According to U.S. bankruptcy code, the U.S. trustee appoints a committee that ordinarily consists of the creditors with the seven largest claims against the debtor. In the ASARCO case, there are no states among the top seven creditors, although DOJ, Washington, Texas and Arizona are listed in ASARCO’s top 20 unsecured creditors. All of the environmental claims are labeled as “unliquidated, disputed.”

September, 19, 2005 
What do you think about Superfund cleanup plan?
Thursday deadline to weigh in on proposal that city, county officials reject
Lynette Wilson, Pensacola News Journal
Local and federal elected officials and the business and environmental-activist communities have rejected the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed $25 million cleanup plan for the Escambia Treating Company Superfund site. They are asking the EPA to reconsider the cleanup alternatives before it makes its final decision later this year. Local officials say they want a cleanup that is more protective of human health and the environment, which includes detoxifying the contaminated soils.

"Permanent remedies for soil decontamination need to be made a priority," U.S.Rep. Jeff Miller said in his official comments submitted to the EPA. "The current draft proposal to excavate, solidify and bury pollutants on-site should be abandoned, and other alternatives to decontaminate the area must be considered." The Superfund program requires public comments be evaluated before regulators make their final decision. The comment period ends Thursday.

The EPA plans to bury more than 560,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil on-site in a plastic liner capped by a 2-foot layer of clay. It chose that remedy from seven alternatives ranging in cost from $126,000 to more than $300 million.The cleanup is supposed to clear the way for redevelopment of the Superfund site, adjacent city-owned property and an additional 60 county-owned acres into a commerce park.

"I'm confident in saying that this remedy is consistent with the redevelopment plan," said W. David Keefer, the site's remedial project manager for the EPA. "But the (proposed) decision obviously doesn't have support throughout the community." EPA does seek public support of its decision. The only support so far for the cleanup plan has come from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

"The federal government is the lead agency for Superfund sites," said Sally Cooey, a department spokeswoman. "The remedy of capping contaminated soils has proven to be protective of human health and the environment. Our staff is supportive of this remedy as proposed."

Other officials and local business leaders worry, however, that the EPA's proposed plan to dispose of the soil in what city and county officials describe as a "typical landfill," would leave the site too contaminated for redevelopment.

"We have a long-term interest in this site," said Evon Emerson, president of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. "We want to utilize the site for creation of jobs, but that has to be consistent with the health and safety of the community."

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson intends to "push the EPA to scrap the current plan," he said.

"I agree with local leaders that the EPA's plan is unrealistic," Nelson said. "Nobody's going to get in line to develop a property laden with toxic chemicals."

The Escambia County Board of Commissioners and the Pensacola City Council passed resolutions this month rejecting the cap-and-bury proposal and asking EPA to re-evaluate the alternatives. "The city and the county both have looked at it and decided it's not what they expected," said Marie Young, District 3 Escambia County commissioner. "The remedy is not good enough to protect the citizens."

In June, the city and county passed resolutions accepting the state's commercial/industrial cleanup standards for contaminated soils at the site. The business community supported the same standard. Three years earlier, the city and county had endorsed a higher, residential cleanup standard for the site, which would have required more of the contamination in the soil to be removed before the property could be developed for other uses.

EPA made its proposal public at the end of June, after city and county government bodies endorsed the lesser, commercial standard. Now neither city nor county officials are happy with the EPA's plan.

"The council feels they had a bait and switch pulled on them," said Marty Donovan, District 4 city councilman. "We in no way accept the plan that is being proposed." Steve Medina, an environmental attorney with the Levin Papantonio law firm, has worked cases involving Superfund sites in the past. "Government needs to do more than pass resolutions," he said. "They need to make sure that they have legal representation to challenge the remedy."

Citizens Against Toxic Exposure, a grassroots group that has been involved with the site for more than a decade, also is pushing EPA to reconsider the alternatives. "This is one of the most toxic sites in America," said Frances Dunham of CATE. "We can't have the toxins left on-site in a plastic bag over the groundwater aquifer."

Eddie Ishmael, 52, lived near the Escambia Treating Co. Superfund site for 17 years, and his family has been connected to the neighborhood his entire life.

Ishmael also serves on Escambia County's Citizens Environmental Committee for District 3. He wants the site cleaned up because he doesn't want future generations to have to deal with it, he said.

"They dug it up, covered it up, and now the EPA wants to bury it in the ground without cleaning it up," he said. "That is ridiculous to me."

September 20, 2005
Hurricane Katrina and Environmental Justice: Toxic Gumbo
By Steve Breyman,Reuters
Had Hurricane Katrina wanted to wreak a maximum of damage designed to highlight deeply entrenched environmental, social and economic injustices in the United States, it could not have picked a better place to make landfall than the Gulf Coast around New Orleans.The maddening and shameful images of poor people of color stranded on rooftops and in hell holes like the Superdome have been joined by a growing list of environmental insults delivered or made worse by the hurricane Some of the worst include oil spills, toxic chemicals on the loose, flooded Superfund sites, and the release of vast volumes of raw sewage. While we have some knowledge of the immediate environmental costs and dangers of the disaster, uncertainties remain about Katrina's toxic legacy for human and ecosystem health.

Oil Spills

The Coast Guard estimates seven million gallons of oil got free from at least forty-four factories, tank farms, and other facilities to join the floodwaters of southeastern Louisiana. This is nearly two-thirds the amount of oil left in Alaskan waters by the Exxon Valdez. But in the case of the tanker accident, clean-up efforts were aided by the fact that the oil came from a single source.

What the current Coast Guard estimate misses is the highly dispersed and enormous volume of gasoline, oil, solvents, and other chemicals released when floodwaters washed over countless abandoned cars, boats, trucks, buses, oil change joints, and vehicle repair shops. And what of the structural integrity of the region's 2,200 underground storage tanks? Adding to the uncertainties are no fewer than 58 unmoored drilling platforms floating in the Gulf, and unknown damage to hundreds of undersea pipelines.

Superfund Sites and Chemical Spills

The region was already infamous for poisoning those of its citizens least able to resist it before Katrina struck. Now, some of these waste and production sites are completely submerged or burned. Consider the case of the Thompson-Hayward chemical plant. For decades up through the mid-eighties, the facility manufactured insecticides like DDT, herbicides like 2,4,5-T (the main ingredient of dioxin-laced Agent Orange), and fungicides like the dioxin-containing pentachlorophenol. Remediation efforts throughout the eighties and nineties were never fully completed; some 2,600 tons of herbicide-tainted soil were deemed too dangerous to dispose of anywhere in the country.

Or take the case of the submerged Agriculture Street Landfill, rich in heavy metals, hazardous waste, and asbestos. Some of the landfill's contents originated with the clean up in the wake of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Plagued for years by uncontrollable underground fires, locals referred to the dump as "Dante's Inferno." As Rebecca Clarren reports, "while the EPA eventually declared the dump a Superfund site (after the city had filled the area and built homes and a school above the infill of trash), the only cleanup the landfill underwent was the removal of 5 inches of soil . . . [then] a plastic barrier was put down and clean soil thrown on top."

