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Letter to Judge Foster
April, 1998
Jim Cartmell
5994 East State Hwy 46 (mailing)
Bloomington, IN 47401
Hon. Kennard P. Foster, Magistrate Judge
U.S. District Court
Rm 277 US Courthouse
46 E. Ohio St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Re: Westinghouse /CBS Bloomington PCB Sites
Cause # IP 83-9-C-D/F, # IP 81-448-C-D/F
Site boundaries and sampling
Dear Judge,
I understand you have been appointed in this case to supervise
and facilitate the implementation of the consent decree, and
that if people believe the public interest is not being adequately
represented or considered in the above case, they can express
that to the Court. (Pgs 2, 8, - 12 / 15 / 9 7 entry.)
I have spent thousands of hours working on the hazardous waste
problems here associated with the Westinghouse/ CBS sites over
the course of more than 15 years.
I have a number of concerns, a few of which are expressed
briefly here.
The public has not been getting adequate information about
this case.
There is not much information available to the public at the
MCPL Public Information Repository about what is happening in
this case, in particular about what is being proposed or considered
with respect to site boundaries and sampling or what is being
considered to be excavated or where and to what extent those
activities might take place. No currently proposed sampling plans
are available at the MCPL Public Repository. Other than items
concerned with Winston-Thomas, nothing about any other site as
been placed at the repository for more than a year.
CIC Citizens Information Committee meetings have been held
less often than usual with meetings cancelled by the EPA and
the next meeting scheduled some 11 weeks from the last meeting
of February 3, 1998 which was some 2 months from the one before
that. The last two meetings ended with the agenda or issues of
the meeting unfinished with the response to the unfinished agenda
and issues and more happening than at any time since the CIC
began, to have meetings less often than usual.
In general the CIC has been a poor conduit of information
or discussion to the public with the CIC serving primarily as
a PR front for the EPA and the EPA has provided little of the
information about this case to the MCPL Public Information Repository
or public in a timely manner. (Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez
has stated the City was going to withdraw from the CIC because
it served primarily as a PR front and did withdraw from the "New
Directions" newsletter for that reason).
Parties to the consent decree have represented that you were
impressed by the remedial activities and conditions at the sites
here. As the remedial activities and site conditions are not
impressive to people in the community who are familiar with the
site conditions and remedial activities that have taken place
I suspect(ed) that either parties misinformed you about the history
and conditions at these sites, or, parties failed to inform you
about the history and conditions at these sites.
With respect to the site boundaries and areas alleged to
be under discussion for excavation:
Fences or site boundaries do not include areas known to be
contaminated.
Fences that were put up were put up years after the need to
do so.
Areas that were covered were not covered or capped until years
after the need to do so.
Areas remain inadequately fenced, posted or covered.
The failure to properly identify, fence, or cover known areas
of contamination, in addition to the obvious threats to public
health and the environment, is particularly relevant to sampling
plans that are or have been submitted, future sampling and in
determining the nature and extent of contamination at these sites
and what must be excavated and treated.
Please do no let the parties get away with dismissing these
concerns with a wave of their hand, or claims that they have
been addressed, or do not exist, as has happened to issues and
concerns in the past. As we are not privy to what is being discussed
or the responses to our concerns we are unable to offer rebuttal,
but would like to have the opportunity to do so. This letter
is relatively short and does not include everything that addresses
these matters. I would like to know the responses of the parties
to this material and other information that has been presented.
Contaminated areas may not be contiguous with other contaminated
areas. Any sampling or investigation would need to take this
into account. Composite surface sampling a short distance from
the edges of excavated areas is not likelv to find noncontiguous
areas of contamination, or capacitors or contaminated material
buried beneath the surface covered by soil after dumping ceased.
Fences or site boundaries do not include known areas of
contamination.
Site boundaries were not established as a result of testing
and determining the nature and extent of contamination at the
sites, but by some other process.
There are areas of contamination outside the fenced boundaries
of Bennetts Quarry, Neals Landfill, and Lemon Lane and outside
the areas identified as contaminated at Winston Thomas.
These areas have been known to be contaminated by the parties
for 10-20 years and before or as fences went up around the sites
or remedial work was done.
Children were observed playing on areas that were fenced for
years before they were fenced, despite expressions by parties
or instructions by the EPA that access and exposure to these
sites needed to be restricted, with memos written about seeing
a child standing on a capacitor or getting a picture of the tire
swing over a capacitor, etc.)
