Frustration and fear persist over arsenic contamination in some Minneapolis neighborhoods

October 30, 2007 - Residents of four Minneapolis neighborhoods learn more about their exposure to arsenic contamination Tuesday night when the EPA releases the results of a health risk assessment. The contamination was discovered 13 years ago, but the cleanup only began in 2004. Residents are frustrated about the long process, and worried about the threat to their health.

On an early fall day, workers with shovels are digging soil from the front yard of a house in the Corcoran neighborhood in Minneapolis, while others are on small tractors.

They're with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and they are removing a foot of soil contaminated with arsenic. It's what these workers have been doing almost every day since the summer.

More . . .

Plan to relocate entire town of Tallevast Florida due to underground plume of toxic waste

October 28, 2007 - TALLEVAST --Rep. Bill Galvano has sent Lockheed Martin Corp. a detailed plan to relocate the entire town of Tallevast, which now sits atop an underground plume of toxic waste that covers the village and more than 200 acres.

"We need to move these people away from the contamination," Galvano said. "The more that is known about the contamination and what is required in addressing the cleanup, the easier it is to see the big picture."

For Robin Darville, who suffered another migraine Friday as crews dug more monitoring wells in front of Mount Tabor church, relocation is past due.

"Why is it taking so long?" Darville asked as she tried to control the seizures that were causing her arms to shake.

More . . .

Health commissioner to study cancer deaths in the neighborhood around South Baltimore's Swann Park

October 27, 2007 - Baltimore's health commissioner plans to study cancer deaths in the neighborhood around South Baltimore's Swann Park in light of a new federal finding that arsenic in the soil poses a greater health risk than previously reported.

The U.S. Department of Health said in June that there was "no public health hazard" to children who have played in Swann Park, unless they ate a tablespoon or more of dirt. But the federal agency revised that assessment yesterday, saying that "recent and historic exposure to Swann Park soil is considered a public health hazard."

"This means that there is a low but potentially real increase in cancer risk for people who have a significant exposure over years to the park," said the city's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein. "It justifies why we closed the park and why we need to clean it up."

More . . .

Washington homeowners balk at arsenic soil replacement

October 25, 2007 - About 100 property owners in Ruston and Tacoma's north end are refusing to let Asarco LLC remove arsenic- and lead-contaminated soil from their yards, preventing the completion of a Superfund cleanup project begun 14 years ago, the Environmental Protection Agency said.

"Obviously, it is unfortunate that we have a large number of people who are refusing sampling or refusing cleanup," said Kevin Rochlin, an Environmental Protection Agency project manager. "I cannot guarantee in the future peoples' yards will be cleaned up."

EPA officials have tried to persuade property owners for several years to participate in the cleanup program. It's unclear why they won't, Rochlin said.

More . . .

Gas company fights lawsuits over pollution in Rhode Island

October 25, 2007 - New England Gas Co. is pointing fingers at many others for the contamination of the Bay Street neighborhood in Tiverton. In a lawsuit, the company claims it is not responsible for the contamination of some 50 acres of residential property, and if forced to pay damages, it should be reimbursed by other parties, including the town.

The company has at least four lawsuits pending against it in federal court filed by residents of the Bay Street area, who maintain that waste from the Fall River Gas Co.'s coal gasification plant was dumped in their neighborhood decades ago and has caused them physical, emotional and financial harm.

The waste found in the soil in the Bay Street area contains arsenic, cyanide, lead and petroleum-based pollutants at levels that exceed safe standards. The cost to clean up the area has been estimated between $30 million and $55 million

More . . .

Suit Filed Over Oil Leaks in Farmington, CT

October 25, 2007 - A couple on Paper Chase Drive who contend that leaking oil from two buried fuel tanks is fouling their property is suing the town, an oil company, an excavating firm and a heating company.

The lawsuit was filed last month in Superior Court in Hartford on behalf of James and Sharon Geanuracous. Their lawyer, Jeffrey Martin of Hartford, declined to comment Wednesday.

