State Tackling Toxic Vapor Problems in Baltimore Neighborhood

July 29, 2009 - Ventilation systems are being installed by the state in three homes in Baltimore's Westport neighborhood, according to state officials, after tests found toxic vapors seeping into the dwellings from long-abandoned industrial sites nearby that had been the focus of an emergency hazardous-waste cleanup decades ago.

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Proposed Hazardous Waste Riles Texas Residents

July 29, 2009 - A proposal to build a hazardous household waste collection facility near a neighborhood has residents worried about safety. League City applied for a grant to build a regional hub for the collection of household hazardous waste, including paint, oil, pool chemicals, potent cleaners and discarded electronics, near the Bay Ridge subdivision on the city’s east side.

But some people living in the subdivision near the site said they want the city to provide more information, including about how it would prevent chemicals at the site from leaching into the soil near their homes.

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Residents in Illinois urged to have well water tested

July 28, 2009 - According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, routine testing of Antioch's municipal water wells by the IL EPA indicated that contaminants could be present in the area's private wells. Residents with private wells in Antioch and Libertyville are urged to have their wells tested for volatile organic compounds by a private laboratory.

The risk of adverse health effects depends on the levels of contaminants in the water and the length of exposure. Long-term exposure to the chemicals may results in a health risk to the liver and kidneys, officials said.

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Residents in Florida fear brain cancer cluster caused by toxic leaks from company

July 28, 2009 - Many acreage residents are worried that contaminant spills at Pratt & Whitney may be causing a brain tumor cluster in their community in Western Palm Beach County.

Pratt & Whitney has accumulated a long list of toxic leaks and spills on its 7000 acre property dating back to at least 1979. Residents are urging the state Department of Health to investigate the possible brain cancer cluster.

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PA cancer cluster linked to Superfund site?

July 28, 2009 - Between 2001-2005, 97 cases of the rare blood disease polycythemia vera (PV) were reports to the state cancer registry in Luzerne, Schuylkill, and Carbon counties. The Pennsylvania Department of Health began to look into the high number of PV cases and the close proximity of a Superfund site.

Between 1978 and 1979, McAdoo Associates stored toxic wastes including paint sludge, waste oils, pesticides and other suspected carcinogens. The DEP shut down the facility in 1979 and it was placed on the federal Superfund list. Residents are looking for answers as to whether there is a correlation between the toxic substances and the illnesses, fearing that the chemicals had leached into the water supply.

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Former textile mill in Michigan leaves PCE behind

July 28, 2009 - Residents of Cowpens, Michigan filed a lawsuit alleging that their properties, including wells that once provided drinking water, were contaminated by a textile mill that operated nearby from 1969-90. Water in underground spring tests have tested positive for tetrachloroethylene - also know as perchloroethylene, or PCE.

PCE is a man-made chemical used for dry cleaning fabrics and metal degreasing. Exposure to the chemical can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, difficulty in speaking and walking, unconsciousness, cancer and death.

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Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country

NYT - July 26, 2009 - The legacy wrought from decades of uranium mining is long and painful here on the expansive reservation. Over the years, Navajo miners extracted some four million tons of uranium ore from the ground, much of it used by the United States government to make weapons.

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Arsenic found in Posey County, Indiana residents' well water

July 20, 2009 - Dozens of Posey County residents who rely on private wells for water are finding it may not be fit to drink.

Residents who live along Lower Mount Vernon and Bluff roads just received tests results that show high levels of arsenic in their water.

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Dry cleaners leave a toxic legacy in Illinois

July 26, 2009 - For decades, one of the nation's most widely used dry cleaning solvents was billed as a marvel of modern chemistry that could safely remove dirt and stains from clothing.

Shops sprang up to take advantage of the chemical, perchloroethylene, also known as PCE or perc. People became familiar with the sharp odor of clothes freshly removed from plastic wrap, a sign that perc was used to clean them.

But over the years, with little if any notice to the public, the often sloppy use of perchloroethylene has poisoned hundreds of sites in Illinois.

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Clyde, Ohio study on cancer in children to expand

July 25, 2009 - The Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency have gone on record several times as saying the number of childhood cancers for the relatively small Clyde area is no statistical fluke, that there must be an environmental problem triggering a cancer cluster.