Bennetts Quarries
PCBs were publicly identified as a problem in the Monroe County
Bloomington area in 1975.
After Bennetts was finally publicly identified as a site in
1983 the parties did a site assessment supposedly determining
the nature and extent of contamination in the area. Among other
things they did an electromagnetic survey (footnote 1) of the
site that supposedly identified where in the area capacitors
were, ergo where the PCBs were. A similar electromagnetic survey
was conducted recently at Lemon Lane. (The electromagnetic survey
was supposed to find metal. PCB dielectric fluids are not metal,
but a thin oil.) The site assessment done at Bennetts was stated
to supposedly overestimate the boundary of the contaminated area.
The site assessment done failed to find locations of where highly
contaminated PCB material was dumped.
As fence post holes were being bored to put up the fence around
Bennetts they hit capacitors and PCB related material. (PCB oil
squirted out of the hole.) They decided to move the fence back.
They began to bore more holes and hit capacitors and PCB related
debris again and again moving the fence further and further back.
They decided to put the fence up in its original location, which
they did. Where it remains today. With the extent of contamination
at Bennetts never determined or investigated.
A letter dated 7/25/83 from the State of Indiana to the EPA
Region V Administrator states,
"On July 13, 1983 Indiana State Board of Health staff
were informed that during the installation of the fence at Bennett
Stone Quarry capacitor... and other PCB related debris where
found when fence postholes were dug... An attempt to relocate
the fence.. resulted in discovery of additional PCB related debris...
And... a decision was then made to install the fence at its original
location.
It is obvious from this discovery that the entire extent
of contamination at this site has not been determined. An investigation
encompassing a larger area... will be necessary in order to define
the boundaries of PCB contamination at this site.
In addition, we believe it would be prudent for the fence
to be expanded so that it will enclose the area of known PCB
contamination at the site." (Emphasis added.) (Attached
marked P1.)
The investigation stated to be required in order to determine
the "extent of contamination at this site", (and many
others) was never done.
Constructing a fence to include the "area of known PCB
contamination at the site" was never done and there are
apparently no plans to do so.
At this point the parties are supposed to already know the
nature and extent of contamination at these sites At this point
the parities are some 15 years late in determining the nature
and extent of contamination at these sites, or erecting fences
around known areas of contamination.
I understand that the sampling plans submitted apparently
do not provide for any more sampling in the Bennetts area other
than stream sampling in Stouts Creek.
With respect to future sampling that should be undertaken
in order to determine the nature and extent of contamination
at these sites it is necessary to understand that - heavily contaminated
areas may not be contiguous with other heavily contaminated areas.
Any sampling or investigation would need to take that into account.
Composite surface sampling a short distance (50 feet) from
the edges of excavated areas or samples of the vertical face,
are not likely to find noncontiguous areas of contamination,
or capacitors or contaminated material buried beneath the surface
covered by soil after dumping ceased in intentional or inadvertant
activities that hid evidence of significant contamination.
The Parties site assessment and investigations failed to determine
the nature or extent of contamination at this site. When confronted
with their failure they ignored it and the nature and extent
of contamination at these sites has not been determined and apparently
there are no plans to do so.
This is unacceptable and the areas of contamination or suspected
contamination must be tested and evaluated and included in the
cleanup
Other areas at Bennetts
At an EPA Press conference at Bennetts on 6/6/83 a local resident
came up and tried to speak to the EPA about other places in the
area where PCB capacitor and wastes had been dumped. (Attached
marked P2.) The EPA attempted to ignore him and sites he reported
have not been properly investigated.
Between 1975 when PCBs were reported as a problem and 1983
when Bennetts Quarry was finally publicly identified as a site,
it was reported that there was activity at Bennetts quarries
(and other sites) that covered up evidence of contamination,
particularly after Lemon Lane was publicly revealed as a site
in 1981 and parties attorneys began publicly stating that persons
who owned contaminated land would be the ones liable for its
cleanup. Bennetts initially denied that any PCB wastes were dumped
on the Bennetts Quarry property.
