March to Protest Local Dumping

A political activist known for colorful protests against state legislators' controversial pay raise will lead a 15-mile march from Pottsville to Tamaqua on Monday, Aug. 28 to protest dumping of sludge and other waste on area communities.

Gene Stilp will set off from the steps of the Schuylkill County Courthouse in Pottsville at 10 a.m. and walk 15 miles to Tamaqua along Route 209. Coal Creek Ranch, a subsidiary of Reading Anthracite, recently announced plans to begin dumping Philadelphia sewage sludge on land near the highway between Tuscarora and Tamaqua.

Members of the Army for a Clean Environment, a local grassroots environmental group, will join Stilp as he passes through Middleport, Brockton, Mary-D and Tuscarora. The public is welcome to join Stilp along the way.

A resident of Middle Paxton Township in Dauphin County and a former candidate for lieutenant governor, Stilp was a leading figure in the fight to overturn last year's legislative pay raise, which lawmakers passed late at night without public notice or debate. Stilp filed suit against the raise and parked a 25-foot inflatable pig outside the offices of lawmakers who refused to return the ill-gotten money.

Among Stilp's targets was local state Rep. Dave Argall, who not only accepted the raise but as House Majority Whip played a key role in its passage. And though Argall joined his colleagues in voting to repeal the raise last November, he was among only a handful of lawmakers who did not return the money they collected. Instead, he donated his to charity.

Polycythemia Meeting With Local Docs Raises Watchdog Hackles

Earlier this week, officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry held the first in a planned series of meetings with physicians to share and collect information on the local incidence of polycythemia vera, which a recent PADOH study found to be elevated. The meeting took place Wednesday, Aug. 16 at Miners' Memorial Hospital in Coaldale and included eight local physicians and their support staff as well as representatives of U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and state Rep. Dave Argall.

What was said there has angered local environmental health advocates, with one grassroots leader even expressing concerns about a possible "cover-up."

The meetings come in response to a request ATSDR received earlier this year from Dante Picciano, director of the Tamaqua-based Army for a Clean Environment. He asked ATSDR to investigate the unusual number of polycythemia cases clustered along Ben Titus Road north of Hometown in the Still Creek community, which is also home to the local drinking water reservoir. Still Creek is downhill from McAdoo Associates, a former toxic-waste incineration and dumping operation that's now a Superfund site. It's also near Northeastern Power's waste-coal-fired cogeneration plant (and the associated "Big Gorilla" coal combustion waste pit) and downwind of Air Products specialty gas plant -- all significant sources of pollution. (For more information on local pollution and its possible relationship to polycythemia, see my July 30 post, "Local Polycythemia Rate Gets Feds' Attention.")

According to the latest report from Picciano, informal surveys reveal that at least seven residents of Ben Titus Road have been diagnosed with polycythemia vera. Scientists have linked the disease to benzene, a contaminant of concern at McAdoo Associates, and radiation, which is emitted from NEPCO and the county's five other waste-coal-fired power plants. The Still Creek area also lies about 85 miles northeast (that is, downwind) of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, which suffered a partial meltdown in 1979, and 29 miles southeast of Berwick's Susquehanna nuclear plant. Though radiation levels emitted by coal-burning and normally operating nuclear plants are believed to be relatively low, every exposure -- no matter how small -- increases cancer risk, according to the National Academy of Sciences' latest evaluation.

To put the seven Still Creek polycythemia cases in perspective, consider that worldwide incidence rates of the disease range from 5 to 26 cases per 1 million people, according to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Yet only about 4,000 people live in all of Rush Township, where Still Creek is but one neighborhood.