A chemical storage facility on the river east of the French Quarter caught fire. Office buildings in New Orleans burned too, releasing that potent brew familiar to residents of Lower Manhattan after September 11. Explosions were reported in railcars carrying chemicals. What of the impact of the countless containers of household cleaning products floating in the region's nearly 160,000 drowned residences?

Human and Animal Waste

As if the petrochemical hazards were not bad enough, residents must also contend with rotting livestock and seafood carcasses, dead fish and other marine life, innumerable drowned cats and dogs, and raw sewage. The region's 200 wastewater treatment facilities are offline. The EPA declared as early as September 7 that e.coli bacteria levels in floodwaters were ten times those permitted by law. Add to this the untreated wastes dumped in shallow inlets and bays all along the coast by the thousands living aboard boats saved from the storm.

Several people have already died from vibrio vulnificus infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also worries about leptospirosis, with symptoms ranging from high fevers to liver failure, contracted through contact with water contaminated by livestock urine.

Neither Rocks Nor Hard Places

What to do with the toxic water under which sits New Orleans? Pump it into Lake Pontchartrain, untreated and as rapidly as possible, decided the Corps of Engineers. Environmentalists quickly identified two problems with this strategy. One, they fear the contaminants in the water will kill all living things in the giant but shallow lake, including migratory birds. Two, they worry that the storm roiled already contaminated sediments in the lake and in the Mississippi River that may have been transported elsewhere by the flood. These sediments were spoiled by companies like American Creosote whose century of production and accidents landed the site on the Superfund list in 1983. And like Ponchatoula Battery that dumped millions of spent lead-acid battery cases on the ground during the 1970s.

Flying over the Gulf Coast a couple weeks ago, geographer Chris Wells of the US Geological Survey described the landscape as "absolutely bizarre and unreal." With every tree in sight snapped, the remaining wetlands were scoured clean of vegetation as if by some giant scraper. With the exception of a few songbirds, and a lone alligator swimming twenty miles offshore, Wells saw no wildlife. Ecologists worry that the Gulf of Mexico's frightful "dead zone" caused by algae blooms fed by agricultural run-off carried into it by the Mississippi is likely to expand.

These environmental bads illustrate the real, dire, and reversible costs routinely paid by residents of Louisiana's Cancer Alley and other national or regional sacrifice zones. As critical as we have rightly been of the unforgivably slow government reaction to evacuation and relief-with emergency response plans in place-there was no plan to cope with the environmental damage of a disaster.

Can we restore wetlands and barrier islands ravaged by centuries of shortsighted development? Can we replace our dependence on fossil fuels and toxic chemicals with renewables and benign alternatives? Can we bring back the Superfund tax on the chemical and oil industries-worth over $4 million each and every day-to help pay for the clean-up? Can we rebuild New Orleans with green materials and designs using local labor paid a living wage that will prepare the Crescent City for a future made riskier than ever by climate change? Can we forever put to rest proposals for elimination of the estate tax and other giveaways to those who already have too much? Might we finally end the war on Iraq? Answers to these questions will determine not only the future of the devastated Gulf Coast residents, but of all of the rest of us as well.

Steve Breyman is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Citizens Environmental Coalition. He can be reached at: breyms@rpi.edu -- Bobbi Chase Wilding Associate Director Citizens' Environmental Coalition 33 Central Avenue Albany, NY 12210 518-462-5527 fax: 518-465-8349 cecbobbi@igc.org www.cectoxic.org www.ecothreatny.org www.kodakstoxiccolors.org

September 23, 2005
Montana faces eternal clean-up of toxic lake
By Adam Tanner, Reuters

BUTTE, Montana, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Long before Hurricane Katrina inundated New Orleans with what officials describe as a dangerous toxic soup, Montana's mining capital struggled to deal with a massive watery hazard. Even as bad as the sewage and chemical infested water around New Orleans may be, the Berkeley Pit, a toxic lake filling a 1-1/2 by 1 mile (2.4 by 1.6 km) open pit mine in Butte (pop. 34,000) may pose an even greater long-term ecological risk.

The site, which includes land near the lake, is the largest Superfund environmental clean-up project in the country in terms of area. The Superfund program, created in 1980 and run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, seeks to clean up the worst U.S. hazardous waste sites.

Unlike the sudden devastation of the Gulf Coast floods, the Berkeley Pit mess was many decades in the making, a legacy of the demand for copper wire spurred by electrification that made Butte America's mother lode of copper, generating an estimated $48 billion in mineral wealth.

The "Copper Kings" of the Butte mines made vast riches starting in the 1870s. By 1955, Anaconda Mining Company decided it was most economical to engage in open-pit mining rather than to continue digging a maze of underground shafts. The Atlantic Richfield Company, which is now owned by BP <BP.L>, bought Anaconda in 1977, and ended active mining in the Berkeley Pit in 1982. Since then, highly acidic underground water has continuously seeped into the pit from higher land, creating a rust-colored lake.

The Berkeley Pit, a remnant of what was once called "the richest hill on Earth", has also become Butte's top tourist attraction where visitors pay a small fee to enter a viewing platform and read about the lake's history. But if its lake rises above a certain level, it will ruin the town's ground water.

"The plan is to continue with pumps to keep the water below that level and then treat the water that they pump out and that's going to have to go on until the end of time," Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer said in an interview. The water, with high concentrations of copper, arsenic and other metals, is dangerous enough that officials will warn off birds with gunfire, for a stay at the lake could prove fatal, as in 1995 when 342 snow geese died. "If there is a lesson, it is that actions have consequences; know your consequences," Gavin Scally, Atlantic Richfield's deputy regional manager said about its history.

PUMPING 'TIL THE END OF TIME

What to do about the consequences is set out in a 2002 court-approved deal in which Atlantic Richfield and Montana Resources, a separate company which still mines a nearby pit, assumed joint responsibility for future clean up. Under that agreement, a $20 million plant and pumps are treating contaminated surface water that used to flow into the Berkeley Pit.

Atlantic Richfield will also start pumping from the Berkeley Pit itself as the water level -- fed by underground aquifers -- begins to approach the dangerous mark of 5,410 feet (1,649 m) above sea level, something estimated to happen in 2020. The effort is costing at least $1 million a year. "If we could have come up with a solution that would have been better for the environment and low cost, we would have done it," Scally said. Some say the never-ending clean-up costs leave a bad financial deal for future generations. "The end of time is a long time so I wonder if all of the value of the copper that we took out will match the expenditure that we will make trying to clean up the mess," Gov. Schweitzer told Reuters.

He also expressed concern that the public sector may one day wind up shouldering costs of the clean-up even though the profits flowed to private hands. "It was a few rascals that made all the money. But I guess that is in some ways the story of the West," he said The Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology estimates the Butte hill produced more than $48 billion in mineral wealth. The costs included 2,300 deaths from mining accidents, not including chronic illness sparked by mine exposure. Even though the Berkeley Pit is not being actively mined, privately owned Montana Resources says it still extracts about 400,000 pounds of copper a month by filtering the water there.