Bennetts Quarry was along the route used to haul the PCB wastes
from Westinghouse to Lemon Lane. In addition to other areas within
Bennetts Quarries, just past the Bennetts Quarry turn off there
is a steep hill where trucks going up this hill hauling wastes
from Westinghouse used to spill so much oily PCB fluid on the
road that car tires would spin when they tried to go up it. Wastes
where hauled from the Westinghouse Plant to Lemon Lane for some
six years. A Westinghouse memo indicates that truck(s) leaving
the plant dripped PCBs from the plant all the way to the dump
site(s). (Attached marked P3.) Similar spills in other areas
of the country were cleaned up and received hundreds of tests
in order to determine spill boundaries. Bloomington received
nothing.
EPA documents and reports and Westinghouse documents and other
reports indicate that liquid PCBs were dumped at the dumps along
with large quantities of other non-capacitor PCB wastes of from
1000 lbs to several tons per day.
The Mule Hole Quarry was another dump site originally reportedly
part of the Bennetts Quarries properties, which received a large
amount of PCB contaminated waste and capacitors. This site was
reported by many people who stated this site received as much
material as any of them. It is now under the State Highway at
the bypass of Highways 37 and 46. (Memo from Barbara Magel about
Mule Hole quarry attached, marked P4, location of Mule hole quarry
on P3)
The quarries around here are limestone quarries frequently
filled with water. Until I learned it was a contaminated area
I swam at Bennetts Quarries, like hundreds of other people, for
years. There has been no effort I am aware of to determine ground
water flows or karst conditions or routes of exposure around
Mule Hole quarry or investigate the nature and extent of contamination
there.
The Parties site assessment and investigations failed to determine
the nature or extent of contamination at this site. When confronted
with their failure they ignored it and the nature an extent of
contamination at these sites has not been determined. This is
unacceptable and the areas of known contamination or suspected
contamination must be tested and evaluated and included in the
cleanup.
Compounds created as a result of burning PCB material (footnote
2)
In addition, PCB material was burned at Bennetts Quarry, Lemon
Lane and Neals Landfill (and other sites). At locations where
fires involving PCBs have occurred, the compounds created as
a result of the fire have included dioxins, furans, and other
compounds much more hazardous than PCBs.
The compounds formed from burning PCBs are frequently not
co-located with PCBs and their presence affects the remedy chosen,
cleanup standards and guidelines and site safety plans and activity.
The presence of these (and other) compounds at these sites
have not been properly evaluated or incorporated into the parties
activities or decisions.
Neal's Landfill
There are areas of contamination outside the fenced boundaries
of this site. This site - was identified in 1976 and was not
fenced and covered until 1983. (Neal's dump was also identified
as a site in 1976 and was also not fenced and covered until 1983.)
A contractor, John Foster, whose crew worked on Neal's landfill
doing remedial work in the early 80's has stated there is a large
amount of contaminated material outside the fenced boundary,
metes and bounds of this site.
The capacitors and PCB material discovered outside the official
boundary of the site remain there.
The investigation required in order to determine the extent
of contamination at this site was never done.
Constructing a fence to include the area of known PCB contamination
at the site was never done, and there are apparently no plans
to do so.
I understand the sampling plans apparently did not and do
not provide for any sampling outside the fenced area, metes and
bounds at Neals Landfill.
Contaminated areas may not be contiguous with other contaminated
areas. Any sampling or investigation would need to take this
into account.
Composite surface sampling a short distance (50 feet) from
the edges of excavated areas or samples of the vertical face,
are not likely to find non-contiguous areas of contamination,
or capacitors or contaminated material buried beneath the surface
covered by soil after dumping ceased in intentional or inadvertant
activities that hid evidence of significant contamination.
At this point the parites are some 15 years late in determining
the nature and extent of contamination at these sites, or erecting
fences around known areas of contamination.
The Parties site assessment and investigations failed to determine
the nature or extent of contamination at this site. When confronted
with their failure they ignored it and the nature and extent
of contamination at these sites has not been determined. (Some
of the events at Bennett's and Neal's recounted in the book Eternal
Viligance by Steve Higgs published 1995.)
This is unacceptable and the areas of contamination or suspected
contamination must be tested and evaluated and included in the
cleanup.
Lemon Lane
There are areas of contamination outside the fenced boundaries
of Lemon Lane dump. These areas have been known to be contaminated
for some 15 years, and before the fence went up around the site.
This site was finally publicly identified in 1981. The site
was not fenced until 1983, and was not covered until 1987. (1
and others had significant exposure to this site between 1981
and 1983 because I didn't know it was a site as it was not fenced.)
