Toxics Action Center "honors" three Connecticut facilities and nine others across New England with a special "Dirty Decade Award"

November 28, 2007 - From the steps of the state Capitol in Hartford, the Massachusetts-based group "honored" three Connecticut facilities and nine others across New England with a special "Dirty Decade Award" and issued a report suggesting how these industries can clean up their acts.

"They are figurative dinosaurs," said Sylvia Broude, a community organizer with Toxics Action. "Their business practices have not changed with the times."

The group cited the Olin Corp., former owner of the Winchester Repeating Arms company, whose toxic wastes wound up in fill under hundreds of homes, a school and public parks in Hamden. The contamination forced the town to move its middle school in 2006.

Also on the list are the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority in Hartford and the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford, owned by Dominion Resources.

The nine other "honorees" include nuclear plants, companies and trash disposal operations in the five other New England states. The group also cited the TruGreen ChemLawn Corp. for "blazing a new toxic path for chemical use" and urged the company to adopt environmentally friendly lawn care practices.

Toxics Action used the latest "awards" to point to solutions for some of the most nagging environmental problems.

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Dioxin contamination in Michigan's Saginaw river may be highest ever recorded

November 23, 2007 - A top government scientist says a toxic ''hot spot'' found in the Saginaw River near Wickes Park in Saginaw could represent the highest level of dioxin contamination ever recorded in the nation's river and lake systems.

As Midland's Dow Chemical Co. prepares to clean up the site next week, officials continue to debate the level of danger it represents.

''There may be more surprises out there,'' said Milton Clark, senior health and science adviser at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Chicago branch. ''I'd be surprised if there's not more surprises out there.''

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Cases of rare cancer 52 percent higher than expected in Pottsville PA

November 25, 2007 - A rare blood cancer making headlines locally is taking the national stage.

Polycythemia vera, a disease studied in Schuylkill, Luzerne and Carbon counties, will be the subject of a national meeting of blood disorder experts.

On Oct. 24, the federal agency reported confirming 38 cases of polycythemia vera, which leads to overproduction of red blood cells, in the three-county area, which is roughly 52 percent higher than the 25 cases that might have been expected given the population.

Local community leaders are concerned elevated levels of the disease are the result of environmental contamination, but federal officials say no cause for the disorder has yet been determined.

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Can Seattle's Duwamish river ever be restored?

November 25, 2007 - Little by little, death devours the Duwamish:

A crane drops an industrial-sized electrical transformer, which breaks, oozing its toxic payload into the river.

A railroad tanker car full of highly toxic PCB-contaminated oil and poked full of holes lies half-buried just yards from the river's edge.

At a metal-recycling yard near the Duwamish, a worker pours PCB-laden oil from inside electrical transformers directly onto the ground. This goes on for months -- if not years.

These scenes from the past speak to an ugly truth: We have systematically abused and negligently defiled the river that for millennia nourished Seattle's first people -- and brought the city much of its modern-day wealth.

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Michigan Department of Environmental Quality warns that funds for environmental cleanup will run out by end of next year

November 26, 2007 - What will happen if the state's environmental cleanup funds run out?

Will contaminated brownfield properties -- like the abandoned Performance Paper site near the Edison neighborhood -- not be cleaned up?

Will protection of one of Kalamazoo's water wells from gasoline contamination from a leaking underground storage tank -- work that was suspended once because of a lack of money -- once again be halted?

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality warns that by the end of next year, two bonds that voters approved for environmental cleanup will have run out of money.

Should Michigan residents and their elected representatives allow this to happen?

Among the basic duties of government, in addition to education and public safety, is protecting citizens' health. It does this by providing health care for those in poverty, mandating vaccinations, inspecting restaurants and food processors -- and by keeping the environment clean.

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Discovery of high levels of dioxin in Michigan river have local residents worried that outdoor activities put them at risk

November 23, 2007 - The chemical, dumped into the Tittabawassee River by Dow Chemical Co. a century ago, had been discovered in other parts of the streams but never in this quantity, a federal agency said.

