Potentially Tainted Well-Water Raises Concerns in Sterling Virginia

September 19, 2007 - otentially tainted well-water has raised concern in Sterling after a neighborhood was placed on a superfund list to clean up a hazardous waste site.

And Jackie Walker is not taking any chances. She has a filter on her well water to keep out a cancer causing chemical, tricholorethylene, or TCE, that comes from a nearby landfill.

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Massachusetts homeowners near underground chemical plume get vapor systems

September 15, 2007 -

When friends visit Michelle Morrell's back yard, they inevitably ask about the vertical white pipe that runs along the rear wall of her house, from her basement to the roof.

Then Morrell has to repeat the story: her home may or may not sit above groundwater contaminated by the old Nyanza dye company up the road.

As a precaution, federal officials installed equipment in her basement to divert potentially harmful chemical vapors from her house.

"People start going, 'Where do you live?"' Morrell said.

The Pleasant Street home she owns with her husband, Edward, is one of 41 Ashland buildings where contractors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent the summer installing vapor mitigation systems.

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Is Underground Chemical Plume Causing High Cancer Rates in Bexar County Texas?

September 18, 2007 - Vilma Moran seemed an unlikely candidate for cirrhosis of the liver, which her doctor said explained her swollen abdomen and yellowing eyes. In her 60 years of life, she had consumed probably 10 alcoholic beverages. She didn't smoke, didn't have hepatitis.

She was diabetic, which is a risk factor. But when it was found later that she had liver cancer, the surgeon asked if she'd ever worked in a chemical plant. The type of cancer she had suggested a chemical exposure, he said. No, she told him, she worked with special education children at Lowell Middle School.

Then she and her husband recalled a letter they had received four years earlier, inviting them to a neighborhood meeting to discuss a plume of contaminated groundwater linked to the shuttered Kelly AFB. They had ignored the invitation. She had lived near Kelly almost all her life. Her father had maintained the base golf course.

In February 2006, Moran attended another neighborhood meeting from her wheelchair. She listened as Tim Aldrich of East Tennessee State University, an expert in cancer clusters, announced he had been hired to look into reports of elevated liver cancer in neighborhoods surrounding Kelly.

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Illinois Couple Leave Home Contaminated with Radioactive Thorium

September 15, 2007 - More than three weeks after learning their home was an environmental hazard, Sandy and Rich Riess are getting out.

On Aug. 22, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials informed the company that tests showed the Riess home was contaminated with Kerr-McGee thorium, causing more than 300 times the safe level of radiation.

Until Friday, Tronox lawyers hadn't responded to requests from Mark Sargis, the Riesses' attorney, to move the couple out.

Tronox representatives had said only that they needed to examine the home and create a cleanup plan -- a process that could take six weeks, Sargis said.

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Health Department Examines Possible Cancer Cluster in Sayreville New Jersey

September 13, 2007 - The state health department is expected to present an expanded study next month in response to concerns that a cancer cluster exists in the borough.

State Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D- 19) made the announcement during a meeting on environmental concerns last week at borough hall. Experts from various state and federal agencies discussed the borough's three Superfund sites and other issues broached since the cancer cluster concerns came to the attention of local officials in May.

Wisniewski said the state Department of Health and Senior Services would increase the amount of data being used to make its conclusion, going back to statistics from 1978 that was not used in their original survey.

An earlier analysis by the state looked at cancer statistics in Sayreville from 1990- 2004, and concluded that there was no evidence of a cancer cluster. The expanded probe comes in response to criticism from residents who said that the report was rushed and did not take enough data into consideration.

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Brooklyn Oil Spill Much Larger Than Originally Thought

September 13, 2007 - A new study of the nation's largest oil spill - at Newtown Creek on the Brooklyn-Queens border - found it's much larger that originally anticipated, is being cleaned up too slowly and raises serious questions about area residents' health risks.

The ExxonMobil spill, which happened in 1950 along the 31/2-mile creek, may be as large as 30 million gallons of oil instead of earlier estimates of 17 million, according to a report released yesterday by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

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NY State Dept. of Health Requests More TCE Testing at Elementary School

September 13, 2007 -

The state should conduct additional testing for TCE and other toxic chemicals at South Hill Elementary School, according to a letter signed by a coalition of parents, citizens and elected officials.