Log reports made when the fence at Lemon Lane was being constructed
in 1983 state there was PCB material outside the fence. (Attached
marked P5.)
In 1995, 14 years after the fence was constructed, a resident's
yard next to the dump was tested and found to have thousands
of ppm PCBs in it. (Attached marked P6.)
The resident gardened in his yard and his children played
in it. Another resident had a swing set next to the fence, where
his children played.
The PCB fluids used in the capacitors around here were/are
a syrupy oil, like vegetable oil. (Capacitor fluids contain other
compounds besides PCBs, like tetrachlorobenzenes a toxic compound
which the parties have not tested for, among other compounds.)
The presence of capacitor rolls on the surface, i.e. the insides
of a capacitor, indicate that PCB fluids probably leaked or spilled
on the ground in the vicinity. Picking up capacitor rolls or
metal boxes that capacitor fluids leaked out of does not deal
with the PCBs that leaked from them, (but does make it difficult
to identify areas where it occurred.)
At the Fell Iron and Metal site soil that was contaminated
by PCBs that had leaked out of capacitors was excavated to bedrock
and then bedrock chiseled out. (The Fell Iron and Metal site
was publicly revealed by me, although parties to the consent
decree knew it was contaminated by PCBs before I did and failed
to tell anyone or publicly reveal its existence as a highly contaminated
area. I learned of the Fell site shortly after I began to look
for where PCB material had gone. Fell Iron and Metal hauled PCB
wastes from Westinghouse, but was not publicly identified as
a site until some 8 years after PCBs were revealed to be a problem
here and after the Parties had spent some 8 years and millions
of dollars in coming up with what they stated was a comprehensive
solution to the PCB problem in this area, which did not include
Fells,.)
Sargent Pond's is a pond adjacent to and downhill from Lemon
Lane and not a part of the Lemon Lane site. Neighborhood boys
used to camp there and would pull capacitors out of Lemon Lane
and dump the capacitor fluid on wood to start fires with. Portions
of Sargent's pond were mysteriously excavated along with other
portions of the property.
The Parties site assessment and investigations failed to determine
the nature or extent of contamination at this site. When confronted
with their failure they ignored it and the nature an extent of
contamination at these sites has not been determined or at least
publicly revealed.
In addition there is apparently a significant amount of contaminated
material within this site which the parties inappropriately intend
to leave there.(footnotes 1,2 3) Heavily contaminated areas may
not be contiguous with other heavily contaminated areas. Any
sampling or investigation would need to take that into account.
Composite surface sampling a short distance (50 feet) from the
edges of excavated areas or samples of the vertical face, are
not likely to find non-contiguous areas of contamination, or
capacitors or contaminated material buried beneath the surface
covered by soil or other material after PCB dumping ceased. The
majority of the sites' surface areas have not been tested and
are not included in the remedial measures which aerial photo
interpretation maps and interviews with people who used the dump,
reveal dumping and activity took place on. (footnotes 2,3)
COPA has added the following paragraph and links to this
letter.
Jim Cartmell provided the following maps, which are attachments
to an Interdepartment Memo, dated March 27, 1995 from John Langley,
City of Bloomington, to File. The memo reads: "The maps
in this packet are interpretations of air photographs superimposed
on topographic maps of Lemon Lane Landfill. This work was done
for EPA Region V by Dr. Richard Powell, Earth Tech, Inc. in March
1995."
Winston-Thomas
There are apparently other areas of contamination within (and
without) the boundaries of this site that have not been evaluated
or tested and are outside areas that have been declared to be
contaminated or remediated.
The conclusions of the Summary Report on Conditions at Winston
Thomas done by EPA's experts (appendix F of the Winston-Thomas
EE/CA attached marked P7), state,
"'there is no certainty that the most highly contaminated
materials have ben sampled. In places.. the extent of the contaminated
soil has not been established. Sludge from the drying beds has
been spread on the grounds in places. More extensive and intensive
sampling is needed to establish the limits and amounts of PCB
contamination on the grounds and in some sinkholes at the site.
No information has been found relative to the contamination of
various containers, basins, tanks, pumps and pipes that treated,
stored or carried PCB contaminated material. The possibility
that there was leakage from pipes or containers to the adjacent
soils has not been investigated or addressed. For example, PCBs
found in MW-5D may be from leakage from the adjacent main sewer
line. The possibility that water is seeping or leaking from the
existing lagoon has not been investigated. The source of wet
areas near the northwest corner and along the south side have
not been explained."