According to the suit, the contamination is caused by the improper closing and abandonment in 1991 of a community oil distribution system for the Walnut Farms neighborhood. It alleges the system is on town property and that town employees did not properly supervise the decommissioning of the system, which included two 10,000-gallon tanks.

More . . .

Health Officials Study Pennsylvania Dump Site

October 22, 2007 - More than 30 years ago, an abandoned mine in Pennsylvania coal country was turned into a dump for toxic waste. Lots of it.

When government officials finally shut down the site in 1979, they found nearly 7,000 storage drums, and dead birds and animals. Many of the drums were badly corroded and leaking dangerous chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency called it the state’s worst environmental hazard, placed it on the Superfund list and began a cleanup.

Years later, officials say the site does not pose a health hazard. But residents who live nearby are skeptical. They say they seem to be getting cancer and other serious diseases in startling numbers. By one unofficial estimate, 70 of 100 homes within a half-mile of the site have been touched.

More . . .

North Carolina neighborhood homeowners voice concerns over contamination at nearby site

October 23, 2007 - Residents living near the former CTS of Asheville plant are increasing their efforts to get the contaminated site on Mills Gap Road cleaned up.

Homeowners plan to appear on a community access television show tonight to voice concerns over contamination at the site, and they plan to meet with a lawyer Wednesday night to assess their legal options. They also are forming a nonprofit organization to help residents affected by the pollution.

“I’m just one of 80 or so people who have banded together to do whatever we can to make some noise about this,” resident Glen Horecky said. “I have two young children that play in my backyard, two dogs that play in my backyard and my wife is scared to death … It was one lie after another for the last 15 years and I bought into this mess.”

More . . .

Firestone says Wellington Indiana lawns contaminated by PCBs

October 22, 2007 - Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire is working with about 35 Wellington Northeast homeowners whose yards could have become contaminated more than 30 years ago.

According to spokeswoman Tina Gaines, an oil containing PCBs was used at the Noblesville plant from 1966 to 1972 to circulate around molds to cure rubber parts.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA), PCBs are known to cause cancer in animals, are persistent in the environment and are known to bioaccumulate up the food chain.

More . . .

Brown-outs latest in long line of problems for landfill's neighbors in Michigan

October 18, 2007 - First it was noisy garbage trucks at all hours of the day and night.

Then it was the news that contaminants were leaking from old underground storage cells.

Now Richfield Landfill's neighbors say they have to worry about their household appliances, too.

More . . .

EPA wants prompt PCE cleanup in Billings Montana

October 19, 2007 - Cleaning up the source of contaminated groundwater beneath a Billings neighborhood could cost about $7 million and could take three to five years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency proposes quick action, saying that if unabated the PCE, a solvent used in dry cleaning and other industrial operations, could continue to contaminate the groundwater for decades or even centuries.

"Delayed action will increase public health risks," the EPA said.

Though the chemical is in the groundwater, the biggest concern for the EPA is that it has vaporized in some places and seeped up through the soil and into homes where it could be inhaled by people.

More . . .

Illinois residents urged to test well water

October 20, 2007 - The switch to bottled water can be a pain, Rosemarie Schilf said. But after trace levels of chemicals were found in her well water, she’d rather play it safe than sorry.

Schilf’s well, like many in the Boone County subdivision near Beaver Valley and Squaw Prairie roads, tested positive several years ago for low levels of volatile organic chemicals. For most, like the Schilfs, the water is not believed to be a health threat.

Though the first contamination was discovered back in 1999, Schilf doesn’t feel comfortable drinking from the faucet yet.

More . . .

Santa Clara County Leads California In Contamination From Old Orchards

October 19, 2007 - Santa Clara County's most neglected environmental problem sits right under our feet.

While officials have spent decades cleaning up toxins from the technology industry, no state or county agency has tried to gauge the scope of an older hazard - agricultural pesticides left by the farms and orchards that once covered Silicon Valley.

Santa Clara County has more toxic cleanup sites involving old orchard pesticides than any county in California, as well as a significant number of other sites contaminated by other types of farming or pesticide handling, according to a Mercury News analysis of state records.

More . . .