I first heard about the Coaldale meeting earlier this week in communications with ATSDR regional representative Lora Werner. I asked her to send me more information about it and received a copy of the following e-mail summary of the event, written by Barbara Allerton of PADOH:

From: "Allerton, Barbara" [ballerton@state.pa.us]
Sent: 08/17/2006 03:21 PM
To: White, Mark (EPI)" ; Bogdan, Gregory" ; Weinberg, Gene" ; Lora Werner; lxw2@cdc.gov; loretta.bush@cdc.hhs.gov; Otto, Robin"
Cc: Axp9@cdc.gov; spc0@cdc.gov; Logue, James"
Subject: Summary of Coaldale/Miners' Memorial Hospital Grand Rounds held on 8/16/06

On August 16th, Dr. Greg Bogdan (Community Epidemiology Division, Bureau of Epidemiology), Lora Werner of the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and Ms. Barbara Allerton (Health Assessment Program, EHE Division, Bureau of Epidemiology), presented information and materials to eight (8) physicians and their support staff at a Grand Rounds program for staff physicians at Coaldale/Miners’ Memorial Hospital. The program was in response to community and medical professional concerns about the rates of illnesses in the Tamaqua area, particularly cancer rates and the incidence of p. vera. Information was presented on local drinking water quality, cancer incidence (particularly p. vera), and reporting p. vera to the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry. The physicians were very interested in the information provided and extra time was given to the discussion in order to answer all their questions. Representatives from the offices of U. S. Senator Arlen Specter and Pennsylvania Representative Dave Argall attended the meeting and the senator's aide expressed an interest in expanding the evaluation of the p.vera in this community. To date, the Health Assessment Program and ATSDR have conducted or planned the following activities to address the community concerns:

* The Bureau of Epidemiology prepared a Cancer Incidence Review of a three county area in December 2005.

* ATSDR prepared a Record of Activity evaluating residential and public water quality in the Tamaqua area.

* The Health Assessment Program and ATSDR prepared and distributed a June 2006 Health Professional Update on Tamaqua Area Environmental Community Health Concerns which included summaries of the review of available residential and public water quality sampling data as well as the December 2005 Cancer Incidence Review. This fact sheet was distributed to twelve (12) family practice physician groups serving Tamaqua area residents to communicate the public health response to community concerns and, in part, to correct accusations that the public water source is contaminated from the former McAdoo Associates Superfund site.

* Prepared and distributed an August 2006 Health Professional Update on Tamaqua Area Environmental Community Health Concerns which includes information on how to report p. vera as well as to define what constitutes a case of malignant p. vera. This information was prepared in order to ensure that Pennsylvania Cancer Registry is capturing all cases of p. vera as well as to better define those cases reported to date. Local environmental groups have conducted door-to-door self-reported disease prevalence surveys in Tamaqua area communities and allege that p. vera is underreported in the Tamaqua area.

* Additional grand rounds presentations are scheduled or offered to the following hospitals serving Tamaqua area residents: Good Samaritan Hospital (9.21.06) and Pottsville Hospital in Pottsville and the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown

* Informational packets were or will be distributed to Tamaqua area physicians at the grand round presentations, by appointment, or via U.S. Mail.

* ATSDR and the Health Assessment Program provided comments on a Community Fact Sheet to be distributed by the U.S. EPA Region 3 Office.

Lora/Greg: Please feel free to add to or provide any additional comments on the meeting.

Thank you,
Barbara

As I often do when I get documents from public agencies, I forwarded a copy to Picciano and other local sources for comment. They were livid. Picciano sent the following e-mail to Werner:

From: Dante Picciano
To: Lora Werner
Cc: David Argall
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 7:37 PM
Subject: Summary of Coaldale/Miners' Memorial Hospital Grand Rounds held on 8/16/06

I would like comment on the e-mail [from Allerton]. I realize that you were not the author of the e-mail but I want to make you aware of my concerns. First, the e-mail states:

"This fact sheet was distributed to twelve (12) family practice physician groups serving Tamaqua area residents to communicate the public health response to community concerns and, in part, to correct accusations that the public water source is contaminated from the former McAdoo Associates Superfund site."

The highlighted part of the sentence is a conclusion based on the absence of fact. On March 20, 2006, our petition to the ATSDR contained the following:

"8. The results of the chemical analysis of the water in the Still Creek Reservoir showed 76 parts per billion (ppb) of lead and 56 ppb of zinc (see Attachment 2).

