N.J. Court Cries Foul on Environmental Enforcement

by: Duane Craig

Polluters in New Jersey may be off the hook for cleanups if a recent court decision holds up, according to this article. This would affect sites described as having “small amounts” of contaminants.

The court’s decision was related to the appeal of a case in which a company claimed no contaminant discharges when selling the property. Later, pollution was found, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection linked the contaminants to the company and then required a cleanup. The company refused and went to court over the matter.

New Jersey has 13,141 active sites with confirmed contamination as of April 12, 2012, according to NJDEP records. The state has 8,722 square miles, giving it a contamination density of 1.5 contaminated sites per square mile. There are 2,355 homeowners with known contamination and 10,785 businesses.

Opponents of the ruling claim it is the polluters who will end up deciding what is considered to be “small amounts,” and that will open the door for many to simply walk away from contaminated sites and not have to reveal the existence of the contamination to buyers.

According to a court document on the case, there was always a way for people with small discharges of pollutants to be relieved of the obligation to clean up. The court cited excerpts from the Industrial Site Recovery Act of 1993, as a result of which owners and operators of industrial establishments could walk away from pollution with simply a written notice as long as the pollution didn’t exceed 500 pounds or 55 gallons. If it was hydraulic or lubricating oil, it could not exceed 220 gallons.

The court in the end found that the NJDEP had stepped beyond its legislatively delegated powers in this instance. The court, however, went out of its way to avoid stepping on toes in the legislature and was supportive of the NJDEP role, writing, “we emphasize that we do not pass upon the wisdom of the Legislature's policy choices. Nor do we preclude the Department from pursuing appropriate enforcement action against appellant and other DQE applicants under the Spill Act or other legislatively-authorized regulations, where the facts support such enforcement action. We also do not preclude intervenor or other private parties from invoking their contractual or other legal rights to compel DQE applicants to investigate and to remediate industrial sites. Our conclusions in this appeal are instead confined to the lack of delegated statutory authority within the ambit of the DQE process -- no more and no less.”

This case no doubt points to the challenges in crafting environmental legislation and ultimately in applying it, even in places where there is so so much environmental degradation.

A Superfund Site by Any Other Name, Is Still a Superfund Site

By: Duane Craig

It is no doubt a dubious honor to have a Superfund site named after you. This usually happens to corporations, but not so in the case of Dewey Loeffel, who was once associated with the Loeffel Waste Oil Removal and Service Company.

According to a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Record of Decision, the current contamination at the Dewey Loeffel Landfill site is largely the work of General Electric, Bendix Corporation and Schenectady Chemicals (SI Group Inc.). Still, the site bears Dewey’s name.

GE and SI Group recently agreed to collect and properly dispose of contaminated groundwater and liquid leaching from the landfill to try to prevent some nearby drinking water wells from being contaminated with waste oils, polychlorinated biphenyls, scrap materials, sludge and solids. This site was added to the Superfund list in May 2011, after numerous state investigations and cleanups, according to a press release from the Environmental Protection Agency. In late 2011, the EPA started operating the groundwater and leachate collection systems the state had installed.

Loeffel Waste Oil Removal and Service Company disposed of waste at the site from 1952 to 1968. The process was pretty simple. The company collected hazardous materials in 55-gallon drums and brought them to the landfill, where they were either dumped into an oil pit or one of two lagoons. One lagoon covered about an acre, and another one covered five acres. Drums that came in full, but couldn’t be reused, were either dropped into the lagoon or buried in the soil. The company separated recyclable oily wastes in the pit and then pumped the non-recyclables into the lagoon. Sometimes, waste materials were simply burned.

Needless to say, this caused quite a mess, according to the EPA’s narrative about the site. PCBs migrated into aquifers and downstream waterways and are now concentrated in groundwater, surface water, sediments and species of fish. Two fisheries had to be closed, and there were documented cases of fish and cattle kills.

The NYSDEC figured there were 37,530 tons of waste brought in from GE. Other sources contributed another 8,790 tons. A judgement against Loeffel Waste Oil Removal and Service Company in 1968 required it to stop operating the way it was and to take some remedial action, which it did. After that, the company operated as a waste transfer operation until 1980. During this time, a number of industrial companies brought their own waste to the site, where it was stored in above-ground storage tanks.

Eventually, GE signed an agreement with New York state, called the Seven Sites Agreement, that included the Dewey Loeffel Landfill site as one where it would investigate and undertake remedial actions. And somewhere along the way, perhaps unknown to Dewey at the time, his name was donated.

