Author: Duane Craig

The Environmental Protection Agency is hunting for the sources of soil, air and water pollution that may be contributing to a cluster of cancer cases in Sandusky County, Ohio. Thirty-five children have been diagnosed with cancer in a 12-mile radius in that county since the mid-1990s, and four have died, according to this report in The News-Messenger.com.

The agency is collecting soil, air and water samples at 14 industrial and dump sites in that county. To date, state and local health officials have been unable to find something explaining the cause of the cancer cluster. There is also an effort underway to involve local people in the search for the causes of environmental contamination. Besides reviewing past investigations, there’ll be a confidential hotline set up where people can report dump sites and dumping practices that are illegal.

According to the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory from 2002, the top three pollutants released in Sandusky County were nitric acid, hydrofluoric acid and chromium compounds. Other large releases to the environment included pyridine, nickel compounds, zinc compounds, glycol ethers, ammonia and ethylene glycol.

Metal Recycling Operation Spills Contaminants

 Author: Duane Craig

The Environmental Protection Agency put a metal recycling company on notice for allegedly contaminating San Francisco Bay with lead, mercury, PCBs, copper and zinc, according to several news reports.

The company shreds about 300,000 automobiles each year, as well as appliances and other metal products, and loads them onto ships that go to Korea and China so they can be made into new products. It is believed the pollution resulted from debris that fell off a huge conveyor belt used to load the oceangoing ships. Nearby, a 140-acre property that was to be transferred to a nearby wildlife refuge has also been contaminated. A fluffy gray material was reported blowing from the metal recycling site across the nearby land and into waterways.

The company involved, Sims Metal Management, has previously been in the news for a fire five years ago that sent a plume of black, polluted smoke across Silicon Valley. The pollutants this time were discovered in the soil and in the sediment near Redwood Creek. Mercury exceeded the protective levels by 110 times, and copper exceeded the levels by 86 times. Worse yet, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were recorded at levels 10,000 times the acceptable amount.

You can read more about it at The Kansas City Star, the Sacramento Business Journal and Environmental Leader

By: Duane Craig

Data supplied to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its Toxic Release Inventory shows a 30 percent reduction in chemical releases to the environment since 2001. The agency, however, says the database provides only a snapshot of the pollution, that it doesn’t cover all toxic chemicals and that it doesn’t cover all sectors of the economy.

Perhaps more troubling, the quantities of chemicals being reported are provided by the companies that release them, and many times they are just estimates. This is a classic case of the foxes guarding the hen houses, and there is ample evidence, reported here and elsewhere, that the Toxic Release Inventory tells an unreliable story about the amount of chemical pollution being released by companies. In one example, a facility in New York State was releasing benzene into the environment at rates 30 times higher than reported to the TRI.

While the overall releases were estimated to be down nationwide, many regions, states and localities experienced increases in toxic releases. For example, according to this report, Oregon had a 20 percent increase in releases from 2009 through 2010. Illinois saw a 10 percent increase in the pounds of toxins released in that state from 2009 to 2010, according to this report.

Maine Pulp Mill - We Want You. No We Don't.

By: Duane Craig

A convoluted story emerges from Old Town, Maine, where a pulp mill continues to rack up fines for air pollution while also collecting money from taxpayers so it can continue to operate, according to an article in the Bangor Daily News.

The problem stems from an old wood-burning boiler the company says is too expensive to retrofit to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions to acceptable levels. The company, Old Town Fuel and Fiber, says instead, the community should put up with the pollution in return for the 216 jobs it provides. Maine’s Department of Environmental Protection, however, sees it differently and has currently planned to fine the company $497,000 because of pollution it put into the air over the past year. The Environmental Protection Agency has already fined the company $331,000 for air pollution going back five years.

Meanwhile, the mill’s owners have been promised, or given, more than $56 million during the past eight years so the facility will stay open. From here the story gets murkier and murkier, with public money chasing private money and politicians and corporations making side deals involving millions of dollars. Complicating the story even more are companies going broke, buyouts and grants from government agencies.

