - n the middle of the flooding and the mold, years of personal and industrial waste began percolating up from the middle of the Nealey's backyard.

Julie showed us through the thick brush pointing out trash, oil drums and rusted car bodies from an old auto shop.

"The only way it could get worse is if they dug into the property and found a burial site," she said.

"We did all the things you're suppose to do, we had home inspections, our mortgage company did flood determinations, we had a title company look at stuff, no one found anything," Julie said.

The Nealeys sued their home inspector, only to find out their contract allowed them to sue only for what they paid their inspector -- less than $200. The Nealeys also sued the former owners and their real estate company, Wilson Realty.

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Arsenic-tainted residential wells in Florida

July 8, 2007 - PRING LAKE - Nobody disputes certain facts about arsenic, said Renee Holcomb, who lives on Batten Road in Spring Lake.

It is a toxic metal that can occur naturally in the soil. Farmers once sprayed it in orange groves to kill fungi and nematodes. Ranchers throughout Florida regularly filled 3, 400 "dipping vats" with arsenic solution to kill ticks on cattle.

"Arsenic is everywhere," Holcomb said.

Though the state Department of Environmental Protection does not agree with this last statement, a recent round of testing has found 12 contaminated wells, many of them near the intersection of Batten and Powell roads.

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New Jersey Residents Skeptical About Cancer Cluster Report Findings

July 6, 2007 - A state health official told Sayreville residents Monday that there is no reason to believe a cancer cluster exists in the community.

Still, many remained skeptical of the report issued by the state Department of Health and Senior Services, and said it was issued too quickly and without consideration of a variety of factors.

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As EPA and health officials check for toxic soil vapor intrusion, many Long Island residents are worried about the health risks

July 5, 2007 - When the Khanzadas bought their Franklin Square house in 2001, the family didn't realize it was next door to a Superfund site.

But a few years later, investigators with the federal Environmental Protection Agency came knocking. They were concerned that toxic vapors from the shuttered Genzale Plating Company next door were seeping into the basement of the two-story home on New Hyde Park Road.

In a series of events likely to become more common on Long Island, tests showed that air inside the Khanzadas' house and two others nearby had elevated levels of trichloroethylene -- a common industrial degreaser used by machine shops and dry cleaners that is also a potential carcinogen. The EPA put a carbon air filter in the basement and installed a vacuum system at the hazardous waste site to suck contaminated vapor from the soil. Six months later, they took the filter out and told the family everything was fine -- an assurance the Khanzadas are taking on faith.

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Lingering endeavor to rid several Texas neighborhoods of poisonous metals continues

July 1, 2007 - Several more homes in the Kern Place neighborhood found to be contaminated with lead and arsenic are undergoing an Asarco-led soil remediation -- the latest step in a lingering endeavor to rid several neighborhoods of poisonous metals.

In addition, soil from nearly two dozen homes in Sunland Park will be removed and replaced because of elevated levels of arsenic and lead, according to the Associated Press.

Environmental Protection Agency scientists and other experts believe Asarco contaminated homes near the plant with toxic metals throughout the company's 100-plus years of copper smelting in El Paso. Asarco officials have said they're not so sure.

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Contamination concerns go on and on in Rochester, NY

July 1, 2007 - When workers began clearing the earth for a 2005 Mendon subdivision expansion, the grader's huge blade encountered more than soil.

"All of a sudden it was scraping a big wide blue, red and purple smear," said Lt. Michael Van Durme of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

DEC investigators found more than 100 drums of paint and industrial solvents buried in a former gravel pit next to the Rolling Plains development.

The hazardous waste had been hidden there about 35 years earlier, an example of "midnight dumping" — surreptitious disposal of toxic substances in illicit dumps in rural areas around Rochester. Many of those sites await final government-directed cleanup decades after discovery, raising health concerns among residents and experts.

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