Pickens County Wants More Than EPA Testing for PCBs

By: Duane Craig

The Pickens County Council in South Carolina is questioning whether the Environmental Protection Agency can effectively manage an old PCB contamination of Twelve Mile Creek, according to a report in IndependentMail.com.

The doubts stem from EPA plans to do some follow-up testing along a couple of miles of the creek. The county, however, hired its own consultant hydrologist, and he says the entire 24 miles needs to be tested. Apparently, landowners want some assurance that the land they own along the creek is not contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCB. Without tests showing there is no contamination, they expect their property values will drop.

From 1955 to 1977, a capacitor manufacturer dumped 400,000 pounds of PCB in the area, leading to Superfund designation in 1990. Get the whole story at the link above.

ASARCO Settlement Speeds Washington Arsenic Cleanup

By: Duane Craig

Washington state is moving ahead with the cleanup of hundreds of parcels of land in Everett, where smelter operations more than 100 years ago contaminated the soil with arsenic, according to an article in seattlepi.

The Asarco smelter operated from 1894 to 1912, right near the intersection of current day E. Marine View Drive and Highway 529. Besides dangerously high levels of arsenic, there was also lead and cadmium contamination, and none of it was discovered until 1990. The smelter also contaminated the Snohomish River, two parks, and Legion and Wiggums Hollow. There were 100 parcels cleaned up between 1999 and 2007, and in 2009 the state received $34 million in a settlement from Grupo Mexico, the current owners of Asarco.

In 2009, the bankruptcy and environmental settlement agreements with Asarco netted the EPA, federal agencies and states a little more than $1.79 billion to address contamination at over 80 sites in 20 states. The settlement was termed the largest bankruptcy settlement ever under the Superfund program, and it included full payment of the EPA’s claims plus interest. Washington state received $188 million of that settlement money to repair environmental damage across the state.

Survivors on a Radioactive Wasteland

By: Duane Craig

There is a long story of radioactive contamination across New Mexico, especially in the northwestern portion of the state, where recent estimates of cleaning up just one site will require the removal of 1.4 million tons of soil, according to an article at E&E Publishing, LLC.

Much of this story centers around the U.S. Department of Energy and the United States’ race with the Soviet Union to see who could create more nuclear weapons. The five-year cleanup plans in this part of the country come and go like the winds, while more than 500 polluted mine sites wait to be cleaned up. Meanwhile, the people live with contaminated water and land, and there are even radioactive homes that were built with waste from uranium mining.

The Environmental Protection Agency says miners took about four million tons of uranium from Navajo lands between 1944 and 1986, and besides fueling the manufacture of nuclear bombs, it was also pressed into service for nuclear power plants. Uranium mining activity left an indelible mark on the land and even in the water. In a part of the country where 30 percent of residents use untreated water, and water quality is often unknown or too dangerous to drink, the long-term health implications become even more staggering.

There is much more to the detailed story here.

Wisconsin Ruling Lowers Prices for Contaminated Properties

By: Duane Craig

For all those in Wisconsin hoping to sell their contaminated properties to the government at prime prices, a recent ruling by the state’s Supreme Court may foil their plans.

According to an article in State Bar of Wisconsin, in cases of condemnation proceedings, including eminent domain, the government can supply evidence of environmental contamination and even future remediation costs in attempt to reduce the amount it pays the owner for the property. The case cited in the article reported the property owner receiving $2 million instead of the $3.5 million reflected in the owner’s appraisal.

This particular case runs counter to a Minnesota Supreme Court case where contamination and cleanup costs were ruled to be inadmissible. Read the whole story right here.

Questioning The Business of Pollution Regulation

By: Duane Craig

It’s a good bet Texas has reasons other than self determination for having its own air quality implementation program and control over how environmental issues are regulated in the state. Those reasons come to light by analyzing its fee schedules for permitting the polluters to pollute, for inspecting their operations, for allowing them to do business in the state and for doing business on state owned properties.

As a line item in the 2010 Texas State Budget report, all licenses, fees, permits, fines and penalties equaled almost $7 billion in 2010. The oil and gas industry is a heavy polluter so besides fines and penalties, oil production and regulation taxes accounted for a little more than $1 billion in 2010. Then there is the natural gas production tax bringing in $725 million, the gas utility pipeline tax earning $14 million, a volatile chemical sales permit totaling $602,000, a few fuels transport taxes and oil and gas drilling permits at almost $9 million and oil and gas violations bringing in more than $4.6 million. Surface mining permits added another $1.5 million with air pollution control fees stacking up to $49 million. Then there are waste treatment inspection fees at $25.2 million, air pollution control fees of $49 million. Then there are all the oil and gas royalties Texas collects from oil companies with operations on state land which total more than $540 million.

