Comments Due on Coal-to-Oil Plant

(The U.S. Department of Energy is accepting comments through tomorrow on its Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the waste coal-to-oil plant planned near Gilberton. The plant, which lies upwind of the Hometown area, would release hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals to the air each year. For more information about the project, visit its official Web site at www.ultracleanfuels.com and the Web site of its critics at www.ultradirtyfuels.com. Here's a copy of the comments I submitted today.)

Janice Bell
National Energy Technology Laboratory
P.O. Box 10940
MS 58/247A
Pittsburgh, Pa. 15236

(Sent via e-mail to jbell@netl.doe.gov)

Dear Ms. Bell:

I write regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the WMPI coal-to-oil operation planned near Gilberton, Pa. I live in North Carolina but am a native of Schuylkill County with family living in the local communities of Shenandoah, Minersville, Hometown and Tamaqua. I'm also a reporter who has long been concerned about the enormous amount of toxic pollution being emitted into the area's environment, and I recently launched a Web site to document the problem at www.hometownhazards.com.

Because the WMPI will significantly increase the already-enormous toxic burden borne by Schuylkill County residents, I urge the U.S. Department of Energy not only to withhold funding for the project but to do whatever it can to keep the facility from being constructed.

The WMPI operation will dump pollution to the air from six emissions stacks and from storage tanks, which reportedly are expected to leak more than a ton of volatile diesel and naphtha each year. The state Department of Environmental Protection is permitting the operation to annually dump 100 tons -- 200,000 pounds -- of the criteria air pollutants sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter into the atmosphere. The DEP would also allow the facility to release 100,000 pounds of volatile organic compounds and 200,000 pounds of ammonia. Furthermore, the plant is expected to emit annually more than 30 pounds of highly toxic and bioaccumulating mercury.

The DEIS notes that the "air permit for the proposed facilities establishes maximum allowable limits for total facility emissions of less than 10 tons for any single hazardous air pollutant and less than 25 tons altogether for any combination of hazardous air pollutants during any consecutive 12-month rolling period." Less than 10 tons? Does the DOE somehow think it's comforting to area residents to know the facility is allowed to release up to 20,000 pounds of a poison such as benzene in a given year?

The toxic emissions coming out of the WMPI operation would join those already being released by numerous other industrial facilities throughout the county. For example, the nearby Gilberton Power Co. -- a waste-coal-burning power plant operated by WMPI partner John W. Rich, Jr. -- reported releasing to the air in 2003 alone 153,410 pounds of hydrochloric acid, 22 pounds of barium compounds, 10 pounds of manganese, 4 pounds each of lead and zinc compounds and 3 pounds of chromium compounds, according to the facility's latest Toxic Release Inventory. In nearby Shenandoah, the St. Nicholas Cogeneration plant in 2003 reported emitting 4,795 pounds of zinc fumes/dust, 500 pounds each of manganese and barium, 255 pounds of chromium, 20 pounds of lead, and 10 pounds each of arsenic, copper and nickel.

In nearby Frackville, the Wheelabrator waste-coal plant in 2003 reported dumping to the air 55,262 pounds of hydrochloric acid, 8 pounds of barium, 2 pounds of manganese, and 1 pound each of arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and vanadium. To the west in Tremont, the WPS Westwood waste-coal plant in 2003 reported releasing 4,500 pounds of sulfuric acid, 3,400 pounds of hydrochloric acid, 264 pounds of vanadium, 112 pounds of zinc, 97 pounds of manganese, 74 pounds of barium, 72 pounds of chromium, 53 pounds of lead, 41 pounds of copper, 36 pounds each of mercury and nickel, and 33 pounds of hydrogen fluoride. (That marked a big decline from Wheelabrator's previous year's releases of 11,000 pounds of hydrochloric acid, 9,802 pounds of chromium, 5,500 pounds of hydrogen fluoride, 4,700 pounds of sulfuric acid, 3,014 pounds of barium, 1,302 pounds of manganese, 834 pounds of vanadium, 251 pounds each of copper and zinc, and 147.9 pounds of lead.) Further east near Hometown, the Northeastern Power waste-coal-fired plant in 2003 released to the air 81,203 pounds of hydrochloric acid, 16,062 pounds of hydrogen fluoride, 509 pounds of barium, 119 pounds of manganese, 92 pounds of lead, and 1 pound of mercury.