The company is also operating the nearby smaller Continental Pit that will also have to be treated into the future. The firm says it has extracted more than 1.2 billion pounds of copper since its operations began in 1986. The environmental manager for Montana Resources, Tad Dale, gave an impassioned defense of society's need for mining, but declined to be quoted for this article. Russ Forba, the Environmental Protection Agency project manager for Berkeley Pit, estimates the perpetual treatment costs at $100 million, which includes the cost of inflation and of interest earned on the clean-up funds. "That mine makes a lot more than $100 million a year," Forba said. "It's expensive but there's been a lot earned from that pit and there will be a lot in the future." He said future technologies could devise better and cheaper ways to treat the toxic water.

"I guess I would call it a success," he said of the clean-up. "No, it's not a natural lake sitting there, it's not filled in, but it's contained, it doesn't pose a significant risk to human health and the environment."

August 24, 2005
Cancer Rates Higher near Endicott Spill
Study: Spike in Kidney, Testicular Malignancies
By Tom Wilber, (Binghamton) Press & Sun-Bulletin
ENDICOTT -- George Kretzmer was not surprised Tuesday evening when he learned that he and others living south of the former IBM plant had significantly elevated rates of birth defects and two types of cancers. "It's hard for me to believe how many people I have buried that are less than 50 years old," Kretzmer told officials from the state Department of Health after they presented the information to residents at a meeting at Union-Endicott High School. "I see a bigger common denominator than I think you're letting on. I don't have a whole bunch of statistics or registry, but this is what I've seen with my own eyes."

The study included an area of about 300 acres polluted by solvents first discovered seeping from the IBM plant on North Street in 1979. It also included several blocks west of Jefferson Avenue, polluted by an undetermined source.

It concluded that people living near the polluted area have higher rates of birth defects, testicular cancer and kidney cancer than would be expected. The study was undertaken after residents learned they had been exposed to low levels of industrial solvents pushing into basements through a process called vapor intrusion. The study takes into account 22 types of cancers from 1980 to 2001. It concludes that elevated rates of testicular and kidney cancers during that time are "unlikely due to chance alone."

But it does not explain what caused them.

"Before any conclusion can be drawn, the issue requires further study," said Robert Kenny, a spokesman for the Department of Health.

Testicular cancer is rare. Statistically, scientists would expect to find 2.2 cases in the study area in 21 years. Six were documented. Cancer of the kidney and renal pelvis is also relatively rare. Scientists found 15 cases in the study area, where fewer than eight were expected.

While the number of testicular and kidney cancers are low compared to more common types of cancer, they are important because they are unusual. In scientific terms, they represent statistical "outliers" that alert scientists to the possibility of a larger problem.

The study also found that heart defects were "significantly higher than expected" for children born in the study area between 1983 and 2000, as were low birth weights for children born between 1978 and 2002. About 60 people attended the 90-minute meeting. DOH research scientists Steven Forand and Karolina Schabses gave an overview of the study's methodology and findings.

The study has several limitations, Forand told the gathering. It does not account for long-time residents who may have been exposed to the chemicals but moved from the area before they developed an illness. Conversely, it may include new residents who developed an illness soon after moving to the neighborhood, although they may not have been exposed to the chemicals for any significant length of time.

Dave Bohrer, a 50-year-old former Endicott resident and testicular-cancer survivor, is an example of someone who may have been left out. He lived on Tracy Street, in the polluted area, from 1981 to 1990. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1997, after he had moved to Apalachin. Otherwise, he might have been case number seven.

The cancer was still in its early stages, which greatly increased Bohrer's chances of survival. But it was a shock, said Bohrer, the assistant managing editor of the Ithaca Journal and former assistant sports editor of the Press & Sun-Bulletin. "You suddenly think about your mortality, about your family and the things you could miss," said Bohrer. He is now cancer-free. IBM Corp. spokesman Todd Martin pointed out that the study did not determine a cause for the cancers, and that many factors can influence cancer rates. He also noted that some of the cancers were in the section west of the IBM pollution.

"We've all had a friend or family member diagnosed with one form or another of this disease, and we're cognizant of that," he said. The area studied is polluted with trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent once used in the circuit board assembly process, and similar solvents. Scientists discovered in 2003 that the chemical was entering hundreds of basements as vapors.

IBM has installed systems to divert the chemicals from more than 430 properties.

TCE is listed as a "probable human carcinogen" by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. A proposed revision of the EPA guideline, now under review, lists TCE exposure as "highly likely to produce cancer in humans." It documents an association of TCE exposure with increased human kidney cancer and testicular cancer in rats.

But there is little scientific consensus about how much a person has to ingest, or for how long, before it is hazardous.

Other factors, such as diet, smoking and occupational exposure to chemical hazards can also influence cancer rates.

Health officials will review individual case records of kidney and testicular cancers, heart defects and low birth weights to assess any contributing factors, and see whether additional study could determine a cause, according to an overview of the evaluation.

Dr. Joseph Readling, an oncologist who is a partner in Broome Oncology, said there is evidence that suggests exposure to toxic chemicals can increase certain types of kidney cancers. The "jury is still out" as to whether TCE exposure is a factor in the illnesses, he said. But the study, he added, is important. "Whether people can get significant exposure to the stuff wafting out of the ground -- I don't think anybody knows that," he said. "This is sort of a first step in trying to get an idea whether there is a connection that is significant."

For Kretzmer, who grew up on Endicott's Lincoln Avenue, there is no question that the pollution caused the illnesses. "I grew up around this," he said. "It was on my playground and my paper routes. I remember seeing big ponds of liquid stuff that wasn't water." As he spoke at the meeting, he waved a stack of newspaper obituaries. Kretzmer was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma in 1982 at age 20.

Kretzmer said his condition has left him uninsurable and unable to work for the better part of two decades. Kretzmer also spoke to the DOH about the number of friends he has buried young -- something he has a hard time accepting as coincidence. But Readling said it may take years of more study to find answers. And that may extend beyond the resources of the Department of Health. Cancer-incidence studies are not unusual, but finding statistically elevated rates for particular cancers is. The state has conducted 19 similar studies in communities throughout the state since 2001. None found any elevated rates of testicular cancer. Two found significantly high rates of kidney cancer.

Reporter SCOTT ROCKEFELLER contributed to this story.

Q & A About the Findings

Q: Am I in danger of getting cancer if I live in the study area?

A: The state study looks at what happened in the past, but is not a useful tool to predict the future. IBM has installed ventilation systems to divert trichloroethylene gases from more than 430 properties. Tests are ongoing to see whether the pollution in the ground is affecting outside air.

Q: Is the report saying the pollution caused these cases of cancer?

A: No.

Q: Could the cancer have come from other sources?

A: Lifestyle, family history and occupational exposure to chemicals must be taken into consideration. That may be the job of future studies.

Q: What else causes these types of cancers?

A: Many types of cancer have known or suspected risk factors. Smoking can cause kidney cancer.

Q: How can I find out if I am at risk of the cancers in the report?