Childhood cancers are far more rare than adult cancers. About 20 childhood cancers have been diagnosed in the Clyde area since 2001.

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EPA sets plan for cleanup of toxic air in Mountain View's MEW Superfund site

July 24, 2009 - Twenty years after the Environmental Protection Agency came out with its first plan to clean up contaminants at Mountain View's "MEW" Superfund site, the agency has released its proposal to handle the latest problem caused by those contaminants: toxic vapor rising up into commercial buildings and residences.

The MEW site — bordered by East Middlefield Road, Ellis Street, North Whisman Road and Moffett Field — used to be home to industrial companies and government agencies such as the Navy. They used chemicals in their operations that still remain in the groundwater, primarily the solvent trichloroethene (TCE).

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EPA vows to examine impact of hazardous waste on poor communities

July 22, 2009 - The federal Environmental Protection Agency vowed Tuesday to home in on the impact of hazardous waste recycling plants on minorities and low-income communities.

The move hearkens back to a Clinton-era executive order that required federal agencies to consider the impact of their policies on disadvantaged communities. Although the Bush administration largely ignored the mandate, Obama-appointed EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson has promised to analyze those impacts.

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Denver Superfund neighborhood pushing for more cleanup

July 13, 2009 - It's the last chapter in a long legal battle to clean up a polluted Denver neighborhood.

Residents in Globeville fought for years against a smelting plant they believed was making them sick.

Many here claimed that family members came down with diseases caused by the pollution.

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Arsenic found in Posey County, Indiana residents' well water

July 20, 2009 - Residents in Posey County, Indiana have received test results that show high levels of arsenic in their well water. The health department is working on finding the source for the arsenic contamination, which can cause paralysis and death when ingested over a period of time.
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Colorado Superfund neighborhood gets cleaned up at long last

July 13, 2009 - Contractors have begun removing the last of polluted soil on 32 properties in Globeville, Colorado. Residents fought for years against the smelting plant that they believed was making them sick with releases of contaminants such as arsenic and lead.
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Residents in Tallevast, FL will have to live with contaminated ground water for almost 50 years

July 17, 2009 - Residents in Tallevast will have to live with contaminated ground water for almost 50 years, according to a revised cleanup plan submitted to the state by Lockheed Martin.

But the aerospace giant, which is responsible for cleaning up the pollution in this small southern Manatee County community, hopes that the majority of the contaminants will be cleaned up in five years. A previous plan estimated the cleanup could take 100 years.

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Florida State Department of Health reviewing cancer data for Vero Beach area

July 17, 2009 - The state Department of Health is reviewing cancer data for the Vero Beach area prompted by concerns raised by a local activist about chemical contamination.

The report is projected to be completed by mid-August, according to state Department of Health spokeswoman Susan Smith.

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Legally Binding Disclosure of Environmental Risks Moves Closer to Reality

July 17, 2009 - A new United Nations report suggests advisors to institutional investors may end up in court if they ignore environmental and social concerns.

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Former PA Landfill Contaminates Nearby Wells

July 15, 2009 - Five decades after the first sludge, wastewater and spent pesticide containers were dumped into the Herceg Landfill on the border of Bushkill and Upper Nazareth townships, a toxic punch of contaminants is leaching into the groundwater and putting residents' health at risk.

"Back then, you did not perceive a danger from something that was a mile or so away,'' said Robert Grew, who has lived on Knauss Road, near the landfill, for 40 years. ''I don't think anyone foresaw a drinking water problem. But now it's only a matter of time until the chemicals spread.''

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Washington Car Lot Makes History With Meth Contamination

July 15, 2009 - A North Whidbey used car lot earned the unfortunate distinction of becoming the first dealership to have its license yanked by the state due to methamphetamine contamination.

The state Department of Licensing issued a summary suspension of O&J Sales’ license last week. The notice of summary suspension states that meth contamination of vehicles, as well as the business’ failure to transfer titles in a timely manner, as the reasons for the action. Brad Benfield, spokesman for the department, said it was the first time meth contamination has been cited in a suspension.