And waste-coal-burning power plants are not the only facilities polluting Schuylkill County's air, according to 2003 TRI data. Alcoa Extrusions in Cressona released to the air 84,079 pounds of hydrochloric acid, 50 pounds of chromium, 46 pounds of lead, 40 pounds of manganese and 17 pounds of copper. Tredegar Film Products in Marlin -- 29,094 pounds of ozone. Air Products near Hometown -- 5,352 pounds of hydrogen fluoride, 4,655 pounds of dichloromethane, 3,059 pounds of chloroethane, 1,000 pounds of ammonia, 500 pounds of hydrochloric acid, 255 pounds of acetonitrile, and 5 pounds each of boron trichloride and fluorine. Silberline Manufacturing in Hometown -- 4,323 pounds of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and 500 pounds of aluminum. GHM Inc. in Orwigsburg -- 6,204 pounds of styrene. Schuylkill Products in Cressona -- 250 pounds each of chromium, manganese and nickel and 9 pounds of lead. Goulds Pumps in Ashland -- 671 pounds of copper, 136 pounds of chromium, 63 pounds of manganese and 12 pounds of nickel.

For 2003 alone, that's a total of 462,360 pounds of toxic chemicals dumped to Schuylkill County's air. Among these chemicals are a number of recognized carcinogens, neurotoxins, and reproductive and developmental poisons.

What's the total cumulative impact of these releases on human health year after year? How do all these chemicals interact with each other in the human body? What would be the impact of adding the releases from a highly polluting coal-to-oil operation?

Furthermore, how do these air emissions interact with toxic exposures from other sources of pollution, such as Superfund toxic waste sites? Schuylkill County has one Superfund site currently on the National Priorities List -- Eastern Diversified Metals in Hometown, where contaminants of concern include polyvinyl chloride, PCBs, dioxin and lead. The county also has two Superfund sites that have been deleted from the NPL -- Metropolitan Mirror and Glass in Frackville, where contaminants include silver solutions, paint strippers and thinners, and solvents; and McAdoo Associates in Hometown, where more than 6,000 barrels of numerous toxic chemicals (including beryllium from a DOE contractor) were dumped into an old coal mine.

Health studies of those sites conducted by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry downplayed the possibility of human exposure, but area residents were in fact exposed to contaminants from the Eastern Diversified site through massive fires that burned there on occasion from the late 1960s through the late 1970s -- blazes that sent massive clouds of dioxin-tainted black smoke billowing over the area. One of the fires burned for two weeks. And Hometown-area residents and local leaders are currently pursuing studies to determine whether contamination from the McAdoo Associates site may have migrated into area wells and the Tamaqua municipal water supply. Hometown lies downwind of the waste-coal plants as well as the proposed coal-to-oil plant. If people in that area are indeed drinking and bathing in contaminated water, how would they be affected by additional air pollution above and beyond the enormous amount they're already exposed to?

Has a decision been made by regulators to concentrate filthy industry in this area? If so, residents should be informed about it -- and compensated.

I also ask that the DOE consider whether the state can properly regulate the WMPI operation. When one visits the WMPI project Web site at www.ultracleanfuels.com, the state of Pennsylvania is listed as a project participant. How can the state both participate in promoting and objectively regulate a polluting industrial operation? It seems to be a fundamental conflict of interest.

Thank you for considering my concerns. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Sue Sturgis

Dr. Lesko's Toxic Conflicts

I was curious to hear that Dr. Samuel Lesko, a Lansford, Pa. native and medical director of Scranton’s Northeast Regional Cancer Institute, came to Hometown for the Jan. 18 meeting about the Pa. Department of Health's latest study of the local health crisis. The research was a response to public outcry after three people were diagnosed with the rare blood malignancy polycythemia vera on Ben Titus Road in the cancer-plagued Still Creek community, which lies near the McAdoo Associates Superfund site, Northeastern Power's waste-coal-fired co-generator and Air Products' industrial gas operation.