The letter is being sent today to the New York State Department of Health. It demands additional indoor air testing in classrooms as soon as the heating season begins because trapped air holds in more toxins.

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Brooklyn Oil Spill May Be 30 Million Gallons

September 13, 2007 - The EPA, which spent a year looking at the environmental horror of the Exxon-Mobil oil spill in Greenpoint, has concluded that original estimate of 17 million gallons spilled underground "may have been low." How low? How does 30 million gallons sound?

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Letter signed by parents, citizens in Ithaca New York and officials asks state for more TCE tests at elementary school

September 13, 2007 - The state should conduct additional testing for TCE and other toxic chemicals at South Hill Elementary School, according to a letter signed by a coalition of parents, citizens and elected officials.

The letter is being sent today to the New York State Department of Health. It demands additional indoor air testing in classrooms as soon as the heating season begins because trapped air holds in more toxins.

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Expanded probe of TCE contamination might provide clues to cancer cluster in Endwell New York

September 13, 2007 - The lead story in this paper Sunday was about the state expanding its probe of TCE contamination throughout Endwell.

Amen! It's about time.

TCE, or trichloroethylene, is a solvent for cleaning metal parts. It has been used commonly in manufacturing throughout the Southern Tier as well as the rest of the nation.

According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, "drinking or breathing high levels of trichloroethylene may cause nervous system effects, liver and lung damage, abnormal heartbeat, coma and possibly death." A planned health study of IBM Endicott workers will aim to see if there is a connection between their exposure to TCE and disproportionately high rates of testicular and kidney cancer, as well as heart defects.

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Pennsylvania residents have health concerns after arsenic and lead contamination revealed under their homes

September 12, 2007 - Sabrina Reichart had happily purchased one of the new townhouses in Port Richmond Gate, at 3566 Edgemont St. for around $150,000. The development runs along E. Venango St. and sits between ahompson and Edgemont St.

Corroded pipes, faulty air conditioners, flooding, and loose siding are only a few of the problems residents have faced since the town homes were built in 2003. The homeowners were promised comfortable, affordable housing but soon discovered hidden problems.

But what mostly concerns homeowners and residents in Port Richmond Gate is something far more serious: their health.

“This is our main concern,” says Cathy Lewandowski of 3548 Edgemont Street. “We want to know what we are living on. [We want to know] if it’s going to affect our health.

“I don’t want to find out I have cancer in two years,” Lewandowski concludes—and she does this on the basis of tests.

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Michigan township decides to limit the amount of water it will give residents who's wells are contaminted by local landfill

September 11, 2007 - After listening to nearly three-and-half-hours of passionate comments, the Cedar Creek Township Board passed an ordinance that could limit how much water residents that are affected by contamination will get for free.

The board unanimously passed the ordinance that would start charging residents a fee after using 95 gallons of water per day per person living in the household. The ordinance allows Wexford County to move forward with remediation plans with the state. But the move came under the threat of a lawsuit.

Jeffery Jocks, an attorney with Olson, Bzdok and Howard of Traverse City, said he would need to weigh the options before filing an unconstitutional taking of property lawsuit against the township. Jocks, who represents residents suing the county because of contamination of groundwater from the county landfill, said his firm sent a notice to the township board that it may sue if the board passed the ordinance at its meeting.

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Residents of Pacific Grove California hope 21 year old oil contamination will be cleaned this fall

September 12, 2007 - An oil pollution spill in Pacific Grove discovered 21 years ago may finally be cleaned up this fall.

Oil seeping from the old Grove Laundry building was first discovered in 1986 by Edward and Margaret McCoy, whose property at 164 12th St. is adjacent and downhill from the old site.

The old laundry building once housed boilers fired by bunker oil that was stored in underground sumps on the property at Lighthouse Avenue and 12th Street. The leak was discovered after part of the building was torn down.