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Abandoned Industrial Site Haunts Tennessee Neighborhood

June 13, 2009 - The Smalley-Piper Industries property in Collierville, Tennessee has been abandoned for years, but the hazardous waste and deadly chemicals left behind are holding a community hostage. For nearly two decades, workers at Smalley-Piper manufactured battery-casings. One step of that process included dumping a liquid solution of hexavalent chromium into the drainage ditches, threatening the health of the town's residents.

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Illinesses Afflict Homes With a Criminal Past

July 14, 2009 - Federal data on meth lab seizures suggest that there are tens of thousands of contaminated residences in the United States.

One family in Tennessee had three children who suffered medical conditions such as breathing problems and trips to the emergency room. The parents, too, suffered from migraines and kidney ailments. It took five years for them to discover that the house they had purchased and started their family in was contaminated with high levels of methamphetamine left by the previous occupant.

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Midland, Texas wells contaminated with chromium

July 10, 2009 - Texas environmental officials are still trying to determine the extent of the contamination. Later this month, they will ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to consider the site for federal Superfund status.

After that, efforts will begin to find who dumped the dangerous chemical, which appears to have been in the area for years, according to one environmental investigator.

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Possible Cancer Cluster Investigated in Pennsylvania

July 9, 2009 - More than 40 people are suffering from a very rare form of cancer in Schuylkill, Carbon, and Luzerne counties. After one failed attempt to collect data from that area, government officials are back at it. But the people in that region say they know exactly what the cause of the cancer cluster is.

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McCook, Ohio Residents Want Testing For Toxic Gases

July 9, 2009 -

The neighborhood, recently declared a national Superfund site by the EPA, is located around the Behr Dayton Thermal plant, 1600 Webster Street, which produces vehicle air conditioning and cooling systems. The area is plagued by the Behr VOC Plume, a cloud of underground toxic gases that has contaminated groundwater and released hazardous chemicals into the air.

The plume contains dangerously high levels of trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxic gas linked with cancer and other health problems.

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Old Dry Cleaner Site Causes Groundwater Contamination 30 Years Later

July 7, 2009 - The City Council took the first step Monday night toward extending the city’s public water supply to an area along Route 120 with groundwater contamination. The contaminated property at 3004 W. Elm St. (Route 120), now home to Enterprise Rent-a-Car, was the home of Gem Cleaners from 1970-77.

It was not unusual at that time for cleaners to release chemicals into the water supply, McHenry City Administrator Doug Maxeiner said. Solvents used in dry cleaning contaminated the soil and groundwater with volatile organic compounds, according to an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency report. The contamination extends beyond the property to the west toward the Fox River. Most homes and businesses along the Route 120 stretch use private wells, Maxeiner said.

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CDC Launches New Environmental Public Health Tracking Network

July 7, 2009 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now offers an on-line network the public can use to track environmental exposures and chronic health conditions. On Tuesday the CDC announced the Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, a public health surveillance tool that scientists, health professionals, and members of the public can use.

“The ability to examine many data sets together for the first time has already resulted in faster responses to environmental health issues. We believe the Tracking Network holds the potential to shed new light on some of our biggest environmental health questions,” said Howard Frumkin, M.D., M.P.H., DrPh., director, of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health.

The web-based tool unites vital environmental information from across the country, including air and water pollutants and information for some chronic conditions, including asthma, cancer, childhood lead poisoning and heart disease into one resource.

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Study shows environmental contamination increase in Canada

July 4, 2009 - Researchers in Canada have linked male low birth rates to an increase in lower fertility and an increase in environmental contaminants. According to UPI, researchers studied the male birth weights of five million children born in Canada between 1981-2003 from records kept in the database of the Public Health Agency of Canada. The lead researcher was Dr. Guy Van Vliet of Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center in Montreal.

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EPA declares health emergency in Montana

July 3, 2009 - Health officials say as many as 200 people have died and another 1,000 residents – nearly 50 percent of the population of this small city -- have been sickened by asbestos-related illnesses.

Last month the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared a public health emergency in Libby and the surrounding area as a result of contamination created by asbestos mining in the region during the last century, and announced it will spend about $130 million to clean up the contamination and provide medical care in the region.