The investigation and sampling needed and recommended have
not occurred and there are apparently no plans to do so. EPA's
attorney at a meeting about the EE/CA on Winston Thomas seemed
incensed by the prospect that anyone would even consider testing
these areas, and seemed to consider that testing for that material
would be outrageous. This is unacceptable and the areas of contamination
or suspected contamination must be tested and evaluated and included
in the cleanup. The Times Beach Missouri site had more than 5000
samples taken with only about 20% of the samples tested above
a level requiring action.
The city has reported hits of some 800-1200 pprn in an area
outside the areas that have heretofore been designated as contaminated.
I observed a leak from a pipe that I reported when I first saw
it for a period of some 10 years before it was finally fixed
that I figured leaked more than a million gallons of contaminated
water which ran down a gully into Clear Creek. In the mid 80"s
I observed piles of sludgy material outside the fence on the
east side of the site that were indicated to be contaminated
sludge that latter disappeared. Other reports and conditions
indicate there may be areas of contamination greater than 15
or 25 ppm.
There are 5 culverts coming out at clear creek from off the
WT property, only 2 of which appear on the piping map in the
EE/CA, and two drainage gullys that have not been evaluated or
explained. The first time I asked about the culverts and showed
the pictures I had of them and of kids playing at the site, and
talked about the holes in the fence and the places where it was
pushed down to the ground, with trails where people had went
over the fence, at the 1985 expert hearings on the Consent Decree,
the only reply given by the "expert" was that I was
lying, that the culverts didn't exist and the pictures were from
some other place.
I talked to former employees of Winston-Thomas who distributed
sludge who told me about the West Side of Clear Creek site across
from Winston-Thomas, which I reported some ten years before it
was acknowledged, fenced or publicly identified as a site by
the parties who also identified several other sites that had
received contaminated sludge. Contaminated areas may not be contiguous
with other contaminated areas. Any sampling or investigation
would need to take that into account.
Either a fence is up or down and adequate to do its job of
restricting access by people, or its not. In 20+ years Winston
Thomas has not had an adequate fence, much less been adequately
posted. For 20+ years Winston Thomas just sat there like it always
sat without remediation. As the US attorney indicates in the
11/18/96 transcrip the last 5+ years or so have not been spent
in protecting the public health or environment, by say doing
something as simple as properly fencing and posting Winston Thomas,
an inadequate fence which the EPA declared posed an imminent
and substantial endangerment to human health because it posed
little deterrent to human trespassers in their 5/27/97 action
memorandum, which did nothing to fix the fence and a condition
that was known and posed the same danger and sat unremediated
for more than 20 years and a fence that continues to be inadequate
to this day; or posting Clear Creek for fishing, a known and
unaddressed danger; or protecting ducks or other wildlife or
people from exposures of the Lagoon and other areas; or in or
in any kind of public process; but in figuring out how Westinghouse
can spend as little as possible.
So I want to talk about fences. This is just one example of
many. A lot of these issues require one to know a fair amount
in order to tell what is true or not. But a fence, anyone can
tell whether a fence is up and good or not, even a judge.
At Winston Thomas, in 22 years, the parties have not even
managed to get a contiguous fence up and around Winston Thomas,
much less adequately post the site to warn of the dangers it
poses.
The fence around Winston Thomas was so inadequate that the
EPA declared there was an imminent and substantial endangerment
to human health because it posed little deterrent to human trespassers
in their 5/27/97 action memorandum which did nothing to fix the
fence and a condition that was known and posed the same danger
and sat unremediated for more than 20 years and a fence that
continues to be inadequate to this day. (I may be the only or
one of the only people to have seen the action memorandum which
was buried in a large pile of documents untimely provided to
the public.)
Westinghouse would not employ or continue to employ anyone
who had an explicit responsibility to perform a task, as Westinghouse
did under the consent decree to maintain an adequate fence who
failed to perform it for more than a decade as Westinghouse did.
Westinghouse would not employ as a contractor anyone who has
performed or behaved as they have.
Why would you? Why would we?
The fact of the matter is, no one who is familiar with what
has occurred here, would employ you or any of the parties to
deal with the problem here.