9. The 76 ppb of lead in the reservoir is more than 5 times the allowed drinking water Maximum Contaminant Level of 15 ppb for lead.

10. The results of the chemical analysis of three soil sediment samples showed:

a. 1.36 to 1.94 parts per million (ppm) of beryllium,

b. 2.24 to 3.26 ppm of cadmium,

c. 63.1 to 93.5 ppm of lead,

d. 17.8 to 28.8 ppm of nickel,

e. 282 to 414 ppm of zinc, and

f. 200 ppb of methylethylketone (see Attachments 3, 4 and 5).

11. The results of the chemical analysis of a catfish caught in the reservoir showed 7.34 ppm of zinc (see Attachment 6)."

I do not know whether there is a contamination problem at the Still Creek Reservoir but I do know that there is evidence of a problem.

The e-mail also states:

"Local environmental groups have conducted door-to-door self-reported disease prevalence surveys in Tamaqua area communities and allege that p. vera is underreported in the Tamaqua area."

Again, I have trouble with the highlighted part of the sentence. As you know, on August 4, 2006, I informed you of two additional cases of polycythemia vera along the Ben Titus Road. This brings the total to at least six cases in this area.

In the future, I would hope that "investigators" provide data in support of their conclusions (allegations and accusations).

After sending that e-mail, Picciano learned of a seventh case of polycythemia vera along Ben Titus Road and passed the information along to Werner, noting that "these victims may be 'alleged' to you but they are real to me." Werner defended the term, saying PADOH used it in the e-mail summary because "as health authorities we can't consider these verbal or news reports of cases validated ... until we get this information from the physicians."

Picciano was not assuaged. He blasted the government agencies for their response to the area's health problems.

"This memo provides evidence of a cover-up in the making," he said. "The government's position seems to be that if they ignore the problem long enough, it will go away. I wonder if the victims afflicted with polycythemia vera feel better knowing that local environmental groups allege that polycythemia vera is underreported in the Tamaqua area and that the ATSDR and the PA DOH will be correcting accusations that the public water source is contaminated from the former McAdoo Associates Superfund site."

Added Picciano, "The ATSDR and the PA DOH have decided, in the absence of any evidence, that there are no health problems associated with the McAdoo Superfund site and now they are going to collect evidence to support their decision."

'A New Front' in Tamaqua's Dumping War

Tamaqua Council voted last night in favor of advertising for further consideration an ordinance that would "ban corporations and other limited liability entities from engaging in the land application of sewage sludge" inside the borough limits. The final version of the ordinance differs slightly from the one originally put forth by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, as the latest draft drops an earlier mention of sludge hauling, according to the Times-News.

Letters about the ordinance signed by all council members reportedly will be sent to U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter, Congressman Tim Holden, Gov. Ed Rendell, state Rep. David Argall, state Sen. James Rhoades and President George W. Bush. They read as follows:

As local elected officials we are encountering extreme difficulty in providing for the health and safety of those we represent due to restrictions placed upon us by preempting state and federal laws.

Our constituents are sending us a strong message that they want us to enact such environmental ordinances for their protection. The dumping of wastes such as fly ash, river dredge, and sewage sludge (biosolids) is either taking place or being proposed to take place in and around our community despite the opposition on record of the majority of our residents.

We are requesting that you take all necessary action to ensure that local municipalities, not state and federal bureaucracies, have local control in these matters and the ability to adopt ordinances they deem necessary to protect citizens.

We have attached a copy of an ordinance that we are seeking to enact to regulate biosolids in Tamaqua that many feel is in conflict with existing state law. We ask you to review this ordinance and propose further legislation that does not restrain local officials from doing their elected duty.

CELDF Attorney Tom Linzey spoke at the council meeting, describing court cases in California and New Hampshire that upheld local control of sewage sludge.

"The passage of this opens a new front for council," the Times-News quotes Linzey as saying. "It's a new area of law that could be upheld."

Argall Is Even Cozier With Rich Family Than I Previously Reported

Turns out Rep. Dave Argall -- whose aide, Tamaqua Councilman Micah Gursky, has been an outspoken critic of the sludge ordinance being considered tonight -- has received even more money from the Rich family than I previously reported based on information from the Institute for Money in State Politics.