Not even close.

Larson worries about the health of his four daughters as he wonders whether this is the price Michigan residents pay for the state's industrial past.

"My daughters were raised out there," said the autoworker, 50, who lives 300 yards from the latest hot spot. "I'm worried for their children."

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Texas State officials investigating Dallas over hazards posed by landfills

November 19, 2007 -

DALLAS - State environmental officials are investigating the city of Dallas over the continuing hazards posed by two former landfills.

The tops of the landfills, which are located near the Trinity River and South Loop 12, are starting to erode and leak pollutants and deadly gas that pose an ongoing hazard.

Mounds of trash filled the illegal landfill, which is located at the soon-to-be site of the Trinity River Audubon Center, with hazardous wastes, which for decades was an unwanted neighbor for many living nearby.

The city of Dallas did little to nothing about it until Harold Cox filed a lawsuit.

"I was treated unfairly," he said. "I was treated deceptively."

When Cox and his neighbors won their lawsuit, the city removed, covered and remediated what was, up until the last year, still an environmental hazard.

But now, another former dump located right next door is posing new problems.

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Contaminated soil under condos causing problems in Michigan

November 20, 2007 -State health investigators say they need more information before they can predict if contamination could be putting people living in a South Haven condo complex at risk.

The study focused on the Belgravia site, now home to factory condominiums. The former home of Hamlin-Overton, the two-acre site is contaminated with trichlroethylene, or TCE, a solvent used in metal plating.

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Mulberry Florida residents sue corporations over neighborhood contamination

November 17, 2007 - The residents of Fuller Heights, a Mulberry community whose wells have been contaminated with toxins including arsenic and radium, are suing six companies that own or manage property bordering them.

They have named CSX, Purina, Mosaic/Cargill, Kaiser, KC Industries and Environmental Risk Solutions in the lawsuit, alleging that the companies produced the toxins that have soaked into the groundwater and contaminated their wells.

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PBS to air documentary on life in a Superfund site

November 20, 2007 - In the film, they visit Picher’s local school to talk with students about an uncertain future. They visit homes where the lifelong residents reaffirm that nothing will make them leave.

They talk with people who have been pushing for a buyout plan now that their plots are virtually valueless. They also show the people wedged between concern for the lives of loved ones and love of home and their way of life.

“The Creek Runs Red” shows pieces of those ordinary lives in extraordinary circumstances.

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Residents concerned about contamination and health problems in South Merced California

November 16, 2007 - "For years on this side of town, it has been a dumping ground for everything bad. It ends up on this side of town," said Ira Jones, South Merced Resident.

People in south Merced say paint was being dumped illegally for years on county public works property within the city limits.

Now they're worried the paint pit may be responsible for health problems in the area.

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Fuller Heights Florida residents file suit against major corporations for contamination

November 17, 2007 - The residents of Fuller Heights, a Mulberry community whose wells have been contaminated with toxins including arsenic and radium, are suing six companies that own or manage property bordering them.

They have named CSX, Purina, Mosaic/Cargill, Kaiser, KC Industries and Environmental Risk Solutions in the lawsuit, alleging that the companies produced the toxins that have soaked into the groundwater and contaminated their wells.

Some in the community have developed health problems because of the contamination, according to a lawyer for the residents.

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115 residents and businesses file lawsuit against city for soil contamination in Fort Lauderdale Florida

November 16, 2007 - Durrs is a predominantly black, lower-income community that is a mix of single-family homes and subsidized rental complexes. The lawsuit seeks testing, health monitoring, compensation, damages and attorneys fees for the plaintiffs.

The city operated a garbage incinerator in the Durrs neighborhood, located north of Sistrunk Boulevard and east of Interstate 95, from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s.

The incinerator churned out ash from burned garbage and other materials, and spewed it into the air during that period, sometimes for 24 hours a day. Residents who lived there can recall how the ash fell like snow, covering their yards, clothing, homes and cars.