In one area the old fence has been removed and a new fence
erected further back into the site and a building built in the
area previously fenced and within the site. There are no signs
at all on the new fence. The fence at the City's Recycling center
and other City facility's, that do not pose the dangers Winston-Thomas
poses, is a high cyclone fence with barb wire on the top. The
fence at the City's Recycling center and other City facility's
are better fences than the fences around Winston-Thomas, which
do not pose the dangers that Winston-Thomas poses, and are more
appropriately posted.
FOOTNOTES
1 Electromagnetic surveys used at Bennetts and Lemon Lane
to find
capacitors,
Electromagnetic surveys like those done at Bennetts and Lemon
Lane are used to find metal. PCBs are not metal. The PCB fluids
used in the capacitors around here were/are a syrupy oil, like
vegetable oil.
After Bennetts was finally publicly identified as a site in
1983 the parties did a site assessment supposedly determining
the nature and extent of contamination in the area. Among other
things, they did an electromagnetic survey of the site that supposedly
identified where in the area capacitors were, ergo where the
PCBs were. A similar electromagnetic survey was conducted recently
at Lemon Lane. The site assessment done was stated to supposedly
overestimate the boundary of the contaminated area. (Survey conclusions
attached, marked P8.) As it's evident from the State Board of
Health's 7/25/83 letter (attached marked Pl) the electromagnetic
survey done at Bennetts failed to identify locations of capacitors,
it is difficult to understand why this technique was used again
at Lemon Lane some 10+ years latter, were a considerable larger
quantity of non-capacitor metal was dumped.
Even if the electromagnetic survey had been successful in
locating capacitors, capacitors were puncture and/or salvaged
at the dumps with the PCB fluids leaking or dumped out during
salvaging with the fluids and saturated paper insides of the
capacitors going one place and the metal boxes going someplace
else. Material at the dumps was set on fire and capacitors heated
till they exploded with PCBs and the extremely toxic material
created as a result of burning PCB material and other compounds
at the dumps spread around the dumps by explosion, smoke or soot
or leaking in the ground at locations other than the metal boxes
they had once been in.
Moreover much of the material contaminated by capacitor fluids
containing PCBs that was disposed of at the dumps was not in
capacitors at all but in sawdust and fullers earth and other
material used to soak up or filter capacitor fluids at the Westinghouse
Plant and then hauled to the dumps. Westinghouse documents state
that ~25% of this material was PCBS (250,000 ppm). Westinghouse
documents indicate between 1 thousand to several tons of this
non-capacitor material was disposed of per day. In addition liquid
PCBS not in capacitors were also reportedly disposed of at the
dumps (and other locations). The average amount of PCB fluids
used at capacitor plants disposed of per day stated by the EPA
was ~4000 lbs per day. (Documents and reports, contrary to parties
claims, indicate PCB Fluids were not returned or sent to be incinerated
from the Bloomington plant during much of its operation.)
2 Other contaminants of concern affecting the cleanup and
remedy
The parties have not yet identified the PCB hot spots in these
sites much less dealt with other significant contaminants of
concern. There are a number of contaminants of concern that have
been ignored or overlooked or improperly investigated by the
parties.
Chlorinated benzenes
The PCB fluids used in the capacitors around here were/are
a syrupy oil, like vegetable oil. Capacitor fluids contain other
compounds in addition to PCBs. Chlorinated benzenes are reported
to have been a principle component of aroclor mixtures (EPA's
1982 Health Effects of PCBs pg. 175, Dan Cortes report, EPAs
Project Summary, Assesment of PCDDs and PCDFs from PCB Transformer
and Capacitor Fires, pg 1) and their presence should have been
assessed and evaluated. They can be present in anaerobic conditions
and affect the mobility and transport of PCBs and are significantly
toxic compounds. I am not aware of one test that has been done
at any of the Bloomington sites for teterachlorinated benzene,
a compound reported to be a component of aroclor mixtures used.
Dioxins, furans, dioxin like compounds, other compounds
created as a result of fires involving PCB and other matieral
at the dumps.
In addition PCB material was burned Bennetts Quarry, Lemon
Lane and Neals Landfill (and other sites). At locations where
fires involving PCBs have occurred, the compounds created as
a result of the fire have been the compounds of most concern,
greatest risk, not PCBs.
The compounds formed from burning PCBs are frequently not
co-located with PCBs and their presence affects the remedy chosen,
cleanup standards and guidelines and site safety plans and activity.
Smoke from a fire involving a few pieces of electrical equipment
wafting out of a building, contaminated "groundwater,...
lawns and roads up to a million of times the state's legal limit."