A: People who smoke and have a family history of cancer have relatively high risk. Chronic exposure to TCE, radon and other agents known to increase cancer risks also are factors that should be considered. If you have any questions about your chances of developing cancer, see your doctor.

Q. When will there be another public meeting on the subject?

A: From noon to 3, and 5 to 8 p.m. today at Union-Endicott High School, Endicott. Scientists will hold one-on-one discussions.

Q: Where can I learn more about the pollution in Endicott, and the investigations related to it?

A: Read dozens of stories, see the cleanup plan and view a map of the affected area at www.pressconnects.com/ special/endicottspill/

SOURCES: National Cancer Institute, Press & Sun-Bulletin research

September 16, 2005
The Mother Of All Toxic Cleanups
No one knows how to deal with the untold tons of lethal goop -- or who will pay
Business Week
As rescue workers continue the grim search for bodies in New Orleans, environmental engineers are struggling with what will probably become the biggest challenge of Katrina -- the mess. A toxic brew of oil, chemicals, bacteria, debris, and garbage must be cleared and the ground scrubbed before the city can be rebuilt. Unfortunately, the experts have few new ideas about how to tackle a cleanup of this scale. "There is no silver bullet, and I would be highly suspicious of anyone who says there is," says Calvin H. Ward, an environmental engineering professor at Rice University.

Federal and state scientists have started surveying the many cleanup issues. Those assessments are expected to take months, but the Environmental Protection Agency has already found that the floodwater pumped back into Lake Pontchartrain has extremely high levels of lead and sewage-related bacteria. The Coast Guard has reported at least five major oil leaks from damaged tanks and refineries, including 819,000 gallons spilled south of New Orleans. Then there's the 95-acre Superfund site near downtown New Orleans, a toxic former dump. Four years ago, it was covered with two feet of topsoil and protective sheeting. Now it's underwater and could be leaching chemicals.

Any one of these situations might be manageable, but taken together, the task leaves experts questioning where the resources will come from. The cost could run to tens of billions of dollars, especially if oil and chemicals seep deep into the ground. "We have cleaned up lots of other catastrophes and, quite candidly, this outstretches all of them combined," says William J. Geary, executive vice-president of Clean Harbors Inc ( CLHB )., a leader in environmental cleanup, with workers already in the city. "This is orders of magnitude bigger than what any cleanup company would be familiar with."

The most immediate concern for health officials is the high levels of bacteria and lead in the rancid water covering much of New Orleans. The EPA has warned the water is so contaminated that people should not let it touch their skin, and five Louisiana evacuees have died of a cholera-like illness. Yet that water, essentially raw sewage, is being pumped into Lake Pontchartrain.

There's no chance of treating the water as it goes into the lake, as nearly all the waste treatment plants in the region were damaged by the flood. Bacteria normally dies off from exposure to sun and seawater after a week or so, but the lake may be so starved of oxygen that the natural cycle will be inhibited. Ward says it would help if oxygen were pumped back into the lake -- "nature does work if you let it" -- but right now New Orleans' main priority is getting the water out of the city.

Oil and toxic chemical spills present a far more intractable problem. Contaminated topsoil can be scooped up by vacuum-like machines, but those devices can't get at muck that has seeped into houses, sewer lines, or groundwater. There are novel technologies that can be applied. Last year, for example, Solucorp Industries Ltd. in West Nyack, N.Y., introduced a chemical compound that prevents heavy metals such as mercury and lead from leaching into the soil and makes them safe for disposal. Solucorp President Noel E. Spindler says the technology has not been tried on any project as large as the Katrina disaster site, but it could be deployed in certain areas. Such reagents will likely not be useful, however, in locations where a complex chemical cocktail exists.

The biggest problem will be disposing of all the waste. "This is going to be an absolutely enormous volume, and I doubt that much of it will be able to be recycled," says Edward J. Bouwer, an environmental engineering professor at Johns Hopkins University. There is no landfill in the U.S large enough to accommodate a trashed city, and scientists say there is a limit to how much other nations would be willing to take. "The logistics, the cost, the volume," laments Ward. "It's just a massive, massive problem."

September 1, 2005
Katrina Leaves Toxic Bathtub
Washinton Post
Sewage and chemicals are mixed into a potentially toxic bathtub soaking New Orleans, posing the threat of disease for residents forced to wade in Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters. "Probably the more immediate health risk to the people is that whatever was in the sewer is in the water," said John Pardue, director of the Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "Whatever bacterial or viral diseases that people put into the system before the flooding is now in the water."

Meanwhile, scientists say they're alarmed by how much of the region's environmental defenses against future hurricanes and other big storms have become seriously compromised. For example, the Barrier Islands, which have prevented strong storm waves from hitting shore in the past, are almost wiped away.

Smaller toxic environments are popping up during rescue efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi. For example, the Superdome became a health hazard for refugees over the past couple days due to broken toilets and air conditioning. The first of hundreds of busloads of people evacuated from the hot and stinking Louisiana Superdome arrived early Thursday at their new temporary home — another sports arena, the Houston Astrodome, 350 miles away.

The military, which was overseeing the removal of the able-bodied by buses, continued the ground evacuation without interruption, said National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider. But Schneider said fires set outside the Superdome were making it difficult for buses to get close enough to pick people up.

Along with the sewage in the floodwater is a witches' brew of chemicals from a variety of sources, including leaking fuels and oils from gas stations and submerged cars, paints and solvents from small businesses and household cleaners and pesticides from peoples' homes.

But the biggest chemical plants and refineries to the south and east of the city were spared a direct hit by the hurricane. If that had happened, breaches in large tanks and other industrial facilities might have spewed heavy petroleum, hydrocarbons and chlorine gas.

"From the perspective of chemical or environmental contamination, it could have been much worse. One advantage is that we have so much water in the city and that dilutes out the chemicals," Pardue said. "People shouldn't have an irrational fear of chemicals in the water. I'm more concerned about the viral and bacterial things. There's going to be a lot of gastrointestinal and public health issues."
Although it may seem counterintuitive, dead bodies do not pose an immediate health threat, reports WebMD for CBSNews.com. It's hard to get an infection from the body of a person killed in a disaster. There's no hurry to bury the dead until every effort is made to identify the bodies and contact surviving family members.

Besides the broken sewage systems polluting the floodwaters, breached drinking water systems are no longer functioning.

With water systems inoperative, sanitation becomes very difficult. Hand washing is the best way to prevent disease — but even hand washing is difficult in the absence of clean water. If available, alcohol-based hand sanitizers are very effective, WebMD reports.

Sam Coleman, a regional director for EPA's Superfund toxic waste division in Dallas, said he could not predict how long it would take to clean, disinfect and then test the hundreds of small community drinking water systems that no longer work because of the loss of power.

"Personally, I've never seen anything like this," he said. "No one has quite seen it this bad."

June 26, 2005
EPA plans $7 million system to clean up Sierra mine
Associated Press
GARDNERVILLE (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency intends to install a new $7 million system to provide yearround cleanup at an abandoned sulfur mine in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Project manager Kevin Mayer said the system should be operating by the winter of 2006-07 at the polluted Leviathan Mine site 25 miles southwest of Gardnerville. Since making the Superfund list of the country’s most polluted sites in 2000, the area in California’s rugged Alpine County has been the focus of increased cleanup efforts.