Toxic Buffalo, NY Neighborhood Gets $7.2M

October 18, 2007 - Residents of a neighborhood built on contaminated soil would share $7.2 million under a settlement approved by a state Supreme Court judge Wednesday.

About 220 current and former residents and their family members have personal injury and property damage claims against the city, which developed the Hickory Woods subdivision in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a model of brownfields renewal.

If approved by the city's financial control board, the settlement would pay an average of $32,000 per claim.

More . . .

Senate holds hearing on Superfund cleanup crisis

October 17, 2007 - As Sen. Barbara Boxer noted in her opening remarks, one in four U.S. residents lives within four miles of a Superfund site, including 10 million children. Yet cleanup efforts have slowed to a virtual crawl. Indeed, a year-long investigation conducted by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity released earlier this year found that:

* Cleanup work was started at about 145 sites in the past six years under President Bush, while the startup rate was nearly three times higher during the last six years of Bill Clinton's presidency;

* The number of sites declared "construction complete" in the six Clinton years averaged 79, while that average dropped to 42 a year under the Bush administration; and

* The EPA's 2007 target for construction completions was 40 sites, but it has been scaled back to 24. The 2008 target is 30 sites, according to the EPA's 2008 budget request.

More . . .

Residents of toxic neighborhood in Rhode Island wait and wait

October 16, 2007 - Gail Corvello figured that if she and her neighbors held out for about five years, they would be able to get out from under the nightmare of the soil contamination in the Bay Street neighborhood that has had a stranglehold on their lives since 2002.

She was wrong.

More . . .

Federal Study to Determine if Contaminated Superfund Sites are the Cause of Disease Cluster in Massachusetts

October 14, 2007 - FOR MORE than 20 years, health officials have known about a puzzling concentration of the neurodegenerative illness known as Lou Gehrig's disease in the southeastern Massachusetts town of Middleborough. In the coming months, a study financed by the federal government and conducted by state environmental health scientists might answer the riddle of whether toxic waste from two Superfund sites in the town has caused the rare and usually fatal disease, which normally strikes just two of 100,000 people.

The state is also working to create a registry to keep track of the disease. In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Environmental Health Tracking Program, such registries can build up the databases that researchers need to track diseases with suspected environmental causes. Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Republican Orrin Hatch of Utah have called for a $100 million increase in the CDC program's budget to help the tracking program establish itself nationwide. Congress should approve the funding.

More . . .

After 20 years North Carolina Residents Want Contaminated Site to be Cleaned Up

October 14, 2007 - Federal and state efforts to clean up the contaminated CTS site can so far best be characterized as too little, too late. More than 17 years after tests revealed an industrial solvent linked to health risks, efforts to clean up the contaminated soil and water have barely begun.

Neighbors, some of whom were drinking from contaminated springs and a contaminated well until 1999, are justifiably frustrated and angry.

Though neighbors have since been placed on the city water system, the possible movement of contaminated groundwater away from the site and the prospect of unhealthy indoor air in homes above contaminated groundwater may still pose a threat.

More . . .

Residential Benzene Exposure

For years, people who were exposed to benzene in factories and other industrial areas became sick and could trace their illnesses to the exposure. Historically, benzene has been viewed as something you could become exposed to outside of the home -- often at work.

Household exposure has generally not been considered to be a common source of benzene contact. However, the truth is that under certain circumstances benzene can make you ill at home. Here is how this can happen.

Gasoline contains benzene. Too often, underground tanks from gasoline stations leak. When this happens, people who live near gasoline stations may become exposed to benzene.

More . . .

Residents struggle with contamination issues for longer than they can remember in Grand Island Nebraska

October 12, 2007 - A delivery man drops off bottled water to a contaminated neighborhood, while a plumber works on a house next door. A newly installed city water main brings clean water to an area that's been plagued by pollution.

Grand Island Utilities Director Gary Mader said, "There's random sampling of residential private wells in the area, many of which were affected by contamination."

It's been a problem longer than Mader can keep track.

"I can never remember the years either," he said.

More . . .