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Bill would pay for moving residents out of contaminated Treece Kansas

November 17, 2007 - At first, Jim Powell, 74, opposed the idea of having Congress pay to move his trailer house from the small town of Treece, Kan.

But on Friday, he said he has lived on a hazardous waste site long enough. He's ready to move 10 miles north.

"This dust that's flying around, it's real hazardous," said Powell, a 12-year-resident of Treece, "I can wash my car and in two or three days it's all dusty and dirty again. We're breathing that....It's a helluva thing."

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Denton Texas landowners wonder what they have unknowingly been exposed to

November 11, 2007 - In addition to allowing the industry to self-monitor, Texas Railroad Commission rules don’t require a landowner be notified if decontamination work is being done. Moreover, if the contaminated material is diluted to meet state limits, the operator is not required to notify either the state or the landowner to bury contaminated material on site.

News that special crews pulled up to an existing gas well on Jason Zimmerman’s land in March to decontaminate 10 barrels of radioactive residue came as a surprise to him.

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Mississippi Failing To Protect Families From Former Meth Labs

November 11, 2007 - We discovered homes can be bought and sold without the new owner ever knowing about the contamination left behind, even if the home appears to be cleaned on the surface.

"They can vacuum the carpets, they can wipe the walls down with rags, and they can spray air freshener in the house or apartment. You can walk in and never know there was a meth lab in there at one time. But if they were to see the pictures we took when we were there, people would be shocked," Narcotics Task Force Commander Curtis Spiers said.

Spiers says when police raid meth homes, they dismantle the lab and haz-mat teams remove the chemicals. But some problems are hiding beneath the surface.

"An actual methamphetamine in a vapor form is actually released during the chemical process. It goes into the walls, the ventilation system; the ventilation system circulates it through the house. This stuff in and of itself is dangerous," Spiers said.

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Scorecard.org lists Freeborn County in Minnesota as one of the worst polluted counties in the nation

November 13, 2007 -
An environmental watchdog group claims a local community is among the dirtiest counties in the nation. Right now, the problem is underground. But, it is starting to seep to the surface of one southern Minnesota city. Scorecard.org lists Freeborn County as one of the worst polluted counties in the nation.

The county's environmental services looked over the reports. While they say the numbers don't match up, they do admit there are contamination problems in the county's parks and trails. Freeborn County also says it does not test air or soil quality. That is left to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

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Polluted water could pose risks to residents of Billings Montana

November 13, 2007 - BILLINGS — Polluted groundwater beneath a Billings neighborhood could pose a long-term risk to residents, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The 140-acre underground plume southwest of downtown contains four “contaminants of concern,” including a solvent known as PCE, according to an EPA report released Monday. PCE, used in dry cleaning and other industrial practices, is believed to have been deposited decades ago.

The EPA has identified Big Sky Linen as the only “potentially responsible party” so far.

EPA officials could begin cleaning the site next spring and will be in Billings on Dec. 13 to discuss health risks. Cleanup could take several years at a cost of up to $7 million, The Billings Gazette reported in a story for Wednesday editions.

The biggest concern is that the pollutants in the contaminated groundwater are converting to vapor and seeping through the soil and into homes.

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Subterranean pollution likely spreading from chemical pit in Binghampton NY

November 10, 2007 - Subterranean pollution from a former chemical burn pit owned by IBM on Robinson Hill Road has likely spread under Binghamton Country Club property to the south, according to recent tests overseen by state health and environmental officials.

Now, IBM is making arrangements with country club officials to begin testing a remote section of wooded country club property in an effort to gauge the extent of the pollution.

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Ten percent of Oxford, PA wells contaminated

November 9, 2007 - Ten percent of the 145 residential wells monitored for arsenic have tested positive for elevated levels of the substance.

"The lion's share have come in under the state limit or as undetected," said Mike Finelli, the township engineer, during Wednesday night's committee meeting.