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Monroe County NY: All private-well owners should test for arsenic

July 2, 2009 - All private-well owners in Monroe County should test their supply for the toxic metal arsenic, the county health department said this morning.

The department is making the recommendation as a result of the discovery of arsenic in dozens of private wells in west Webster, at levels as much as four times higher than the drinking-water guideline, spokesman John Ricci said.

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Suffolk County NY: No telling where Grumman pollution ends

July 4, 2009 - A plume of contaminated groundwater that stretches south of the former Northrop Grumman plant in Calverton may be much larger -- and run much deeper -- than originally suspected, according to the Suffolk County health department.

"We found contamination in all the new wells," said Andrew Rapiejko, a health department geologist who oversaw a second round of testing this spring near the former naval weapons facility.

Health department officials, whose initiative was launched last summer based on previous -- but limited -- findings by the U.S. Navy, are also troubled by the potential depth of the plume.
As deep as they could drill in Calverton -- 115 feet -- county workers continued to find traces of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, in the groundwater.

"It's getting to the deeper aquifer, and that would be a concern," Mr. Rapiejko said.

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More tests needed to find Crestwood, Illinois contamination source

July 2, 2009 - Results from the June testing show area around the village's tainted well is contaminant-free, but chemicals from a nearby dry cleaner are polluting groundwater.

The results raise more questions than they answer in the investigation into Crestwood's secret use of the well to supplement drinking water for more than two decades.

More testing likely will follow in the effort to pinpoint a contamination source.

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Texas residents blame health problems on nearby Asarco plant, landfill

July 3, 2009 - Could pollution be the cause of health problems in Sunland Park?

Many residents suspect that it is.

They consider the Asarco smelter in El Paso and the Camino Real landfill in Sunland Park to be the major sources of contamination in their community.

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Senator Nelson meets with South Florida brain cancer victims, families

July 2, 2009 - Residents worried that a brain cancer cluster has cropped up in The Acreage met with Sen. Bill Nelson Wednesday looking for answers.

The Democratic senator organized the meeting, at Wellington Regional Medical Center, to hear firsthand accounts from adults and the parents of children who have had brain tumors.
About 20 families told of their experiences - nearly all saying they live or lived within about 4 miles of 85th Road North and Avocado Boulevard, toward the community's north.

"There certainly appears to be a problem in a specific geography," Nelson said.

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Hazardous chemical found in northwest Missouri soil

July 1, 2009 - Environmental investigators went looking for hazardous chromium 6 where it shouldn’t be — in northwest Missouri farm soil — and they found it.

Indeed, questions linger in a controversy that for several years has consumed the Cameron area, where residents fear that something has been causing brain tumors.

A new suspect emerged in April when a lawsuit was filed claiming that a St. Joseph tannery had spread waste sludge containing chromium 6, a dangerous chemical, on farmland.

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Possible Cancer Cluster in Florida Gets National Attention

July 2, 2009 - Speaking before some two hundred family members today gathered at Wellington Regional Medical Center, a concerned Senator Nelson told the crowd he has alerted the President to concerns of the neighborhood and asked that that resources from the Centers for Disease Control be tapped if necessary.

"It's gut wrenching. It tears your heart out," Nelson said, of listening to the families affected. "Eighteen families came to the table all have some form of cancer and most of the cases were brain cancer and all of these families live within a two mile radius. That is no coincidence."

Jennifer Dunsford suspects water might be to blame. She said all residents in the Acreage own their own wells. Other suspicions focus on pesticides sprayed at nearby orange groves.

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EPA Lists "High Hazard" Sites

June 30, 2009 - The Environmental Protection Agency has released a list of 44 coal ash storage sites that are a potential threat to surrounding communities. North Carolina has the largest number of these so-called "fly ash ponds" like the one that breached in Tennessee in December burying homes and contaminating water.

After the TVA dam broke near Kingston, Tennessee on Christmas Eve, the EPA called for a review of other such dams around the country. They hold the ash and toxic left-overs of coal power plants and, until now, the list of such sites was not made public.

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