GRASS ROOTS ACTION UNCOVERS PCB DUMPS
For many years the Housatonic River Initiative (HRI) has been pressing state and federal agencies for more comprehensive testing, and for more thorough investigations of the reports of former GE workers about where and how PCBs were used, and where they were transported. Events of the last year and a half have proven how right we were.
In 1997 we pressured the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to establish an anonymous tip line so that people could tell what they knew about PCBs without worrying about GE retaliating, firing them or threatening their pensions. Well. 1-888-VIOLATE has proven to be a popular number. DEP’s phones were ringing off the hook. The agencies have yet to catch up with the enormous numbers of tips they’ve received from former GE workers, employees of former GE contractors, and local residents.
CHILDREN’S PARK BUILT ON CONTAMINATED PROPERTY
The firestorm continued when HRI Director Tim Gray reported to the DEP information he had received that a local Pittsfield neighborhood park, the Dorothy Amos Children’s Park on West Street had been constructed on land that a former GE contractor had used to bury PCB-contaminated waste. Soon testing revealed that high levels of PCBs were found in the dirt directly below and around the swingset. In the days that followed the now infamous Niederjohn Memos came to light. Written on December 10, 1979 and May 15, 1981, by former GE employee R. Kelly Niederjohn to GE officials, they detail his concern about contamination problems that the company hadn’t dealt with.
One memo stated: “In the sixties and early seventies General Electric purchased one to two million gallons of 10c Transformer Oil per year which was filtered and dried with dried Filter Press Paper and deaeration. They also bought and mixed three to four hundred thousand gallons of Pyranol per year. It was purified and dried by filtration through dried Fullers Earth.” Niederjohn then reminded his former superiors of leaks and spills, and of several dumping grounds, including dumps in Lanesboro, the Sewer Treatment Plant, Nassau, NY, behind building OP3, and Pete’s Diner oxbow.
He wrote: “A real thorough study should be made to at least identify where spent Fullers Earth and discarded Pyranol were dumped. If we do not do that now our children and grandchildren will get bit by our neglect.” As Niederjohn knew, a lot of this PCB-contaminated material ended up in the front and back yards of Pittsfield homes. In the 1940s and 50s, GE offered this material free to homeowners who were looking to fill up holes, or to landscape their property. And in some cases, when fill was delivered, GE had the homeowners sign a letter acknowledging that they had received “clean” fill. Home after home after home was found to be contaminated. Niederjohn’s prediction had, in fact, become a widespread reality: many people and their children and grandchildren have needlessly been exposed to toxic contamination.
FINALLY THE TRUTH IS OUT
The Boston Globe headline of August 10, 1997 read: “GE knew of Pittsfield “liability” for years.” At the very end of the article Michael Cohen, the Globe correspondent wrote: “A 1948 GE memo obtained by the Globe indicates that company officials relied to some extent on residents’ willingness to take the fill as a way of handling its industrial waste.
‘This is the last section anywhere near the plant where we can dump most anything that comes out of the factory,’ a GE manager wrote in 1948 when describing the filling of the residential areas.'” On December 4, 1997, The Wall Street Journal’s front page story weighed in: “Pollution From PCBs Keeps GE in Trouble With Pittsfield, Mass. – Health Fears Vex Residents, Many of Whom Worry Over Tainted Homes Sites – A Lot of Anger Out There.”
LONGVIEW TERRACE – 44,000 PPM
One of the first “core” properties to be discovered, a home on 47/49 Longview Terrace in the Lakewood section had PCB concentrations of 44,000 parts per million (ppm) in the soil. A home on Benedict Road, more than mile away, had levels of 20,000 ppm. Massachusetts DEP standards for residential exposure call for removal of PCBs when average concentrations exceed 2 parts per million. That’s 44,000 versus 2.
HRI, led by Tim Gray, immediately began to offer all of our resources to affected homeowners in Pittsfield. Thirty of the first 37 properties to be tested had PCB concentration levels high enough to trigger emergency cleanup procedures. HRI organized and hosted neighborhood meetings; answered hundreds of questions and phone calls; intervened and advocated with the DEP and EPA for those who wanted their homes tested; set up educational forums; and dealt with reporters from all over the country. An active group of Lakewood residents, working together with HRI, mobilized as Citizens for PCB Removal, and great pressure was brought to bear on GE, the Pittsfield City Council, and state and federal agencies.