A toxic stew of acid and dissolved heavy metals has collected at the 250-acre site for half a century and polluted streams in the upper Carson River basin. Since the cleanup began, efforts have been discontinued every winter because of harsh conditions at the 7,000-foot elevation site.

The EPA hopes the new treatment system can be effective through the winter with no human operation, Mayer said. “Even though it’s not the highest elevation mine for cleanup and it’s not the largest volume of contamination being generated, it’s the most remote site,” Mayer said. “At nearly every other site you can actually have personnel be there every day, checking valves and gauges. We can’t do that for basically half the year,” Mayer said.

Actively treating acid mine drainage without day-to-day access by personnel in the winter has not been implemented anywhere else in the nation, Mayer said. “We have some pretty important trial runs this summer and this winter,” he said. “We’re not going to risk having a system where the pump might fail and dump more acid in one big flush.”

Mayer said he’s more optimistic than he was three years ago that the site will be completely cleaned up. “We’re convinced the bugs and the fish will come back into Leviathan Creek,” Mayer said. “We just want to make sure that it will be a safe home for them all year round.”

The Leviathan Mine opened in 1863 as a source of copper sulfate for processing silver ore from Comstock Lode mines in the Virginia City area. The mine closed but was reopened for sulfur mining from 1935 to 1941. After buying it in 1951, the Anaconda Co. used openpit mining to extract sulfur for about 10 years.

September 10, 2005
Flooded Toxic Waste Sites Are Potential Health Threat
By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post
Three Superfund toxic waste sites in and around New Orleans were flooded by Hurricane Katrina and one remains underwater, Environmental Protection Agency officials said yesterday, adding that they will soon start investigating whether hazardous materials are leaching into the environment.

The uncertainties surrounding how the storm affected hazardous waste sites -- EPA administrator Steve Johnson said his agency had yet to determine if any of their protective shields had been degraded -- highlights the challenges facing any future cleanup. The Gulf Coast has long been a magnet for chemical plants and waste dumps, some of which shut down after becoming too contaminated in recent years.

"We don't know if there's a problem or not," Johnson said, adding that officials will begin sampling soil and water from the sites when they have a chance. "We are taking appropriate steps to understand what we're dealing with. There's just a lot of work to be done."

Darryl Malek-Wiley, a Sierra Club organizer in Louisiana who has spent years working on the cleanup of the Agriculture Street Landfill two miles north of the central business district, said he is particularly concerned about that site because the city encouraged first-time black home buyers to move there in the 1970s. Federal officials placed the site on Superfund's National Priorities List in 1994.

"What's happening, we don't know. If EPA says they know, they're lying," Malek-Wiley said, adding that the agency has done more to protect Superfund sites in wealthier areas. "What it says is the federal government's approach to cleanup is that they do a better job in rich counties than in poor counties."

Several scientists and environmental experts said it was likely the rush of water, much of which remains trapped inside New Orleans, had infiltrated the waste sites and absorbed a range of contaminants. In the Agriculture Street Landfill, federal authorities replaced the top two feet of contaminated soil in residents' yards and laid down a layer of protective sheeting four years ago, but standing water could leach into the dirt over time.

"Very few facilities are designed to withstand this kind of severe flooding," said Lynn Goldman, who served as assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances under President Bill Clinton and now teaches at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "You have to get in there and do an assessment of what the damage is."

Randy Deitz, an attorney adviser in the EPA's Office of Solid Waste Management and Emergency Response, said federal officials took steps when cleaning up the Gulf Coast sites to protect them from future storm damage. But he added, "In the case of a catastrophe, sometimes all the engineering in the world is not going to prevent some erosion."

Although federal authorities have yet to conduct a formal count, several former EPA officials said they could not recall a single flood affecting so many Superfund sites since at least the early 1990s, when the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers overflowed simultaneously.

Sylvia Lowrance, who headed the EPA's hazardous waste management program and worked at the agency for nearly a quarter-century, said she could not remember a time when a Superfund site "was literally underwater. This is certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, environmental and public health disasters we've faced in modern times."

The flooded Superfund sites in Louisiana and Mississippi contain a range of contaminants that include heavy metals linked to increased cancer risk and developmental problems and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carcinogens.

Richard T. Di Giulio, who heads Duke University's Superfund Basic Research Center, said when a toxic site is flooded, the contaminants could seep into surface water and the surrounding soil.

EPA officials said they could not determine whether serious flooding had affected two waste sites in Mississippi, a wood treating plant in Picayune and a chemical fixation facility in Harrison County along the Louisiana border. Both areas were hit by massive storm surges during the hurricane, but local activists said they had not had a chance to survey the sites.

July 15, 2005
Review of Coeur d'Alene Cleanup Supports Soil Removal, Doubts Ecological Protection
BNA Daily Report No. 135
Assessments by the Environmental Protection Agency of ecological risks in Idaho's Coeur d'Alene River Basin are "in line with best scientific practices" and "based on quality monitoring," but the effectiveness of the agency's interim plan to mitigate those risks is doubtful, according to a study released July 14 by the National Academies.

The study supports EPA's ongoing and planned cleanup actions for the sprawling river basin to protect human health, which focus on the removal of residential soils contaminated with lead from previous mining and smelting operations.

"We anticipate the report's recommendations will aid our long-standing commitment to use the best available science to protect the environment, human health, and the communities of the Coeur d'Alene Basin," the agency said in a statement. EPA said it will respond to the report by July 28.

The review of the agency's remediation plan for the basin stated that EPA's assessments of the risk to people from lead contamination throughout the basin are accurate, but it urged more frequent testing of blood lead levels in children. EPA's continued effort to remediate residential areas will adequately protect residents from contamination, according to the report, Superfund and Mining Megasites: Lessons from the Coeur d'Alene River Basin.

The report by a committee of the Academies' National Research Council did not, however, specifically address EPA's decision to expand cleanup of the area from a 21-square-mile site with the highest amount of contamination, known as "the box," to hot spots throughout the entire 1,500-square-mile river basin. That decision was met with strong opposition from Idaho lawmakers, state regulators, and business leaders in the area, who worried about the economic impact of the basin being declared a superfund site.

"The study focuses on EPA's implementation" of the applicable laws "and not on the broader questions about the financial or societal value" of the expenditures in the area, the committee said in the report. "The committee recognizes that substantial controversy surrounds remediation at the site, and EPA's decisions were responsive, at least in part, to concerns of affected parties. ... Therefore, some decisions the committee considers suboptimal might have resulted from compromise with affected parties, as well as the reality of limited financial resources."

Delegation's Concerns

The study of EPA's planned cleanup of the basin was requested by members of the Idaho congressional delegation, which includes Sens. Larry Craig (R) and Mike Crapo (R) and Reps. Mike Simpson (R) and C.L. "Butch" Otter (R). The delegation members, as well as many residents of the area and outside experts, have questioned the merit of the science used by EPA to come up with the plan (14 DEN A-12, 1/23/04 ).