Search for TCE contamination broadens in Union, NY

October 11, 2007 - A subterranean plume of TCE was found pushing through foundations and contaminating indoor air in hundreds of buildings south of the former IBM plant in the heart of the village in 2003. Since then, technicians working for the DEC have found pollution affecting more than 22 properties outside of the IBM area. They have widened their search to include any area that might be tainted by TCE, an industrial solvent once used liberally in applications ranging from electronics manufacturing to dry cleaning.

Many cleaners and manufacturers have phased out TCE as evidence documenting the chemical as a public health hazard grows. But it is still found in many manufacturing processes and products, including paints and glues.

More . . .

Gilford New Hampshire residents want all coal tar contamination removed from their neighborhood

October 10, 2007 - A coal tar dumpsite off Liberty Hill Road should be entirely cleaned up, in the view of area residents and other townspeople and local officials who attended an open forum on the issue.

The comments came in response to representatives of the state Department of Environmental Services who are recommending that most, but not all of the coal tar deposit that has existed in the area for more than 50 years be removed.

While members of DES have rejected the proposal by KeySpan Energy to contain 99.95 percent of the 121,000 tons of coal tar material in the ground of the Gilford neighborhood, citizens found the monetary rationale behind not mandating complete removal of the coal tar less than satisfactory.

More . . .

Residents concerned about cleanup plan in Hamden, CT neighborhood

October 11, 2007 - "It’s a waste of time. It’s the same old thing in a new bottle," he says, comparing the new cleanup plan with the DEP proposal presented in August 2006. "Just the labels have been changed." Hamid’s Augur Street home is one of 226 on the DEP’s cleanup list. Another 22 properties need "further evaluation," says Dennis Schain, DEP spokesman. (The contamination of lead and waste byproducts was discovered in 2000.)

The final plan is similar to the ’06 proposal. The top four feet of contaminated dirt around the houses would be replaced with clean topsoil. According to a 2003 consent order, Olin Corp. (which absorbed the Winchester gun factory that had used the neighborhood as a dumping ground) and the state are financially on the hook for the residential portion, the town of Hamden is responsible for two parks, and the Regional Water Authority for the old middle school on Newhall Street. The total package rings in around $70 million, says Schain, who estimated $60 million would go to the 226-plus homes.

More . . .

Portland third-most contaminated city

October 12, 2007 - Portland is the third-most contaminated city per capita in the United States, according to a new study from Milford, Conn.-based Environmental Data Resources.

More . . .

Is Your Town Toxic?

October 3, 2007 - Environmental hazards can cause health problems and hurt home values. When in doubt, order a neighborhood environmental report before you buy.

Falling home prices may not be the only thing poisoning your neighborhood. Landfills, abandoned manufacturing plants, and leaking underground petroleum tanks sometimes lurk in the backyards of unsuspecting homeowners and home buyers, leading to serious health issues and spoiled real estate markets.

Which areas of the U.S. have the highest concentration of contaminated sites? The list might surprise you. Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Portland, Ore., are three of the biggest offenders when it comes to number of contaminated sites per capita, according to Environmental Data Resources (EDR), a provider of environmental risk information services based in Milford, Conn. But EDR is quick to note that this doesn't automatically mean the cities aren't safe.

More . . .

Exterior Pollution and the Expectant Mother

October 10, 2007 - From the moment a woman learns she is pregnant, life as she knows it changes forever. In many ways the nine months of pregnancy serve as a prelude for a lifetime of sacrifices that the parents will make for their child. One of the most important, and often overlooked, contributors to the health of a baby is the physical environment. This is because fetal development occurs faster than any other stage of life. As the vital organs of the fetus develop, they are indirectly exposed to the mother's living environment.

Contaminants found in an environment that can lead to developmental deficiencies are called teratogens. Pollutants, such as pesticides, smoke, and vehicle emissions are some of the more common teratogens that expectant mothers come into contact with on a regular basis.

When selecting a home, they should avoid locations near agricultural (non-organic) farming, industrial centers such as oil refineries or coal processing centers, landfills, busy highways, transmission lines or microwave towers. When an expectant mother inhales, consumes, or absorbs environmental teratogens they circulate through her bloodstream and affect the developing fetus.

More . . .