Lesko says he was invited to Hometown by Dr. Gene Weinberg, a state epidemiologist who conducted the DOH study. When residents criticized Weinberg's research for downplaying the connection between the area's pollution and their health problems, Lesko told attendees he might be willing to attempt his own study – "with adequate funding," of course. A spokesperson for state Sen. James Rhoades later told the Pottsville Republican that Rhoades "would likely approach U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, both Republicans, and U.S. Rep. T. Timothy Holden, D-17, to tap money for a more extensive study."

I never heard of Lesko or NRCI before that meeting, so I did some checking. As it turns out, they have conflicts of interest that should automatically disqualify their involvement in Hometown.

One of NRCI's biggest funders is the U.S. Department of Energy, which is responsible for contamination at McAdoo Associates through National Beryllia of Haskell, N.J. A DOE contractor covered under the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program, National Beryllia was among the companies sued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to finance the site’s cleanup. Another conflict arises because Lesko's father (who's now deceased) worked for Air Products, which besides polluting Hometown's air also dumped waste at McAdoo Associates. Asking Lesko to study Hometown would put him in the position of possibly implicating or exonerating his father's former employer -- and his own employer’s major funder.

Unfortunately, Lesko did not disclose these potential conflicts at the Hometown meeting. In a recent interview, he said he did not know about DOE or Air Products involvement at McAdoo Associates until I told him about it.

"I don't even know where McAdoo Associates is," he said.

Lucky guy. Apparently he never had the bad luck to drive past it in the late 1970s when the chemical stench was so horrible you had to roll up the car windows to keep from retching. Today the site is still visible from Route 309, just up hill from the local drinking water reservoir, a chain-link fence marking the spot where some of America's biggest corporations -- and taxpayer-supported government contractors -- incinerated and dumped thousands of barrels of the most toxic chemicals known to science.

Following NRCI's Money

The DOE has been extremely generous to NRCI. Of the institute's total annual receipts of about $2.5 million, the DOE gave $640,000 in 2003, $1.4 million in 2002 and $529,000 in 2001, according to Internal Revenue Service paperwork available through Guidestar. In 1998, Congress appropriated a total of $10 million in DOE funds to NRCI "for innovative research that supports the Department's exploration of microbial genetics," according to House Report 105-271.

NRCI also has a close relationship with U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who's currently pushing a plan to dredge the Delaware River and dump most of the resulting toxic waste in Pennsylvania. Schuylkill County would probably be targeted to get at least some of the dredge, since the material's already been dumped in coalmines in the nearby borough of Tamaqua over area residents' strenuous objections.

For at least the past two years, Santorum has presented checks of $100,000 in federal funds to NRCI for its work on colorectal cancer. He personally secured the money from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Lesko and NRCI President Robert Durkin have joined him at the presentation ceremonies.

Can we really expect an organization with such close financial ties to local polluters to take an unbiased look at the area's environmental health problems?

Not according to Dr. Samuel Epstein. Professor emeritus at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, Epstein is the author of more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and 11 books on environment and cancer, including The Politics of Cancer, winner of the American Library Association's Notable Book Award in 1979. (He published a follow-up, The Politics of Cancer, Revisited, in 1998.) Epstein currently chairs the Cancer Prevention Coalition, which unites leading independent public health experts and citizen activists to reduce growing cancer rates by promoting prevention. But unlike NRCI and many other cancer organizations, CPC's prevention message goes beyond personal matters such as smoking and diet to address environmental pollution.

Epstein cautioned Hometown-area residents against working with a DOE-funded organization. "I would be pretty suspicious of anything coming from the administration," he told me. "I don't believe they would be willing to find anything counter to their interests."

Even Lesko acknowledged he probably wouldn’t be the best person for the job. "I think we probably could do a scientifically valid study," he said. "A potential conflict of interest like you're suggesting should be disclosed. But the community perhaps wouldn't accept the study's scientific validity."

Perhaps it wouldn't, indeed. So why would local politicians want to waste taxpayers' money on expensive research when the outcome is guaranteed to be tainted by doubt?

NRCI's Lack of Experience

And then there's the troubling fact that Lesko and NRCI have absolutely no experience conducting the kind of studies being discussed for Hometown.