In a joint statement, members of the delegation said July 14, "From the beginning, our goal in pursuing this ... assessment was ensuring that EPA used the best possible science to reach its conclusions. We appreciate it identifying areas of concern, including the need for greater focus on upstream hot spots in the environmental remediation and more consideration of how previous EPA work inside the box has influenced conditions downstream."

The committee's "call for a more flexible, efficient, and effective problem-solving approach by EPA is also encouraging," the members said.

The agency announced the $359 million remediation plan in 2002, which contains a final remedy to address contamination-related human health risks and an interim remedy to begin to address ecological risks. The cleanup plan addresses heavy metal pollution in the entire Coeur d'Alene basin downriver from the Bunker Hill superfund site, where several mining operations were located and where cleanup originally focused. After prior actions to clean up the Bunker Hill site, the agency extended its focus to the vast area surrounding the site, which makes up the river basin. Soils, sediments, surface water, and groundwater are contaminated in areas throughout the basin, according to EPA.

'Serious Concerns' About Ecological Protection

The committee expressed "serious concerns" about the likely effectiveness of the agency's interim plan to mitigate risks to the basin environment, including fish and wildlife.

For example, according to the report, "EPA has not targeted groundwater for cleanup, even though the main source of dissolved metals in rivers and lakes--and the greatest threat to aquatic life in the basin--is zinc that seeps into surface water from groundwater."

The committee recommended that the agency "more thoroughly identify specific places where zinc is leaching into groundwater and set priorities for removing or stabilizing these materials."

EPA also should locate and remove the largest sources of lead-contaminated sediments in riverbeds, especially those likely to be carried downstream, the report said.

The committee also said EPA's plan does not adequately take into account the basin's frequent floods, which could recontaminate cleaned up land with metal-polluted sediments.

"The agency should select strategies that are likely to withstand this danger and lessen the impact of these floods," the committee said.

Residents Adequately Protected

However, provided floods do not recontaminate cleaned up areas, EPA's plan to continue to remove lead-contaminated soil from residential yards in the basin "should adequately protect residents against the most serious health threats."

But the committee said the current rate of blood testing in children is suboptimal, given the high concentration in some communities. The report recommended that all children, ages 1-4 years, throughout the basin be screened annually for blood lead in conjunction with other routine healthcare screening tests.

During a July 14 teleconference on the report, committee chairman David Tollerud, a professor of public health and toxicology at the University of Kentucky, said that while the report urged the annual testing "as part of routine healthcare for children in the area," there was "nothing in place currently to require that, and the committee didn't really discuss how to require it; just that it should be done."

The report, Superfund and Mining Megasites: Lessons from the Coeur d'Alene River Basin, is available at http://www.nap.edu/books/0309097142/html/.

June 29, 2005
Banking on Tainted Ground
The Navy balks at cleaning up its old Alameda base, but if it accepts the city's latest plan, houses may bloom there yet.
By John Geluardi, East Bay Express, CA

Last month when the Pentagon recommended closing the Concord Naval Weapons Station, Mayor Laura Hoffmeister was pictured in the San Francisco Chronicle sucking cake frosting off her index finger. There was good cause for her to celebrate. If Congress approves the closure, Concord hopes to oversee the development of 13,500 new homes on the site, plus schools, business parks, and open space.

June 16, 2005
Testing stalls Caroline's purchase of Midnight Sun property
Jennie Daley, Ithaca Journal  
Slaterville Springs -- Signs of contamination are holding up the Town of Caroline's purchase of the former Midnight Sun property.

Phase I testing by Buck Laboratories revealed evidence of petroleum contamination on the property at Midline and Slaterville Roads, according to Town Supervisor Don Barber. The site was a gas station years ago and then became a convenience store under the current property owner, Tony Liu. Liu said that he had removed gas tanks from the site years ago and that those tanks were fully in tact.

Without the benefit of more testing, Barber said, the town speculates that earlier tanks may have ruptured, leading to the contamination.

At its meeting tonight, the town board plans to examine what the procedure is for a municipal purchase of a contaminated property. Research is being done and the expectation is that the town will have to follow protocols pertinent to a Superfund sight. Superfund is a federal program run by the Environmental Protection Agency to identify, characterize and clean up contaminated sites. If the site meets Superfund standards, federal funds will be available for the cleanup.

"We think you can't spend any money (on cleanup) before you become a Superfund" if you want reimbursement, Barber said.

To become a Superfund, the town would first have to complete the sale of the property, the price of which is set at $66,500. At a public hearing held earlier this month, Barber said about 10 people came out with questions and suggestions.

"There seemed to be a general consensus" on purchase of the property, Barber said. "We have a process that's not being held up by personal agenda or lack of community support but because of a technical process."

How best to proceed will be the topic of discussion at the town board meeting at 7 tonight at the town hall, 2670 Slaterville Road.

The town is also expected to talk about Mackenzie Park, the small municipal green space across the street from the town hall. There is discussion that incorporating the park's activities within the soon-to-be expanded property at the town hall may be a better use of town resources.

By organizing her neighbors in the Love Canal Homeowners Association and forcing the federal government to address the crisis, Gibbs became an icon of the modern environmental movement. President Jimmy Carter eventually ordered the evacuation of 900 families from Love Canal in October 1980. Two months later, Congress created the Superfund program to clean up the nation's worst toxic sites. And Lois Gibbs acquired a nickname: Mother of Superfund.

So where is Gibbs now, as Superfund approaches its 25th anniversary? The answer is, in a nondescript office building in Falls Church, Virginia, where she runs an organization called the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ). The center's goal comes straight from her Love Canal experience: to organize ordinary people to combat the toxic threats they face in their everyday environment. Her philosophy is easily summarized, Gibbs says: "We should be looking at how much harm we can avoid, as opposed to how much harm we can tolerate."

Children remain her special passion. She's still astonished, 25 years later, at how little regulation exists to protect them from environmental hazards. There are no federal rules, for example, requiring schools to be built at a safe distance from known environmental hazards. She reels off a list of schools around the country that have been built on or adjacent to old military dumps, abandoned oil fields, incinerator-ash dumps, chemical plants. Almost invariably, they are located in low-income or minority communities.

These days she expects no help from Washington. What relationship does CHEJ have with the current administration? Gibbs thinks about it and shakes her head: "Absolutely none. It's shrunk to zero." Then she thinks for a minute more and smiles wryly. "Well, there's Chafee, of course." Lincoln Chafee, she means, the famously independent moderate Republican senator from Rhode Island.