Nine wells exceeded the federal and the more stringent state limit while another five exceeded the state limit but were under the federal. The positive tests were concentrated in the Upper and Lower Denmark roads area in "somewhat of a linear position," Finelli explained, pointing to a map plotting the results.

Mayor Alex Lazorisak explained he has been working with the Warren County Health Department and the state Department of Environmental Protection to determine the next step for affected homeowners.

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Looking for answers on contamination in rural Wyoming neighborhood

November 10, 2007 - EnCana Corp. has assured that its "baseline" sampling of drinking water wells in this rural community so far have yielded no cause for concern.

But local resident Louis Meeks sent a sample of his water to a New York laboratory for more stringent testing. The EEE Consulting Inc. lab found, among other pollutants, elevated levels of toxins Diethylene and Triethylene glycols, commonly used as antifreeze in natural gas production and processing facilities, according to Meeks.

This week, Meeks filled a 50-gallon tank with water from his well and pointed out shimmering white streaks of an oily substance worming in the brew.

"There's something definitely wrong with it, and we need to have them do something about it," Meeks said.

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EPA hearings focus on vapor intrusion in Ohio neighborhoods surrounding industrial plants

November 9, 2007 - DAYTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold two meetings in coming days to discuss environmental issues surrounding two industrial sites.

The meetings will focus on vapor intrusion issues in the neighborhoods surrounding Delphi Corp.'s Home Avenue plant and the Behr Thermal plant on Webster Street.

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W. Chicago neighbors banding together against thorium contamination

November 9, 2007 -

A new resident group has formed to agitate for disclosure and action on thorium issues in West Chicago.

The group, Protection of Lives Against Thorium, will hold its first meeting tonight.

Thorium is a radioactive element that causes cancer with long-term exposure.

"We're concerned that knowledge isn't being openly shared and efforts aren't being made to make sure everyone understands what's going on," said member Kathy Bentham, who lives near the former Kerr-McGee plant.

Thorium was spread throughout West Chicago from the factory over decades, leading to two government-supervised cleanups in the 1980s and 1990s.

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EPA report details risks to Billings Montana residents who live above polluted groundwater

November 6, 2007 - Polluted groundwater beneath a Billings neighborhood poses long-term risks to residents living above it, but the immediate risks can be mitigated fairly easily, according to Environmental Protection Agency officials.

The 140-acre underground plume southwest of downtown contains four "contaminants of concern," including PCE, known formally as perchloroethylene, a solvent used in dry cleaning and other industrial practices, according to an EPA health risk assessment of the site.

The biggest concern is that the pollutants in the contaminated groundwater are converting to vapor and migrating up through the soil and into homes, where they might be inhaled.

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EPA tests indicate possible contamination of Illinois neighborhood wells

November 6, 2007 - EAST PEORIA - If you get your water from a private well north of East Peoria, you might test it for some industrial solvents.

Those who use the public water supply are not affected. Those with private wells within the area south of North Grossenbach Hill Road, up to one mile east of the Illinois River and north of U.S. Route 24 are encouraged to have their water tested by a private laboratory.

Contaminants that have been found in the water include carbon tetrachloride, which exceeds the groundwater quality standard, and 1,1,1-trichloroethane and 1,2-dichloroethane, which were below the groundwater quality standard. Carson said all are industrial solvents used in the area years ago but are not being discharged currently.

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New York state officials insist elementary school's air is safe for kids

November 6, 2007 - Ithaca, NY - Representatives from the state Departments of Environmental Conservation, Health and Education reaffirmed their belief that South Hill Elementary School is safe and no further testing is needed at a public meeting at the school Monday night.

Some parents, elected officials and environmental activists at the meeting continued to insist that further testing of classroom air must occur before they will feel safe.

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Consumers may foot the multi-million dollar cleanup bill for coal tar buried in Gilford New Hampshire

November 5, 2007 - Consumers may ultimately foot the multi-million dollar cleanup bill for coal tar buried in Gilford that originated at a manufactured gas plant in Laconia.