Illinois residents wonder if contamination is the cause of cancer and other disease clusters

October 9, 2007 - A few years ago, residents of five small towns in northern and central Illinois started noticing an unusual number of multiple sclerosis cases among their friends and family.

They were healthy, in their teens to middle age, when they were diagnosed. Their immune systems began attacking their own myelin, the protective insulation around the spinal cord. The result was reduced or lost bodily function.

They weren't alone. Concerned residents have called the Will County Health Department about disease clusters as well.

"We hear that kind of stuff all the time," said health department spokesman Vic Reato. However, those claims are difficult to confirm, he said.

In DuPage and Will counties, residents have expressed concerns about MS clusters linked to crematoriums and fertilizers, and cancer clusters tied to chemical contamination of well water. The cancer clusters turned out to be neighborhoods where the disease occurred at normal levels for DuPage County, and they had no correlation to groundwater contamination, according to a 2006 report from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The MS clusters have yet to be investigated.

More . . .

Landfill’s neighbors call for remediation in Tonawanda, NY

October 8, 2007 - The Tonawanda Landfill has a chain-link fence around it, keeping people out.

But for decades, there was no fence. Children played freely on the site, with their parents unaware a top-secret program begun during World War II had left behind potentially lifethreatening contaminants.

Linde Air Products Co. had enriched uranium for use in the atomic bomb under a contract with the Army’s Manhattan Project.

“Everyone played on the landfill,” said Carleton R. Zeisz, Tonawanda City Council president. “Kids rode their dirt bikes, there was even a pit where people swam. We knew there was garbage up there, but it was just garbage — we didn’t think anything of it.”

The idea of radioactive garbage — or soil, or swimming holes — never crossed anyone’s mind then. Today, more than 60 years since those experiments began, it does.

More . . .

Residents fear contamination is the cause of disease cluster in Middleborough, MA

October 7, 2007 - The big news in this struggling southeastern Massachusetts community is a proposed $1 billion casino complex that many hope will bring financial salvation.

But for a small group of residents, the hope for economic revival is overshadowed by health concerns. They are awaiting a report later this year that could reveal whether the dozens of cases of Lou Gehrig’s disease centered around a downtown industrial area were caused by pollution.

The cases, which both state and federal officials call a disease cluster, are located within a mile of Everett Square — a densely settled neighborhood adjacent to the town’s onetime factory row. It is now home to two Superfund sites.

More . . .

Benzene contaminates well water in Clary Wyoming

October 3, 2007 - CLARK, Wyo. - Residents expressed concern during a public meeting Tuesday over news that benzene had been found in the drinking water well of a home adjacent to the site of an August 2006 natural-gas-well blowout.

Mel King, whose water tested positive last week for benzene, said he was happy with the response from Windsor and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.

"Nobody would be pleased to have their well contaminated, so I'm not pleased about that," King said. "But we do think we had a very quick response. We knew all about it almost instantly."

King said he has been advised not to drink, bathe or wash dishes with his water.

More . . .

Nearly one year after heavy metals were discovered in their wells, Maryland residents finally hooked up to temporary public water system

October 1, 2007 - In October 2006, Constellation Energy began testing wells next to a mine owned by BBSS Inc. after Lawrence Brown, a Summerfield Road resident, said his water smelled putrid.

Constellation collected water samples and detected amounts of heavy metals, some carcinogenic. The county Health Department began its own investigation into wells and found that 23 of 83 tested were contaminated. Fly ash, a by-product of burning coal, that had been dumped at the BBSS mine by Constellation Energy, was the source of the contamination, the county said.

Since the first wells in Gambrills were found contaminated with carcinogenic metals from the dump site, residents began living off a supply of bottled water provided by Constellation Energy Group.

More . . .

Site of new Dayton Ohio community center is contaminated

October 6, 2007 - The contamination is caused by trichloroethylene, or TCE, a chemical used as a degreaser that is in the groundwater. TCE fumes have migrated into nearby homes, businesses and schools, creating potentially hazardous vapors.

Max Gates, spokesman for Chrysler, said Friday that Chrysler has installed air-scrubbing systems in homes in the neighborhood that have reduced the level of TCE "well below the level of concern."