PUBLIC PRESSURE DRIVES RESIDENTIAL CLEANUP THE FIRST DO BEST
Facing increased media exposure and the growing organized outrage of the Lakewood community, GE, in the words of The Wall Street Journal, “capitulated in September,” and agreed to clean up any PCB contamination on these first residential properties that was above 2 parts per million. And with DEP approval, GE has begun an extensive process of digging up the PCB fill. But recently, GE has modified this pledge, invoking DEP regulations that allow for “averaging” of contamination levels, so that PCB levels throughout an affected property can average no more than 2ppm.
GE also quickly purchased the Longview Terrace property at a bargain price, and with a deed restriction (an activities and use limitation, AUL) that prohibits certain future uses, will be able to leave some residual contamination on site. Many neighbors are concerned that any residual PCB contamination will not only continue to present a public health hazard but will effectively destroy their property values.
HOMEOWNERS SUE GE ATTORNEY GENERAL HARSHBARGER INVESTIGATES COVER-UP
Amherst Attorney Cristobal Bonifaz, who previously instituted court action for the owners of contaminated Housatonic River floodplain property, has sued GE in federal court on behalf of 18 “fill” homeowners or neighbors who are seeking damages for diminished property values. And investigators from both the EPA and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office were interviewer former GE employees and the employees of its contractors to determine whether there has been criminal action to cover up the existence of the Niederjohn and other internal memos that detail the PCB fill program.
GE FIGHTS BACK WITH FULL PAGE ADS
On September 9, 1997 GE launched its new ad campaign in an attempt to discredit its critics, defend its past practices, and to make its case that PCBs are not a health hazard. On September 30, 1997 GE’s ad stated: “There have been a lot of studies of long-term worker exposure to PCBs, and they show overwhelmingly that even workers who had close contact with PCBs day after day, showed no unusual health problems.” Not surprisingly, this is not exactly the truth.
A September 1996 EPA draft document “PCBs: CANCER DOSE-RESPONSE ASSESSMENT” tells another story: “Occupational studies show some increases in cancer mortality in workers exposed to PCBs. Bertazzi et al. (1987) found significant excess cancer mortality at all sites combined and in the gastrointestinal tract in workers exposed to PCBs containing 54 and 42 percent chlorine. Brown (1987) found significant excess mortality from cancer of the liver, gall bladder, and biliary tract in capacitor manufacturing workers exposed to significant excess malignant melanoma mortality in workers exposed to Aroclors 1242 and 1016. Sinks et al. (1992) found significant excess malignant melanoma mortality in workers exposed to Aroclors 1242 and 1016.” On October 9, 1997 GE’s full page ad claimed a Massachusetts Department of Public Health study proved that: “PCB levels in blood are normal in Pittsfield. They’re just the same as if you lived down the road in Sheffield or out in San Francisco. Everything we know tells us living near soil containing PCBs isn’t going to hurt you. “We rely on health studies. We believe that studies show people do not get PCBs in their blood from soil, that PCBs do not cause adverse health effects and that cleanup standards should be based on existing evidence not speculation about remote possibilities.
Recent scientific studies suggest just the opposite. What is normal? Before the introduction of Monsanto/GE/Westinghouse PCBs, there were no PCBs in human blood and human and animal tissue. The fact that the Inuit in northern Canada have some of the highest concentrations of PCBs reveals, in the words of J.P. Meyers, that “the geography of contamination has become global.” Research by Deborah Rice, and the Jacobsons among others, has shown that smaller and smaller concentrations of PCBs, and exposure to PCBs at earlier times in life, especially during pregnancy and in utero exposures, can cause severe health problems.
As Meyers states: “The time frame for concern has been extended. from an initial focus on direct impact on the exposed adult, to in utero effects that cause life-long damage, including some patterns which may not appear until beyond puberty.” Meyers notes that this has been born out by recent work undertaken by the Centers for Disease Control to study endocrine disruption. In a study published in November, 1997, they report a doubling of penis deformities in boys since 1970. A 1992 report of the worldwide decline in sperm count was roundly criticized. In November 1997, a report by Shanna Swan reexamined the issue and did a detailed re-analysis of data from 61 studies. She found “a significant decline in sperm density in the United States and Europe.” GE’s insistence that PCBs are safe is as dangerous as the tobacco companies continuing denials about the links of smoking to lung cancer. As we discover more and more dumpsites, additional contaminated properties, parks, schoolyards, and higher levels in the river floodplain, we need to be more vigilant about possible exposure.