One of the center's biggest campaigns is to end the use of polyvinyl chloride -- the "poison plastic," Gibbs calls it. PVC is lethal at the beginning of its life, since its production involves large amounts of chlorine, and hazardous at the end. PVC can't be recycled; you can't reliably dispose of it in landfills; and when it's burned, the result is emissions of dioxin. Gibbs finds that people are always surprised to learn that hospital incinerators emit especially high concentrations of dioxin. "Most doctors and nurses have no clue about this," she says, "which is pretty ironic, when you consider that the doctor's oath is 'First, do no harm.' "

Listening to Gibbs talk, you start thinking of snapshots from a typical day. Give baby drink in plastic cup; put bib on baby; give baby rubber duckie to play with; put lunch leftovers in plastic wrap; drink soda; go to bathroom, pull back shower curtain, and shampoo hair; put baby in stroller; walk to drugstore and buy cleaning products, sunblock, baby oil, liquid soap; pay with credit card. The entire experience is a parade of products that commonly contain PVC. Gibbs knows what Rachel Carson knew: Habituation, the acceptance of the abnormal as normal, is an ever-present threat.

People have to be convinced that safe, cost-effective alternatives are available, Gibbs insists: "It's not that you have to choose between living in today's world or going to live in a cave with a candle." Some corporations are beginning to listen, she says. Microsoft, Nike, and Johnson & Johnson have all agreed to phase out PVC use. So has Limited Brands, which owns Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret. "That one was fun," Gibbs grins. "Victoria's Dirty Little Secret."

So 25 years later, how does she feel about the Mother of Superfund label? "I'm proud of it," Gibbs says. "The only time it frustrates me is if it interferes with people seeing what we're doing now. Because I'm proud of that too."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says household dust samples from homes within the St. Regis Superfund site in Cass Lake contain dangerous levels of dioxin and arsenic. Those were chemicals used for decades at a wood treatment plant in the neighborhood. Now, the EPA is taking public comment on a plan to clean up dust in some 40 homes within the Superfund site. But many people in Cass Lake say the plan doesn't go far enough.

Cass Lake, Minn. — The St. Regis site is on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation near downtown Cass Lake. It's been on the federal government's Superfund list since 1984. About 125 acres are contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals. Last year, the EPA removed about 2,400 tons of toxic top soil.

The site includes dozens of homes where families still live. Roberta Wind and her family lived in the neighborhood in the 1950s and '60s. Wind spoke last week at an EPA-sponsored public meeting.

"I'm damn angry about this, because I raised my kids in that area there," Wind said. "And now my great-grandchildren are getting birth defects from being born. Now you tell me. What are you going to do about these kids that are being born like that?"

There are lots of similar stories from people who lived in the Superfund site. Leslie Hough grew up in the neighborhood. He still lives there. As a kid, he played among the chemically treated logs and swam in contaminated holding ponds. Hough is convinced many in his family got sick from the exposure.

"I've got two sisters that can't have babies," said Hough. "I had a brother die of cancer. I have a sister with cancer. Another sister that was born with three kidneys. I was born with three carotid arteries. Things like that. Sure it makes me suspicious."

EPA officials say a final plan for cleaning the Superfund site won't be ready until next year. EPA project manager Tim Drexler says, in the interim, the agency is proposing that contaminated dust be removed from homes in the neighborhood.

I'm damn angry about this, because I raised my kids in that area there. And now my great-grandchildren are getting birth defects. - Roberta Wind

"Our preferred option is for the 40 homes within the proximity of the St. Regis site, to have carpeting removed from the homes, new carpeting replacing that, have periodic housecleaning, and then also have clean soil brought into their yards," said Drexler.

That plan doesn't sit well with Hough. He says the EPA's plan to clean dust from his home is too little, too late.

"Sure they can come clean -- free housecleaning," joked Hough. "But it's ridiculous, because ... every time a truck goes by there's more in the air, comes in our house. So what's the use of even coming in and cleaning, when the next day it's going to be right back in there."

Many Cass Lake residents want the EPA to permanently move the people living in the neighborhood. That was an option the EPA considered. But Drexler says for the short term, relocation would be too costly and disruptive to the community. He said the cost for cleaning the 40 homes would be about $211,000. Relocation costs are estimated at more than $2.4 million.

"There's no immediate risk," said Drexler. "I mean, we're not evacuating people out of these homes right now. It's not a short term acute kind of threatening risk. But it is a long term risk."

Drexler says relocation would be a last resort. He says it's an option the EPA will consider again when the final cleanup plan is completed next summer.

Officials with Leech Lake's natural resources department have reluctantly signed on to the short term dust removal plan. Tribal Environmental Director Shirley Nordrum says the Superfund cleanup has gone on for more than 20 years, yet people are still at risk. Nordrum believes neighborhood residents need to be moved.

"That's always our dream," said Nordrum. "Lets just move everybody out to a new home somewhere else, and then just clean it up and decide what to do with that property from there. But that's kind of like winning the lottery, you know."

The EPA is accepting public comment on the dust cleanup proposal through July 8.

May 23, 2005
NW Natural asks for time to cleanup area on Superfund site

April 17, 2005
In our view: Superfund visit seems like deja vu
The Joplin Globe
Ordinarily, the announcement that the incoming head of the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to visit the Tar Creek Superfund site would have the region excited. After all, this is the designated director of the agency responsible for cleaning up what has been labeled by the EPA as the nation’s No. 1 (make that worst) Superfund site. And Stephen Johnson, the president’s choice to head up the EPA, will be accompanied by an influential Oklahoma senator who seems increasingly receptive to residents’ concerns about the mountains of chat, old mine shafts and subsidence that can threaten the air, water and safety of inhabitants.

Yet, there is a certain sense of deja vu. Haven’t we seen officials come and go over the years, including Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee? All arrive with the best of intentions. Yet, with the exception of Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry’s $3 million buyout plan for families with children under the age of 6, we have been largely disappointed.

Maybe this time will be different.

The problem is that Tar Creek is a sore that no one really seems to know what to do about, or with. Moving those huge mountains of chat to someplace where they can be entombed under highway or runway pavement might eventually eliminate the heavy metal-laden material. But how much of that lead-contaminated dust would be kicked up by the activity for youngsters over 6, young adults and seniors to breathe and to cover residential and school yards? Have there been significant studies made on the health effects of lead and other metals on people in those age groups?

Still, we welcome the visit of Johnson once he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He needs to know the history of EPA futility in dealing with Tar Creek. And he needs to keep an open mind. Uncle Sam has spent more than $100 million over the past two decades, and today people are still scratching their heads and wondering just what can be or should be done.
One possibility, of course, is a federal buyout of residents in Picher and Cardin areas who didn’t have children young enough to qualify for Henry’s plan. Some may not want to leave. That would be their choice. Whatever, the total cost of such a program certainly shouldn’t rival that $100 million already spent.

Even with a buyout, if one were authorized by Congress, Tar Creek would remain an environmental wound. Would time and nature gradually take care of the lead levels? Would new technologies permit a complete cleanup? Will the EPA continue to be responsible for dealing with the mining heritage’s effect on water, air and subsidence? Maybe Johnson will have some answers or a vision when he visits.

Hope springs eternal.

April 27, 2005
Union pickets Superfund site
Michael Heil, Granite City Press Record
Operating Engineers Local 520 in Granite City formed an informational picket Monday at the Jennison-Wright Superfund site on West 22nd Street over the use of non-union labor to clean up the site.