According to an analysis done using data from the Pa. Department of State's campaign contribution database, the Riches -- who are pushing a plan to dump Philadelphia sewage sludge from Tamaqua to Tuscarora -- have contributed at least $11,125 to Argall's campaign since 1999.

John W. Rich of Pottsville most recently donated $1,500 to Argall on May 8 -- just before the sludge permit was announced for Schuylkill Township. He and John Rich Jr. of Auburn have made at least 13 separate donations to Argall over the past seven years in amounts ranging from $50 to $2,500.

'Don't Believe Everything That You Read in the Reading Eagle'

Part of yesterday's post about tonight's meeting in Tamaqua on the anti-sludge ordinance drew an objection from Dante Picciano. Besides being director of the Army for a Clean Environment, Picciano is also a very smart attorney, so I am posting his e-mail to me in full:

Your article is very good but the following section is not exactly
correct:

"Tamaqua Borough Solicitor Michael S. Greek has been criticized by local environmentalists for saying the ordinance is unenforceable and could even subject the borough to lawsuits. But if challenged by sludge-dumping interests, the ordinance probably does face an uphill battle in court. That's because at least two decisions -- one from the U.S. District Court and the other from the Penna. Supreme Court -- have held that the state DEP is solely responsible for setting rules for sludge use (for more details, see "Local unease over sludge fuels debate," Reading Eagle, June 7, 2006)."

The U.S. District Court in the Synagro case and the Pa. Supreme Court in the Hydropress case did not hold that the state DEP is solely responsible for setting rules for sludge use. In fact, the courts held that local communities are not preempted from regulating sludge as long as the regulations do not exceed the DEP regulations. There are only three areas where the legislature has preempted local control: alcoholic beverages, anthracite strip mining and banking.

The moral is don't believe everything that you read in the Reading Eagle.

Mea culpa!

Tamaqua Debates Banning Sludge While Politicians Cozy Up to Dumpers

On Tuesday, Aug. 15, Tamaqua council plans to debate an ordinance banning the dumping of sewage sludge, or what its boosters prefer to call "biosolids." But make no mistake about it, this is not mere poop we're talking about: Municipal sewage sludge also contains hazardous industrial chemicals, heavy metals and even radioactive materials. For more details about the history and hazards of sludge -- including how it came to be called "biosolids" -- check out the book "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry" by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton.

The sludge issue arose in Tamaqua because Coal Creek Ranch -- a subsidiary of Reading Anthracite -- recently got a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection to dump Philadelphia sewage sludge along Route 209 from the western edge of Tamaqua near the elementary school to Tuscarora. The land lies in Schuylkill Township, which recently began considering a similar ban.

The ordinance is the brainchild of the folks at the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a Chambersburg-based group that helps local communities challenge local corporate power by passing ordinances regulating everything from waste hauling to genetically modified crops to corporate retail operations.

The last time the sludge ordinance was discussed at a Tamaqua council meeting, tempers flared so hot that Mayor Chris Morrison threatened to call the police. The ordinance has also sparked fiery rhetoric from its critics. Tamaqua Councilor Micah Gursky, for example, characterized it as a bid for "secession" from the federal and state government, according to the Pottsville Republican.

"Seceding from the Union is a pretty big deal to me," Gursky reportedly said. "Granting rights to ecosystems is a pretty big deal to me."

In truth, Tamaqua wouldn't be going the way of the Confederacy by adopting the ordinance. But it would be adding a layer of local rules to the regulation of sewage sludge, which in Pennsylvania falls under the aegis of the DEP's Biosolids Program. Local regulation is necessary, the ordinance says, because DEP has failed to adequately protect the public from the hazards of sludge:

In April 2002, the Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which oversees state sewage sludge regulations, issued a report in which it concluded, “EPA cannot assure the public that current land application [of sewage sludge] practices are protective of human health and the environment.” Among the Inspector General’s concerns were the following: “failure to properly manage sludge may have adverse effects on human health and the environment”; “EPA does not have an effective program of ensuring compliance with land application requirements”; and state officials have criticized the lack of EPA oversight, staffing, and commitment toward ensuring the safety of land applied sludge.