Some people in Texas have wondered about the effectiveness of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality when they see how deeply the money flows between it and polluters. At the TCEQ’s first legislative review held in December 2010, the agency was accused of “being too cozy with industry and ignoring public concerns,” and it was especially challenged to explain the approval of coal-fired power plant permits that had been recommended for denial by the state’s own administrative law judges, according to the article “TCEQ gets an earful from public,” 12/16/2010, Houston Chronicle.

What many people haven’t really grasped yet is that governments depend upon polluting industries for operating revenues. In a way, pollution is big business, supplying money for state payrolls and operations related to managing it. Perhaps though, there is a conflict of interest when a state regulates a business that it also receives royalties from, a situation that could lead to more lax regulation when it comes to the environment.

Former Army Bio Weapons Fort Under Scrutiny for Illnesses and Deaths

By: Duane Craig

Fort Detrick, located at 810 Schreider St. in Frederick, Md., is under scrutiny for possible links of contamination to cancer illnesses and deaths, according to an article in The Baltimore Sun. What started as one man looking for answers to questions the locals had been asking for years, has turned into a full-blown effort to definitively link the fort to human health mayhem.

Fort Detrick suspected of environmental contamination

The man who started it all lost one daughter to cancer and recently had another diagnosed with it. He is fortunate enough to have the money necessary to pay for independent scientific investigations, medical tests of area people and now a lawsuit, in his quest to find answers about Fort Detrick's potential role in illnesses and deaths in the nearby communities. He has already spent $1 million, and some locals say they're glad someone with enough money came forward to shine some light on the issue so it could no longer be ignored.

Fort Detrick is home to medical research and development today, but from the 1940s into the 1960s, it was where biological weapons were experimented with, including anthrax and smallpox. The western side of the fort was a testing ground for biological weapons delivery systems and served as a discard site for lab equipment and materials. Perhaps ironically, the fort is also currently home to a National Cancer Institute facility.

Responsible Parties in Omega Superfund Site May Be on the Hook for $70 million

By: Duane Craig

The Omega Chemical Corporation Superfund site in Whittier, California, needs $70 million to cleanup the volatile organic compounds in the ground water, according to a recent report at 89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio. The plume of contamination extends 4.5 miles in a southwesterly direction, at least to Los Nietos Road.

Cleanup of the soil and above-ground area began in 1995. More than 100 potentially responsible parties banded together to "remove and treat 3,000 drums of hazardous waste, 60 cubic yards of hardened resin material, hundreds of empty contaminated drums, numerous cylinders and various other smaller containers." The group also emptied two rainwater sumps and four evaporators. It cleaned two cooling towers, removed 67 refrigerant gas cylinders and disposed of 40,000 gallons of contaminated liquids, according to the history of the site kept by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Whittier, Ca needs $70 million to cleanup superfund site

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control had been alerted to problems at the business in the 1980s, and during the 1990s, the department had tried unsuccessfully to get the operators of the facility to remove wastes and clean up the site. The business recycled refrigerants and solvents from 1976 to 1991. Spills and leaks led to soil contamination with tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, trichloroethylene, or TCE, Freons 11 and 113 and other contaminants. One of the operable units managed by the EPA is addressing vapor intrusion in several buildings along the perimeter of the Omega property, while the other two operable units focus on the ground water contamination.

Uranium and Radon Contamination Not Always Linked to Mining

By: Duane Craig

Photo from:
BEAU CABELL/THE TELEGRAPH

There doesn't have to be uranium mining nearby to cause contamination of water supplies because uranium occurs naturally in many parts of the country. Take Georgia for example.
In Macon, some homeowners were recently surprised to find uranium at 21 times the safe limit in their well water and radon in their indoor air. One woman claimed she was drinking nearly a gallon of the water every day, and others who had their hair tested for uranium found it contained high levels of the radioactive material, according to this report in Macon.com.

There is a layer of granite that runs through several southeastern states. Water that lies below that layer can be high in uranium, and radon is more prevalent above ground in those places also. This creates double jeopardy for those living above the granite. Radon inside buildings is thought to contribute to incidents of lung cancer as people bathe and wash clothes in water containing uranium. In other cases, the radon may seep into buildings through the foundations as it naturally rises through the soil. One in 15 radon air tests in Georgia will have unacceptable limits of the gas.