The local began the picket about 7 p.m. and will continue its protest at the contaminated site until cleanup work is completed. That could take about three months. The cleanup is being done by Bodine Environmental of Decatur.

Ron Johnson, vice president of Local 520, said other unions from various locals will take part in the picket on Thursday.

"The picket is not to stop any work, but to inform residents of Granite City that the work is being done by a company that does not have a contract with Local 520," Johnson said. "It's a loss of jobs for our local people."

Bodine is taking part in the hazardous cleanup work by assisting with the construction of landforms to help with the removal of contaminated soil.

Johnson said he talked to the site's supervisor, Troy McFate of Bodine, on April 11, when the company moved in a couple pieces of equipment to start the work.

"He told me there would only be a small workforce and that equipment. But because of the size of the project and the dollar amount ($3.6 million), I expect more," Johnson said.

Johnson said members of the local are currently working on a hazardous project in Sauget.

"We have a lot of local people who are trained to do Hazmat work," Johnson said. Attempts to reach McFate were unsuccessful.

The 18-acre site at 900 West 22nd Street was used by the Jennison-Wright Corporation to manufacture railroad ties and other wood-related products. The corporation went bankrupt in 1989.

April 27, 2005
Statement of National Environmental Trust Vice President Kevin Curtis on the EPA's New Listings for Priority Superfund Sites
U.S. Newswire
WASHINGTON, April 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a statement of Kevin Curtis, vice president of the National Environmental Trust, regarding the EPA's New Listings for Priority Superfund Sites:  "Today ten communities join hundreds of others in an increasingly tough competition for scarce federal cleanup dollars. Unfortunately, the new Superfund listings only confirm how dangerous the sites really are, but offer no assurance that cleanup will happen.

"Until President Bush supports reinstating the 'polluter-pays' tax, the federal government's most effective tool for cleaning up toxic sites will not have the funds to restore these new sites or the majority of those already listed.

"This administration is the first since the creation of the Superfund program in 1980 to oppose extension of the 'polluter- pays' tax. Not only is the president letting industry off the hook, but his most recent budget request contains $102 million less for Superfund than he had sought last year."

------

BACKGROUND:

National Priority List (NPL) is the list of the nation's most polluted toxic waste sites that are a priority for cleanup. In order to receive federal Superfund dollars for long-term cleanup, sites must be included on this list.

New NATIONAL PRIORITY LIST (NPL) Sites:

-- Hegeler Zinc, Danville, Ill.

-- Sigmon's Septic Tank Service, Statesville, N.C.

-- Crown Vantage Landfill, Alexandria Township, N.J.

-- Hopewell Precision Area Contamination, Hopewell Junction, N.Y.

-- Copley Square Plaza, Copley, Ohio

-- Price Battery, Hamburg Pa.

-- Safety Light Corporation, Bloomsburg, Pa.

-- Brewer Gold Mine, Jefferson, S.C.

-- Smalley-Piper, Collierville, Tenn.

-- Commerce Street Plume, Williston, Vt.

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/ edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-8321.htm

---

New Sites PROPOSED for the NATIONL PRIORITY LIST (NPL):

-- Standard Mine, Gunnison National Forest, Colo.

-- Peach Orchard Road PCE GW Plume, Augusta, Ga.

-- Garvey Elevator, Hastings, Neb.

-- Chlor-Alkali Facility (Former), Berlin, N.H.

-- Blue Ridge Plating Company, Arden, N.C.

-- Jackson Ceramix, Falls Creek, Pa.

-- Pelican Bay Ground Water Plume, Azle, Texas

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/ edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-8322.htm

-- Growing Shortfalls: In October 2002, the EPA Inspector General estimated that a shortfall in Superfund monies was keeping EPA from beginning work at a number of Superfund sites where cleanup remedies had been selected and designed. At that point, the IG estimated the shortfall at $114 million. ( http://www.envinfo.com/dec2002/OIG.pdf )

A January 2004 IG report indicated that the funding shortfall had grown to $175 million. ( http://www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2004/20040107-2004-p-00001.pdf )

An analysis of EPA data released in August of 2004 by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mass.) indicated that the shortfall had grown to more than $250 million and that some 46 sites in 27 states would receive no funding or be inadequately funded for the 2004 fiscal year. ( http://www.house.gov/commerce_democrats/press/ 108nr43.shtml )

In September 2004, the Wall Street Journal reported on EPA documents indicating that the backlog of funding needs is estimated to grow to $750 million by 2006. (John J. Fialka, "Money Shortage Threatens Superfund," Wall Street Journal, Sept. 7, 2004, P. A2)

In January 2005, EPA Acting Assistant Administrator Thomas Dunne responded to a Senate inquiry, confirming that EPA had insufficient resources to start 19 Superfund cleanup projects that were ready to begin construction. (Statement of Sen. Barbara Boxer, Legislative hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Budget for FY2006, Feb. 9, 2005)

-- Increasing Taxpayer Burden: In 1995, the year that the Superfund's 'polluter-pays' tax expired, general appropriations funded only 18 percent of the cleanup program; by July of 2003, the General Accounting Office reported that the general appropriations share was 80 percent. ( http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d03850.pdf ) By fiscal year 2004, the general appropriations share accounted for nearly 100 percent of the program resources. ( http://www.gao.gov/htext/d04475r.html )

-- Declining Clean Ups: From 1997 through 2000, cleanup construction activities were completed at an average of 87 Superfund sites per year. Completions dropped to 47 in 2001, 42 in 2002 and, in 2003 and 2004, EPA completed construction on only 40 Superfund sites.

March 30, 2005
Hazwaste Left at Superfund Sites Bothers Senators
Environmental News Service, (ENS) -
One in four Americans lives within four miles of a hazardous waste site, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and at many of these sites, the waste is left in place because the agency believes it is impossible, impractical, or too costly to clean up the contaminated property so that it can be used without restriction.

Cleanups at such sites often rely on institutional controls - legal or administrative restrictions on the use of land or water at the site - to limit the public�s exposure to residual contamination.

To find out how effective these institutional control are at protecting the public from hazardous waste, Senators Barbara Boxer of California, a Democrat; Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a Republican; and Jim Jeffords of Vermont, an Independent, asked the investigative branch of Congress to conduct a study.

The results of that investigation, reported by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on January 28, are of concern to Boxer, she said in a statement Tuesday.

The United States has two federal programs to deal with hazardous waste. Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, which established the Superfund program to clean up the most seriously contaminated of these sites. In addition, in 1984, the Congress amended the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) to add a corrective action program to clean up contamination at facilities that treat, store, and dispose of hazardous waste.

Boxer said the GAO report shows that these two programs are not protecting the public from exposure to hazardous waste.

"I am very concerned," she wrote, "that the Environmental Protection Agency is not doing its job of cleaning up these sites in the first place and is relying more and more on land use restrictions. In addition, the Agency is not even following up to see that the public is protected by enforcing these restrictions."

At the vast majority of hazardous waste sites, according to the report, the EPA failed to adequately implement, monitor or enforce remedies necessary to minimize expos