Chrysler has identified elevated levels of TCE at the planned community center site and is working with the project's architects, Gates said.

More . . .

TCE Taints 26th Well in Virginia Town

October 4, 2007 - Trichloroethylene (TCE) has been found in another well in Broad Run Farms, two and a half years after authorities tested 68 properties and discovered the carcinogen in 22 wells, officials say.

The well is located on the front lawn of the 20000 block of Redrose Drive. TCE is a chemical used to remove grease from metal parts. Exposure to water with small amounts of TCE over long periods of time can cause liver and kidney damage, impaired immune system, function and impaired fetal development in pregnant women, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said.

More . . .

Old Dump Impacting Current Property Values for Dozens of Home Owners in Escondido, CA

October 1, 2007 - Three dozen frustrated homeowners near the Escondido Country Club spent two hours Monday night wrangling with county and state officials over the cheapest and most efficient way to clean up the remnants of a defunct trash dump that lies within their middle-class subdivision.

State officials offered Monday night to cover the costs of devising a "cap" that would safely seal lead and some other toxins in the 2-acre dump site, but the homeowners said they must thoroughly consider that proposal before committing to anything.

The homeowners, who live in the 39-home Country Club Woods subdivision, said they are worried that the state plan would cost more than they can afford. They also said that before paying for any cleanup, they would like to consider suing the county or city, two agencies that used the dump when it operated between 1949 and 1953.

Since they were notified about three years ago that there was a former dump in their neighborhood, the residents have balked at a 1989 state law requiring current owners of contaminated properties to clean up such sites, even if they had nothing to do with the contamination.

The homeowners, who packed into a small and stuffy meeting room Monday night at the country club, said they knew nothing about the dump when they moved into the subdivision, which was built more than two decades ago. They also said that the contamination problems have made it virtually impossible to sell their homes.

More . . .

DEC to Test More Homes in Hillcrest, NY for TCE

October 1, 2007 - The stakes of an ongoing cleanup in this small suburb are growing as state environmental officials finish installing systems to vent hazardous fumes from under more than 100 polluted properties while planning to test more homes this winter.

Contractors, working through the summer, have installed systems on all but three properties that have tested positive for trichloroethylene (TCE) pollution, Diane Carlton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said.

Work on the final three, and testing on a yet-to-be-determined number of additional buildings, will continue through the fall and winter. To date, the cost of the Superfund project has exceeded $600,000 and is growing daily.

More . . .

Contamination reaches drinking water in Wyoming

September 30, 2007 - A family in Clark is dealing with benzene in their drinking water after an energy company's testing revealed the contaminant at levels seven times the federal maximum threshold levels.

Windsor Energy LLC discovered the benzene and notified the state Department of Environmental Quality. The company has been drilling for natural gas in the area. In August 2006, a well being drilled in the Line Creek drainage blew out, causing soil and groundwater contamination.

The "plume" of contamination apparently reached a water well located on private property adjacent to the blowout site. It was the first report of contamination reaching drinking water in the small Park County community, where the blowout and its aftermath have been a major source of controversy.

More . . .

Confronting contamination in Somerville, MA

September 30, 2007 - Residents of the neighborhood around the contaminated site at 50 Tufts St. want to hire a consultant, both as their advocate and to explain the complex results of soil and water tests there.

A small group of residents of the East Somerville community near the Capuano Early Childhood Center has been meeting to discuss the contamination, which is more extensive than originally believed and apparently seeped from a warehouse where the dry-cleaning chemical tetrachloroethylene was stored for years.

More . . .

Effects of plume cast shadow over property values in Victor, NY

September 30, 2007 - n Victor, where high-end home construction has drawn hundreds of new residents in recent decades, the groundwater contamination's impact on property values remains a concern.

The subject has come up frequently at public meetings of town residents.

And while she has no hard data, town Supervisor Leslie Bamann said sales townwide were affected by publicity about the environmental problem.

More . . .