Twenty-two water tests in the Macon area had uranium present in excess of 30 parts per billion, the recognized safe limit, but a few tests had concentrations as high as 300 and 400 parts per billion. Water testing is on the increase in Macon.

Cleanup Plans Adjusted at Montana Superfund Site

By: Duane Craig

In September soils testing begins in Black Eagle, Montana, at the new Superfund site called ACM Smelter and Refinery. The site was just added to the Superfund program in March 2011.

Heavy metals found in residential properties

According to a Great Falls Tribune article heavy metals have been found in some residential yards so the testing will begin with 90 properties. The investigation will be looking for lead, arsenic and cadmium, and other heavy metals. Later on, the investigation will focus on the places where refinery operations took place, and places where waste was dumped, including the Missouri River. Great Falls is right across the Missouri River from the site.

Some cleanup related to the site was supposed to happen earlier this year but didn't because it was decided the higher priority would be cleanups where people live. The earlier planned cleanup was supposed to be along an abandoned rail line that was used to run waste down to the river for disposal. That cleanup was delayed so it wouldn't interfere with reconstruction plans for Smelter Avenue.
This site has a long and colorful history including a celebratory story about the smokestack that provided much of the soil contamination in the area. The smelter and refinery operated from 1893 to the early 1970s, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's website.

Passing the Roadway Salt

By: Duane Craig

What happens to all the salt that's spread on roadways in northern climes to melt ice? Well, one place it appears to be ending up is in drinking water wells. Not only that, but the places where the salt is stored are also on the radar as potential groundwater contaminators, according to a report in the Watertown Daily Times.com.

Road salt contaminating groundwater

In Orleans, New York, residents and property owners are still waiting for the town's department of public works to coordinate water well testing with the state's department of transportation and it looks like the process of identifying the contaminated wells will be delayed another month. But, time probably won't make much difference at this point. According to one observer, contamination from the salt storage barn along I-81 first came to light in 2002 but salt has been used on roads for more than 60 years.

In this case wells within a one mile radius of the salt barn will be tested. From Collins Landing to Seaway Avenue and beyond even perhaps to Grass Point State Park and Fishers Landing, the legacy of road maintenance extends well beyond the roads.

It was New York's neighbor to the east, New Hampshire, that first adopted a "general policy" of using salt on roadways. That year, the winter of 1941-42, about 5,000 tons of salt were used across the United States on wintry roads. However, as the highway system expanded, so did salt use until in 1970, 10 million tons were being used each winter, according to this paper.

Hexavalent Chromium Contamination Digs Into City Coffers

By: Duane Craig

2,200 residents exposed to hexavalent contamination

Corporations sometimes acquire strange bedfellows and for Merck & Co., a pharmaceutical maker, its ownership of a company that pressure treated lumber for building the frames of cooling towers couldn't be stranger. Now, as the company leads the remediation efforts to clean up hexavalent contamination in the Beachwood Subdivision of Merced, California, the City of Merced itself will be paying out $1.5 million to more than 2,200 residents who were exposed to the chemical for more than 25 years, according to this report in the Merced Sun-Star online.

Why is the city paying?

It seems its insurance carriers decided to back out of covering them in the earlier stage of this case back in April. So, since the city was also named in the suit it decided to settle out of court and forego attorney and expert costs of $1 million a year. The city is using sewer funds and reimbursements from insurance carriers to cover the bill.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek the first of three trial phases focused on whether contamination leaked from the plant and the second phase was set to determine if the residents were harmed by the contamination. The plaintiffs argued the companies involved did not try to notify residents even when they knew there was contamination released. Merck admitted knowing, but countered the contamination could not have affected the residents. Hmmmm, maybe land and water contamination is acceptable as long as it doesn't affect people?
I won't bore you with the multiple, identical reports on this one. Here is one and another that report something different from the stampede of identical reports. Here's one about the earlier trial.