(September /October 1994 Sierra magazine)
A fire, involving one piece of electrical equipment, in the
State Office Building in Bingham New York rendered an entire
muti story building "uninhabitable for over a year, even
by cockroaches."' (from the EPA's 1982 Health Effects of
PCB's pg. 175)
That was a fire with one piece of electrical equipment.
Lemon Lane and other sites here had huge fires on a regular
basis involving thousands and thousands of pieces of electrical
equipment and thousands of tons of other waste contaminated with
capacitor fluids and other material, paint thinners, TCE, plastics,
etc. known to cause the formation of dioxins, furans and other
extermely toxic dioxin like compounds when burned.
It has been reported that a fire on the north side of Lemon
lane where PCB material was dumped and burned, contrary to the
parties claims that PCB material was only dumped in the SW corner
of the site, got so big that once a nearby resident's house caught
on fire.
Heating PCB's is such a reliable way of creating furans that
laboratory standards have been made that way. (Chemosphere, Vol.9
pp.351-361, 1980).
EPAs Project Summary, Assesment of PCDDs and PCDFs from PCB
Transformer and Capacitor Fires, states,
"there is a genuine public concern over potential exposure
to highly toxic substnces (i.e., dioxins and furans) from such
fire incidents. PCB transformer/ capacitor fires are unique because
of the toxic residues generated and the resultant long-lasting
contamination. Findings of such toxic chemicals will .. complicate..clean-up
procedures for fires incidents, The presence of highly toxic
substances such as PCDFs and PCDDs in PCBs fire incidents has..
complicated cleanup and remedial measures. After the fire, access
to the area must be limited until the extent of contamination
can be determined. The presence of PCDF and PCDD isomers will
affect surface and air clean up guidlines according to the biological
and toxicological activity of the specific isomers. The State
of California proposed air exposure guidelines of 10 pg/m3 for
2,3,7,8-PCDDS/PCDFs and 1.0 MCg/M3 for PCBs."
10 pg/M3 is 100,000 times less than 1.0 mCg/m3. Up to a tenth
of a gram PCDFs may be created from every gram of PCBs "burned"
in a fire. (Rappe, preprint extended abstract, Division of Environmental
Chemistry American Chemical Society in St. Loius Missouri, April,
1984)
There is no question based on the results of previous fires
involving PCB material that as a result of burning the materials
at these dumps extremely toxic materials were formed in large
quantities and that there is a huge risk associated with those
materials. The question is what happened to them and what are
you guys going to do about it.
The presence of these (and other) compounds at these sites
have not been properly evaluated or incorporated into the parties
site saftey plans, activities or decisions here.
(It is not sufficient for Dan or you to simply pretend that
there were not other compounds present or declare that they have
already tested for them in any kind of meaningful way. Something
that illustrates the inadequacy of the public participation permitted
and the lack of any meaningful investigation of issues and concerns
raised by the public.)
3 In addition there is apparently a significant amount
of highly contaminated material within this site which the parties
inappropriately intend to leave there.
Much of the material contaminated by capacitor fluids containing
PCBs was not in capacitors at all but in sawdust and fullers
earth and other material used to soak up or filter capacitor
fluids at the Westinghouse Plant and then hauled to the dumps.
Westinghouse documents state that ~25% of this material was PCBS
(250,000 ppm). Westinghouse documents indicate between 1 thousand
to several tons of this non-capacitor material was disposed of
per day. In addition liquid PCBS not in capacitors were also
reportedly disposed of at the dumps (and other locations). The
average amount of PCB fluids used at capacitor plants disposed
of per day stated by the EPA was ~4000 lbs per day. (Documents
and reports indicate PCB Fluids were not returned or sent to
be incinerated from the Bloomington plant during most of its
operation.) The salvagers for the most part had no interest in
this material.
A review of interviews and personal conversations with people
who used the dump and salvaged there about where material was
dumped, and the topographical map of the surface of Lemon Lane
in 1958 (exhibit 11 of the consent decree) before Westinghouse
stared dumping there, and other USGS topographical maps, and
Westinghouse 1985 cross sections of the dump, and photos and
aerial photo interpretation maps done by EPA's experts Earth
Tech done in 1995 portraying where activity took place in Lemon
Lane over a period of years, and of where EPA tested in their
1995-6 sampling, and other sampling events and making |