The TCE Blog offers case study on how neighborhood contamination can affect home values

The TCE Blog found an article that uses a specific case, Lincoln Creosote, to show that a major event in a neighborhood may affect home values. Specifically, the revelation of a soil contamination problem decreases home values, while completing a cleanup of the contamination has the reverse effect.

More . . .

Montana Family deals with tainted well water

September 27, 2007 - A Clark family whose drinking water has been found to have benzene in it has not noticed a difference in the water and plans to stay in the home.

Windsor Energy LLC discovered the benzene - the company's testing revealed the contaminant at levels seven times the federal maximum threshold levels - and notified the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Connie King, whose family lives in the home, said everyone has been responsive to the contamination issue and is doing everything to "make it right."

"I feel really fortunate that these are the people we're dealing with," she said, meaning DEQ and Windsor. The Kings have been using bottled water and intend to stay in the home.

More . . .

Meth Labs in South Carolina: Poisons lurk as state does little to notify public, make toxic sites clean

September 25, 2007 - t was one of Lexington County’s most hazardous home meth labs, complete with a bathtub full of a weird pink liquid.

“It could have blown up — that’s how dangerous it was,” said Sheriff James Metts, as officers in hazmat suits went in and out of the Gaston house in June while neighborhood children stood well back and watched.

Two months later, a neighbor said the empty house still reeked of foul chemicals.

More . . .

California residents want more answers about dangers of nearby superfund site

September 25, 2007 - They wanted answers, but on Monday night the Environmental Protection Agency just wasn't ready to give any.

At the first public hearing in Oxnard since the former Halaco metals recycling plant was included on a list of Superfund hazardous waste sites, people had plenty of questions.

"We expect additional testing to fill the data gaps," said Wayne Praskins, the Superfund site manager. "Only after we get a complete picture of the site will we know what we need to do and how much it will cost."

The purpose of the meeting was to update people about the hazards and contamination at the nearly 40-acre site next to Ormond Beach.

But many of the more than 70 people who attended the meeting had very specific questions. Gary Moss, who works at a paper recycling plant next to the old smelting facility, asked if any testing had been done at local schools. Lupe Anguiano asked if the owners would pay for the cleanup. "I'm interested in corporate responsibility," she said.

More . . .

Contamination from closed mill looms over Indiana neighborhood

September 23, 2007 - Sprawling over acres of land along East Jackson Street between downtown Muncie and eastside neighborhoods, Indiana Steel and Wire sits like an ugly gray roadblock to efforts to improve and beautify the city's east side.

After a century of manufacturing springs, fencing and wire cable, the "wire mill" -- as it was popularly known -- was shuttered in 2002 after years of financial troubles and, ultimately, bankruptcy.

Since then, the only activity at the site has been ongoing clean-up of lead-laced toxic waste.

Eastside residents -- as well as former employees -- wish the facility was operating again.

Or at least cleaned up.

Until that happens, the site will continue to be an eyesore and a hindrance to eastside development, officials say.

"Until the environmental [contamination] is totally cleaned up, there's not a lot you can do with the property," said Terry Murphy of the Muncie-Delaware County Economic Development Alliance.

More . . .

Utah Plume Added to Superfund

September 24, 2007 - he U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added a contaminated groundwater plume in Bountiful and Woods Cross to the National Priorities List, making it the 14th active Superfund site in Utah.

The contaminated groundwater plume in Bountiful, which was first found in the late 1990s, led to the closure of two drinking-water wells in Woods Cross — one that was forced to be shut down and one the city opted to close when levels of PCE, or tetrachloroethylene, continued to rise after it was detected.

PCE, a chemical found in dry-cleaning operations, can cause dizziness, headache, sleepiness, confusion, nausea, difficulty in speaking and walking, unconsciousness and death if concentrations are too high in closed, poorly ventilated areas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More . . .

Arsenic plagues water wells in Florida

September 23, 2007 - Marie Whitney just set up a 5-gallon water dispenser in her Batten Road home. She had to; she just found out that the water she and her family have been drinking for years is laced with arsenic.

The toxic metal in the water is likely a vestige of days gone by when farmers and ranchers would use it indiscriminately to ward off insects. Today, it means the 47-year-old's household of five adults and two children can't drink or cook with what comes out of the tap.