The NRCI was founded in 1991 by several Northeast Pennsylvania hospitals and serves Lackawanna, Luzerne, Pike, Wayne, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Columbia, Montour and Northumberland counties. It collects cancer statistics from member hospitals and publishes incidence maps comparing county cancer rates to state rates. It also educates health care providers about cancer and offers resources for cancer patients. This month's NRCI events address fear of recurrence, colon and skin cancer prevention, family risk, and genetic screening. The institute also distributes information on cervical cancer to low-income women through the federal Women, Infants and Children hunger relief program.

The NRCI's educational work focuses on cancers that can be prevented in large part by individual initiative such as diet and exercise, staying out of the sun, and avoiding unprotected sex. It has no experience studying communities harmed by environmental pollution -- a fact Lesko acknowledged.

"The institute has not done publishable work on environmental links to cancer," he told me.

Further, the organization shows little interest in environmental pollution's links to cancer. For example, NRCI's 125-page Cancer Resources Guide -- "a one-stop resource for newly diagnosed cancer patients, their families and caregivers" -- doesn't even include the word "pollution," and the only environmental toxin it mentions is tobacco.

Nor did Lesko show any professional interest in pollution’s health effects prior to his 2000 arrival at NRCI from Boston University. A search for his name in PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's online research database, turns up a body of work that includes research on diarrhea in American infants, sleep-disordered breathing symptoms in 5-year-olds, and bed sharing's relationship to breastfeeding -- but nothing on environmental pollution.

Lesko did have a suggestion for who might be a good alternative for conducting a study of Hometown: his former colleague, Dr. Richard Clapp. A professor of environmental health at Boston University, Clapp is also a member of the Prevent Cancer Coalition board.

But Hometown residents might want to consider whether an epidemiological study is something they want to press for at all. There are many problems associated with this kind of research for pollution-afflicted communities, according to Dr. Steven Wing, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wing is the researcher who documented a connection between Pennsylvania's 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear disaster and increased cancer rates in the surrounding communities. In his work on TMI, Wing encountered deep biases on the part of DOH and other officials and wrote about his experience in a monograph titled "Objectivity and Ethics in Environmental Health Science" published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives in 2003.

"The health and pollution issues in Hometown are frustrating for several reasons," Wing wrote in a recent e-mail to me. "Whatever pollution there is in the area should concern people who live with it regardless of their disease experience. It is disrespectful, dangerous and irresponsible for industries to avoid costs by dumping on people and leaving a mess that contaminates the environment. Unfortunately that happens in far too many places and tends to occur more in places where people have less wealth and political power.

"Clusters of the non-infectious diseases you write about are resistant to satisfactory investigation for several reasons," he continued. "First, these diseases are not named according to a necessary cause. Unlike tuberculosis, salmonellosis, the flu, or black lung, all of which are named according to a causal agent that is found in every case, cancers, thyroid and autoimmune diseases are named according to their site of occurrence in the body, changes in tissues, or effects on function. If there is an infectious disease outbreak, the infectious agent can be isolated from sick people and the investigation involves looking for the source of the germ, such as drinking water, food, a human carrier, or insect vectors. With cancer (for example), nothing isolated from a patient indicates what caused the cancer. Even strong carcinogens are not very effective in producing specific cancers -- most smokers do not get lung cancer -- and it is very hard to know what people have been exposed to via air, water, diet, and dermal absorption over the long time periods that are involved with most cancers.

"... In my experience it is hard to get much satisfaction from studies like those conducted by PDOH because these studies do not have the sensitivity to detect the causes of disease," Wing concluded. "But this doesn't mean that there is no causal connection between the environment and health, and it doesn't mean people shouldn't fight for clean up and environmental protection on principle, regardless of evidence about disease."

Hear, hear. Furthermore, we the people of Hometown don't need a multimillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded study to know our health is being damaged by the area's extraordinary levels of environmental pollution. But by pushing for such a health study, politicians appear to be doing something about the local health crisis while allowing it to continue. Meanwhile, what are are those politicians doing to clean up the mess in Hometown -- and to get us the medical help we need right now?