The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has authorized KeySpan Energy to recoup losses from ratepayers if efforts to get those costs from insurance carriers proves unsuccessful.

The dumping and its possible effects on residents' health which have been in the news for months, were described in a comprehensive and detailed report published in Sunday's Citizen.

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Residents of New Hampshire neighborhood still concerned about contamination and cancer despite assurances from state officials

November 4, 2007 - A refined government look at cancer cases among residents in the Liberty Hill Road area has determined there is no "cancer cluster" in the most recent 14-year period examined.

Residents still maintain, however, that there are a significant number of cancer cases among people living in the neighborhood, and they fear coal tar dumping in the 1950s may be to blame.

"Upon further review of more data, there is no indication of a 'cancer cluster' in Gilford, in the census blocks around Liberty Hill Road, or on lower Liberty Hill," reported Environmental Epidemiologist John Colby, who has prepared several cancer reports regarding potential links between the toxic coal tar material and cancer among residents on the hill.

A cancer cluster is defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occur within a group of people, in a geographic area, or over a period of time.

However, according to experts who conducted the Gilford study, the findings do not rule out the possibility that a small isolated group of individuals could have been affected by the environmental hazard believed to have been buried there 55 years ago.

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Were Latinos left in the dark about thorium contamination in West Chicago neighborhood?

November 4, 2007 - Whites flee radioactive cleanup site, replaced by Hispanics. And all say they were left in the dark about thorium problem that's plagued the area for decades.

In the 17 years since she moved to her West Chicago home and raised three children, no one told Olivia Reza that much of her neighborhood had been excavated to remove cancer-causing radioactive thorium.

"It worries us," Reza said in Spanish. "We wouldn't have moved here if we knew."

The same response is echoed by dozens of people living near the shuttered Kerr-McGee factory, many of whom these days are Latino.

They say no one explained that, during ongoing cleanups that began in the 1980s, the site has been used as a temporary holding facility for contaminated dirt.

No one told them that studies have shown elevated cancer rates in the area.

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Tallevast, Florida residents want cleanup delayed

November 3, 2007 - Residents of this polluted community want a defense contractor to suspend cleanup-related activities at a former beryllium plant, saying they fear the work could be causing health problems.

But state environmental and health officials and Lockheed Martin Corp. said there's no link between the work and resident complaints of headaches, nausea and burning nostrils and throats.

Lockheed recently installed two extraction wells at the former Loral American Beryllium plant at 1600 Tallevast Road. The wells, and two others, are part of an intermediate cleanup of decades-old contamination directly beneath the facility.

The contamination also extends into the surrounding neighborhood. Lockheed, through its prior acquisition of Loral, owned the plant when the contamination was discovered in 2000 and thus is responsible for the cleanup.

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No tax break for Vermont residents who own property contaminated by nearby Energize plant

November 2, 2007 - BENNINGTON — What happens to the property values of homes affected by the leaking of carcinogens at the Energizer plant will be dictated by the market, according to a town official.

"That's going to be a question that ultimately the listers will have to answer and the market will dictate," said Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd.

The town has no intention of offering breaks on appraisals, Hurd said. The area around the Energizer plant was reappraised earlier this year as part of the rolling reappraisal system used by the town.

"It will be taken as a case by case basis," Hurd said. "As far as the listers going out and saying, 'OK, you're all going to be getting a reduction,' that is not going to happen."
State officials presented a plan to about a dozen neighbors Tuesday designed to remediate tetrachloroethene, or PCE, and trichloroethene, or TCE, contamination at the Energizer plant.

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Virginia residents concerned about TCE contamination in well water

November 1, 2007 - Expressing concerns about Trichloroethylene (TCE) in well water and the possibility of the carcinogen spreading, Broad Run Farms residents have called on the EPA to expedite replacing well water with public water.

Fred MacMillan, EPA Region 3 remedial project manager, however, said the agency cannot start implementing solutions to the TCE contamination until March 2008 and public water is one of several options. March is when the agency is expected to actually add the Hidden Lane landfill, considered the TCE’s probable source, to its Superfund National Priorities List (NPL).