You can read the entire mystery novella right here.

Controversy Surrounds Army's Plans for Munition Plant Cleanup

Author: Duane Craig

The State of Wisconsin is reviewing the U.S. Army’s plan for continuing to clean up the Badger Army Ammunition Plant near Baraboo, Wisconsin, according to an article in the Baraboo News Republic. So far though, the state is not going along with the Army’s plan to shut down a pump and treat system that has removed and treated about 20 billion gallons of groundwater since it was installed in 1991.

The watchdog group, Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger, is also not thrilled with the Army’s plans to abandon the groundwater pump and treat system. The organization’s concern is that the environment may be further endangered and those who rely on their wells will be put into a financial hardship if they have to abandon them later.

According to a report prepared by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the BAAP currently poses no “apparent health hazard because current exposures to site-related contaminants do not exceed health guidelines for chronic exposure.” The agency also found that the groundwater recovery and treatment system had reduced the contamination and the potential for the contamination to spread. The State of Wisconsin, however, is concerned that the plume of contamination may continue to extend beyond the boundary of the plant, so it wants the wells to continue to be monitored quarterly for chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and trichloroethylene.

The BAAP has a long history of processing weapons materials and operated from 1942 until 1975. There were 1,400 buildings at the facility, and propellant and deterrent processing was carried on in most of those buildings. Besides that, there was a coal burning power plant. In one area of the facility, nitric acid was made from ammonia, and nitric oxides were routinely released from the rooftop vents. Sometimes when there were thermal inversions, where cooler air trapped warmer air close to the ground, the area would be bathed in a brown haze. There was also elemental sulfur that was converted to sulfuric acid and other derivatives at another part of the facility, and the coal burning power plant released its un-scrubbed, thick, black smoke into the air over the region.
Other common practices included disposing of waste in landfills, ground set aside for burning, and discharge areas where wastewater was disposed of. At the propellant burning ground, waste propellants and waste process chemicals were burned. At the deterrent burning ground, benzene and nitrocellulose were burned.

Since 1988, at least 260 monitoring wells have been following the spread of contaminated groundwater. The contaminants of main concern are carbon tetrachloride and chloroform. Volatile organic compounds have moved past the southern boundary of the plant, and a plume of sulfates has moved past the eastern plant boundary.

The Army’s new plan is to shut down the water treatment system and simply continue monitoring the contaminants with the expectation that they will naturally break down sometime in the next 30 years. The cost of that plan will be about $40 million. Another option the Army is considering is continuing to treat the groundwater and continuing to monitor the contaminants until they break down naturally. That course of action is expected to cost $80 million. Another idea is to use naturally occurring organisms to treat the water and to continue monitoring the contaminants until they break down naturally. This plan would cost about $61 million.

Vapor Intrusion Sampling Continues in Clearfield

By: Duane Criag

Since the discovery of a plume of groundwater contamination in Clearfield, Utah, 168 homes have been sampled for indoor chemical vapors, according to an article in the Standard-Examiner. Every year since 2003, a certain number of the 300-350 homes in the area have been sampled for the vapors.

From the end of World War II into the 1960s, nearby Hill Air Force Base disposed of trichloroethylene, or TCE, and tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, onsite, leading to a plume of groundwater contamination that covers approximately 142 acres. There are two levels of groundwater affected—the shallow level is contaminated with TCE and PCE, while the deeper level is contaminated with just TCE.

The base monitors the situation and does the testing, and it recently assured the residents that there is nothing to be concerned about because the groundwater that is affected is not used for drinking. The major concern, according to the government, is the potential for vapor intrusion when the vapors from the chemicals make their way through cracks in foundations and into the airspace of the homes. Surprisingly, according to the city manager, many people don’t have the testing done.

The base is supposed to choose a cleanup option by February 2014.