More . . .

Residents want toxic waste out of Stratford, CT

September 22, 2007 - Sara and Ed Nichols are expecting their first child in early November.

But the Plymouth Avenue couple have more than the usual anxiety and anticipation of providing late-night bottles and diaper changes.

They fear their expectant child's health could be seriously endangered over the next few years if a plan being considered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for a major "toxic dump site" at the former Raybestos ballfield not far from their home is approved later this year.

So, along with hundreds of others in town, they're fighting back.

More . . .

Westport, CT Ball Field Closed to Test for Contamination

September 20, 2007 - Westport officials responded to a request by the Westport Weston Health District to close the Town Hall South baseball field in order for soil testing to be done to determine whether or not contaminants were present on the ball field.

More . . .

Contamination Seeping Into San Francisco Residents' Basements

September 19, 2007 - A mysterious, greasy goo of unknown origin is seeping into garages and basements near San Francisco's Balboa Park. Residents suspect a nearby Muni yard may be the source, but so far the city has helped little in attempts to determine what the substance is and where it's coming from.

For a half century, Josephine Paras has lived on the same block of Navajo Avenue in Balboa Park. Recently, she noticed a black gooey substance coming up all over her garage floor.

"I noticed more and more of this stuff coming up; like a greasy substance when you rubbed it," explains Paras. "Since then, we've gotten more and more."

She says most of her neighbors on this stretch of Navajo Avenue with eighteen homes have the same problem and worse, including strange and growing numbers of deep pits in the concrete slabs.

More . . .

Cancer Causing Pollutants Found in Police, Court Buildings in Syracuse, NY

September 18, 2007 -

Pollutants including cancer causing trichloroethylene or TCE migrated from the Emerson Transmission Plant on top of a hill overlooking Ithaca and made their way 1,500 feet, all the way to the city's police station and courthouse.

Scientists found TCE vapors, which had made their way through the soil and into the buildings. Though the levels are considered low, the finding has many Ithacans asking how they got there.

The pollution may go back nearly a century when Emerson Plant was once The Morris Chain Factory. The state identified the pollution 20 years ago, but thought it was already cleaned up.

More . . .

Contamination Discovered at Escondido, CA Preschool

September 18, 2007 - Several dozen preschoolers settled into a new city preschool facility in Washington Park on Monday after tests last week showed the playground soil at their old building was polluted.

City workers discovered the contamination at the Tiny Tots program's Youth Activity Building, at 305 Mission Ave., while they were preparing the ground to add a swing set and other equipment to the building's playground, Escondido Recreation Superintendent Robin Bettin said Monday.

More . . .

After seven years, Jacobsville Indiana to get cleaned up

September 18, 2007 - Cleanup of lead- and arsenic-tainted soil in the Jacobsville neighborhood Superfund site will begin in October, according to an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official. The announcement comes nearly seven years after the contamination was discovered.

EPA officials and Evansville Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel will announce details to the public at 2:30 p.m. today at Central United Methodist Church, said Mick Hans, a spokesman for the EPA region that includes Indiana.

Although it is unknown how many people may have been affected by lead from the contaminated soil, the risk of exposure is high, EPA officials have said. Lead poisoning affects the brain, nervous system and kidneys. High levels can cause behavioral problems, learning disabilities, seizures and possibly death.

While it can affect adults, children 6 years old and younger are most at risk because they are still developing.

More . . .

Contamination Catches New Residents by Surprise in Stratford, CT

This situation in Stratford, CT is yet another example of homebuyers not being told about well-known contamination.

September 21, 2007 - Warner, of Woodlawn Avenue, said his relatives advised him to sell his house, pack up and move out of Stratford as soon as he could.

He rejected that advice. He and his wife chose to buy a house in Stratford because they liked the town, and they still do. But Warner said he definitely is concerned about the potential risk to his children's health and the effect the contamination might have on his property values.

Paul Rohaly, a member of the Raymark Advisory Committee (RAC), said he has spoken with many other residents who moved into town in recent years without knowing about "these troubles."

More . . .