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Angry West Chicago residents seek answers from EPA

October 31, 2007 - Officials who have known for five years about possible buried radioactive thorium contamination on up to 100 West Chicago properties faced the public for the first time Tuesday.

At a meeting called to discuss the issue, a dozen frustrated homeowners grilled federal Environmental Protection Agency officials about why their homes may need to be dug up for the third time in three decades.

The owners of 96 residential properties were invited to the gathering, which included representatives from the city and Tronox, the current incarnation of the company responsible for the contamination.

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Vermont homeowners concerned about factory contamination and impact on property values

October 31, 2007 - State officials presented a plan to remediate chemical contamination at the Energizer plant Tuesday night, saying the aggressive method chosen should capture enough of the contamination to meet state standards.

About a dozen residents who live near the plant were on hand to hear from Michael B. Smith, a geologist with the state Agency of Natural Resources waste management division, present the two-step plan.

Homeowners did not question the plan but we're concerned about what the contamination would do to the value of their property. Furthermore, several expressed concern that no one representing the town of Bennington was present to answer questions.

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Brownfield Professionals Report Increased Pace of Redevelopment

October 31, 2007 - A survey conducted by Environmental Data Resources, Inc. (EDR) indicates that 52% of environmental and government professionals involved in brownfield projects are seeing an increase in the pace of redevelopment activity. Another 47% of respondents view brownfield activity as stable, while none of the respondents indicated any slowdown in redevelopment.

The EDR survey was directed to professionals with significant experience in the brownfield industry. Ninety-five percent of respondents work for an organization currently involved in at least one brownfield project, including more than 50% that are involved with more than 10 brownfield projects. The survey respondents included environmental consultants and government representatives attending “The Big Deal” National Brownfield Association 2007 event in Chicago on October 16-17, 2007.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services finds contamination in Baltimore park and neighborhood a public health hazard

October 31, 2007 - Areport from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released last week found that significant and lengthy exposure to the soil in Baltimore's Swann Park is a "public health hazard" and poses a slightly elevated risk of cancer. The park, which was contaminated for years as a result of its proximity to a pesticide-producing factory, has been closed since April, when tests found high levels of arsenic in the soil.

The new report may or may not change a major remediation plan to restore the park by sometime next year. But it underscores the importance of dealing with the consequences of contamination in the neighborhood and not just in the park.

Last week's report raised more of an alarm than a preliminary federal report issued in June that found no public health hazard unless children had eaten at least a tablespoon of dirt. But federal officials now suggest that people who spent at least 180 days a year in the park - such as children in baseball leagues, coaches and groundskeepers - and who may have inhaled dirt particles or touched the soil and then touched their mouths might have a greater risk of cancer.

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Oregon public health officials call for more tests of 11 homes

October 31, 2007 - The state Public Health Division has identified 11 homes in Eugene’s Trainsong neighborhood that may — or may not — be polluted by unhealthy levels of solvent fumes, according to a report released Tuesday.

Although the most recent tests of the air in homes show safe levels of solvents, earlier tests found an elevated cancer risk for people living in the homes.

The pollution plume underneath a large swath of the Trainsong and River Road neighborhoods in west Eugene came from decades of solvent spills at the current location of the Union Pacific rail yard.

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Erin Brockovich law firm investigates chemical spill in Indiana

October 31, 2007 - A law firm is doing its own investigating to find out how badly a chemical spill contaminated the Wellington Northeast subdivision along Stony Creek in Noblesville.

Firestone admitted to a PCB spill that traveled from its plant, through Wilson Ditch, to Stony Creek and to the Wellington subdivision.

Some residents are working on a settlement with Firestone, which has committed to cleaning up the contamination.

Other homeowners have hired the environmental-law firm Masry and Vititoe to represent them in litigation against Firestone. The California-based firm is known for its depiction in the movie “Erin Brockovich.”

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