UC Davis Addresses Leftover Contamination Below Animal Research Facility

by: Duane Craig

University of California, Davis Campus

Superfund Cleanup at UC Davis

A Superfund site with shared responsibility between the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California Davis campus enters a new phase of the cleanup--the portion the university is responsible for--and it may be getting quite costly.
The university tested the effects of radiation on beagles, the animal research industry’s canine workhorse. According to this article in The Sacramento Bee, about 800 beagles endured various assaults by radioactive contamination before being dispatched. Twenty years ago their remains were hauled away along with toxic dog waste and contaminated gravel as the first part of the site cleanup. Now, the university must clean up waste pits where it disposed of a wide range of unwanted items, including perhaps an anesthetic.
The anesthesia of choice for the beagle experiments was chloroform, and a plume of that has migrated offsite and is contaminating soil and groundwater below nearby agricultural land. Always the intrepid experimenters, university researchers are using a pilot project to get rid of the chloroform. Air is being pumped into the ground to force the chloroform out of the soil and into a pipe that carries it into the air.
The Energy Department spent decades and millions of dollars on the first phase of this cleanup. But this next part has an amazingly wide potential cost, anywhere from $6 million to $100 million.

PA Drinking Water An Issue In Marcellus Shale Debate

July 23, 2010 - Drinking water is one of the biggest concerns for people in the debate over Marcellus Shale drilling.

Bill Eakin, of Avella, says his once-pristine well water is now contaminated and that it has killed his garden and made him and his wife Shirley ill.

He blames the Atlas Energy Company which has been drilling for natural gas close by for the past two years.

"Oh, I know because me and my wife have been itchy all the time," he said. "Before when we drank it we had diarrhea and had rashes everything," he said.

Bill is not alone. More than 1,200 people crammed into a federal EPA hearing. Many are accusing the drilling company of contaminating ground water and the waterways.

Opponents want a moratorium on the mining of the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale which lies about a mile below the ground.

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Ocala, FL residents file suit over Koppers Superfund site

April 20, 2010- A group of seven Gainesville residents on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against three companies responsible for the cleanup of a contaminated site near North Main Street, seeking $500 million to screen for diseases and decontaminate thousands of homes they believe have been impacted by the pollution.

The Cabot/Koppers Superfund site -- occupying 140 acres between Northwest 23rd and 39th avenues to the west of Main Street -- was for decades home to wood-treating and charcoal-production plants and has been on the government's contamination radar since the 1980s.

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RI. homeowners concerned about contamination from flooding

April 9, 2010- As homeowners continue to cleanup after the historic flooding, there are new concerns about the health and safety of residents in water-logged areas. Jim Denice and his neighbors in Warwick and nearby Cranston noticed a smell as the floodwaters rose. “The odor was like, kind of hard to picture, but I’d say iodine. Some sort of a smell that really wasn’t familiar,“ Denice said.

State Rep. Joe McNamara, D-Warwick, grew up in the neighborhood. He suggested that anyone cleaning up after the flood should wear gloves, goggles and a protective mask. “There is a fear that residual chemicals from the Ciba-Geigy site, which is the equivalent of a federal Superfund site, are downstream from this area.“ McNamara said.

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Owners Of Wilkus Farm In Wethersfield CT Will Have To Clean Up Contamination Before Town Buys It

March 10, 2010- The owners of Wilkus Farm have agreed to clean up contamination at the property before the town buys it for open space. The original deal, negotiated by the Trust for Public Land with the three owners, called for the town to buy the 87-acre property for $3.5 million. That deal was postponed in December while the extent of the environmental contamination was assessed.

Town Manager Jeff Bridges said the owners have agreed to clean up the property before the deal is finalized May 1. The sale price will also be lowered by $55,000 so the town can conduct groundwater testing in the coming years.

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NY County Avoids Foreclosure of Tainted Properties

January 26, 2010- When you haven't paid property taxes in 20 years, there's a good chance the county will take your property - unless it once housed a gas station, metal foundry or landfill.
The owner of a piece of land that once housed a gas station in Johnsburg can attest to that. He hasn't paid property taxes since 1989. The property has long been unused, but in light of the cleanup the property will likely need, the county has decided not to foreclose, officials said.

When there's a possibility a property has environmental contamination that could require cleanup, prospective owners - including the county - are hesitant to take title because they could be on the hook for the cleanup bill.

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A Toxic Waste in Indianapolis Neighborhood

January 5, 2010- The streets that run through Pearl J. Carter's Near-Northside neighborhood are dotted with patches of property that, in a perfect world, might be transformed into something special -- businesses that provide jobs and serve the needs of her neighbors, or houses to bring more middle-income earners into the poverty-stricken area.
But these properties -- remnants of decades past when the area was more heavily industrial -- are far from perfect.

Many of them are possibly contaminated from years of industrial use. Others suffer from the sheer amount of chemicals unloaded on the property. Either way, they present enormous obstacles to developers.

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