The McCoys bought their 111-year-old house in 1947 and had been renting it out at the time the oil seep was discovered, said their daughter, Cecelia "C.C." McCoy, who inherited the property after their deaths and now lives in the house.

"It's been my Love Canal," she said, referring to the environmental contamination of a housing project and school built over a chemical waste dump near Niagara, N.Y., that was discovered in 1978 when residents became ill.

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California officials cite contamination health hazard in Berkeley

September 11, 2007 - Hazardous metals and chemicals at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station pose potential threats to the health of children who play in its marshland and workers who dig in its soil, state scientists have concluded.

Their findings are contained in a 99-page report by the California Department of Public Health conducted at the request of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).

According to the report, public health hazards do exist for children and teenagers who play regularly in West Stege Marsh, where toxic metals and the organic compound PCB are present in groundwater and soil sediments. Because of the risks, marsh access should remain restricted.

Maintenance workers who regularly dig in contaminated soils also face a variety of risks and should wear respiratory protection equipment during their work.

The report also identified two areas where health hazards were described as indeterminate, pending further investigation.

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Residents of Pennsylvania Neighborhood Concerned about Contamination from Nearby Factory

September 11, 2007 - The state will hold a public meeting with town residents this month to answer questions about a cleanup at the former Bergen Tool factory.

Mayor Michael Lavery said at Monday's council meeting the Department of Environmental Protection planned to meet with town officials on the issue but he suggested opening it up to residents.

"There's certainly a lot of concern in the neighborhood," he said. "I think the best way to handle it is for the residents to hear it from the DEP themselves."

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Missouri community learns what was left behind by former nuclear fuel plant

September 6, 2007 - At a community meeting Thursday night at the First Christian Church in Hematite, Westinghouse and the government laid out exactly what was found.

The new study found radioactive materials, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals were left behind, buried in the soil and lingering in the water in Hematite.

"Part of the ground water is contaminated and it's leached into the wells so people couldn't use them any more," resident James Downs said.

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More Nevada drinking water wells found to be contaminated

September 4, 2007 - Three more private drinking-water wells in the Tahoe Meadows subdivision were found to contain tetrachloroethylene (PCE) on Monday.

Five parts per billion is the drinking water standard for PCE, a chemical component found in dry-cleaning products and a potential health hazard. One of the three wells contained 8.6 parts per billion PCE.

Another one of the three wells with water containing PCE was also found to have freon levels falling within the range considered safe to drink, according to Chuck Curtis, supervising engineer with the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board. The colorless, nonflammable liquid is used as a coolant in commercial and industrial air conditioners.

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Nevada neighborhood to be tested for vapor intrusion

September 3, 2007 - People who live just east of the Boulevard Mall are learning that an underground chemical leak might have contaminated the air inside their homes.

First and foremost, state environmental officials want to emphasize that there is no immediate health threat to anyone who works or lives near the Boulevard Mall and that the actions they are taking now are strictly precautionary.

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection says the owner of a former dry cleaning company once located in the Maryland Square shopping center notified officials that there had been a chemical leak on site about two years ago.

The chemical, known as perchloroethylene, or PCE, or PERC, is a degreasing chemical used in the dry cleaning process and many common household cleaning products.

The state says immediate testing back then revealed the chemical had made its way into the shallow groundwater below the Boulevard Mall, and a neighborhood just east of the mall where nearly 150 homeowners currently live.

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More New York homes to be tested for TCE

September 2, 2007 - Six more homes north of a polluted site on Vestal Parkway are scheduled to be fitted with special ventilation systems in coming weeks after tests found chemical vapors pose a health hazard.

Additionally, 21 more homes in the suburban neighborhood-- between a popular pedestrian rail trail and the Susquehanna River -- will be tested for the problem in the upcoming heating season, according to information from the Department of Environmental Conservation. Homes are typically tested when windows are shut and furnaces are running, which presents a worse case scenario for chemicals to enter through foundations.

The land, near King and Birch streets, is tainted by a subterranean plume of trichloroethylene (TCE) flowing under the Parkway and the rail trail from the former Hidden Valley Electronics site -- now occupied by American Family Fitness -- about a quarter mile to the south east.

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