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Library: Letters: CLAW

Letter to Judge Foster Hon. Kennard P. Foster U.S. District Court Rm. 277 U.S. Courthouse 46 E. Ohio St. Indianapolis, IN 46204 RE: Cause No. IP 83-9-C-D/F and Cause No. IP 81-448-C-D/F Bloomington PCB Cleanup Dear Judge Foster; This letter is to express my concern regarding what have been publicized as decisions now before you in the matter of the PCB cleanup in and around Bloomington, Indiana. I have been a resident of Bloomington for 26 years and have been involved with working for a safe, just PCB cleanup for a good number of those years. I am a member of Clean Land, Air and Water (CLAW), a local group actively working toward that cause. Of utmost concern to me is that the volume of contaminated material, from all of the consent decree sites, needed to be removed and treated or disposed of to attain a safe cleanup not be compromised in the "negotiating" process. I am enclosing two EPA documents (12-4-84 Enforcement Decision Document and 8-27-84 memo "Position Document for Remedial Issues in Westinghouse Case Proposed Settlement") which together show that the EPA's original decision and the corresponding consent decree were based on the premise of attaining a 1 parts per million (ppm) cleanup by a level of removal excavation, including buffer zones, explicitly defined in the consent decree. The consent decree itself calls for adherence to these levels of removal excavation, even though the treatment technology be changed from the planned incineration treatment. (i) Westinghouse retains the right to demonstrate to the Court that there exists in whole or in part a more cost-effective method of remedying the PCB contamination of the sites and areas, or any of them, by reason of technological developments affecting the disposal of PCBs, that will: (1) achieve a level of removal and destruction of PCBs and materials contaminated with PCBs equal to or greater than the degree and extent of removal and destruction provided by this Consent Decree including the degree of destruction required of the incinerator and (2) result in removal and destruction of PCBs at least as expeditiously and in a manner as environmentally sound as the method provided in this Consent Decree. (p. 90, consent decree, emphasis added) It is my understanding that you were appointed by Judge S. Hugh Dillin "to see that the aims of the consent decree . . . are carried out expeditiously" (11-21-97 Order, Judge S. Hugh Dillin) and to "supervise and facilitate the implementation of the consent decree" (12-17-97 Entry, Magistrate Judge Kennard P. Foster). I therefore request that you not permit a diminution of the removal requirements already set forth in the consent decree and agreed to by all the parties. It is frightening to think that the parties are even considering the proposals that have recently trickled down into public information channels. One specific example is Lemon Lane Landfill where, based on a mere 31 samples of an 11.5 acre site, EPA is said to be recommending a 75,000 cubic yard, 25 ppm, "hotspot" only cleanup. In addition to the inability of this limited amount of sampling to characterize actual hotspots, this proposal is a far cry from the removal legally required by the existing consent decree (excavation of the entire landfill to its 1958 level of dumping, excavating a 3' buffer zone below that and confirmatory sampling below that, all of which are delineated in the consent decree to be a 175,000 cubic yard removal). In the 13 years since the parties entered into the consent decree, the community has been saddened and disturbed by Westinghouse's complete refusal to comply with it and by the governmental parties' refusal to enforce Westinghouse's performance. That part of the cleanup that has been attained to date has only been accomplished by the parties agreeing to reduce the volume of removal, resulting in a less protective cleanup. Though in the same 13-year time period the body of scientific evidence has evolved to acknowledge increasing numbers and types of health concerns at lower exposure levels, the cleanup standards applied to this cleanup have been lowering. Additionally, the parties have also agreed to two 0% destruction technologies (landfilling and leaving it buried on site) which can only lead to the eventual need to revisit this cleanup to attain actual remediation effective to ensure human health and ecological safety. I heartily endorse Judge Dillin's decision to set a two-year deadline for the cleanup and appoint a Magistrate Judge to implement the aims of the consent decree. Thereby, the need to further erode the cleanup standards in compromising with Westinghouse to attain their compliance is eliminated. Your action in compelling Westinghouse to move forward with cleanup activities, including complete removal excavations as already delineated in the consent decree, is requested and will be welcomed by the citizens of Bloomington and Monroe County. Respectfully, Larime Wilson

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