In 1994, eleven-year-old Tony Behun from Rush Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, died from a staph infection shortly after being exposed to sewage sludge. The following year, seventeen-year-old Daniel Pennock from Reading, Pennsylvania, died from a staph infection shortly after being exposed to sewage sludge. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes staph as a potential pathogenic component of sewage sludge.

In spite of these risks, Tamaqua Borough has been rendered powerless by the state and federal government to prohibit the land application of sewage sludge by persons that comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

In order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of Tamaqua Borough, the soil, groundwater, and surface water, the environment and its flora and fauna, and the practice of sustainable agriculture, the Borough finds it necessary to ban corporations and other limited liability entities from engaging in the land application of sewage sludge. It is recognized that a small number of waste management corporations control the vast majority of sludge hauling and land application, and that corporate concentration enables those corporations to define waste management practices at the State level to the detriment of municipal communities. It is also recognized that limited liability shields prevent financial recovery (and accountability) for damages caused by business entities because limited liability insulates the persons managing the corporation from harms caused by their decisions. Finally, the Borough recognizes that corporations wielding government-conferred constitutional powers against the municipal government renders the Borough Council unable to guarantee to its citizens a republican form of government in the Borough.

Tamaqua Borough Solicitor Michael S. Greek has been criticized by local environmentalists for saying the ordinance is unenforceable and could even subject the borough to lawsuits. But if challenged by sludge-dumping interests, the ordinance probably does face an uphill battle in court. That's because at least two decisions -- one from the U.S. District Court and the other from the Penna. Supreme Court -- have held that the state DEP is solely responsible for setting rules for sludge use (for more details, see "Local unease over sludge fuels debate," Reading Eagle, June 7, 2006).

Even the CELDF folks acknowledge that Tamaqua faces a fight if it passes the ordinance. In an op-ed submitted to local media, CELDF Project Director Ben Price notes that Greek advised supervisors in nearby Walker Township that once sludge haulers get a permit, "you're not going to stop it from being dumped here. The way it is, we can't say we don't want it here."

"Solicitor Greek was right about 'the way it is,'" Price wrote, "but if we live in a democracy then that’s not the end of the story. If we live in a democracy, then the people, who have an absolute right to self-government, can change 'the way it is' and stop the sludge dumping, no matter what the DEP says."

Why is it so hard for a local community to reject sludge, anyway? In 1997, Pennsylvania enacted a waste-disposal law backed by agribusiness interests that barred townships from passing regulations for factory farms and sludge dumping tougher than the state's. Through its work in Tamaqua and elsewhere, CELDF is challenging that disempowerment of local communities -- and its efforts are part of a broader U.S. movement taking on corporate power. In Minnesota, for example, State Rep. Bill Hilty introduced a state constitutional amendment eliminating corporate personhood, while a number of states have passed laws regulating corporate ownership of farms, according to a report about CELDF in Orion magazine.

It's certainly not hard to understand why many Tamaqua residents distrust the state when it comes to protecting them from sludge, however. After all, the sludge-dumpers are major contributors to the politicians responsible for regulating the stuff. Since 2001, for example, Reading executives John W. Rich and Jane Rich have contributed at least $58,000 to Gov. Ed Rendell, according to the Institute on Money in State Politics. Rendell, of course, oversees DEP, whose chief serves at his pleasure.

John Rich has also given generously to state Rep. David Argall -- at least $2,575 since 1998.

The anti-secessionist Gursky, of course, serves as Argall's aide.

The National Superfund Crisis

Neglected Superfund toxic-waste sites aren't a threat only for the Hometown area: A new report from the Center for Progressive Regulation warns that the sites are a serious problem nationwide:

Superfund's plight threatens public health across the country. One in four Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site, and approximately three to four million children, who face developmental risks from exposure to environmental contaminants, live within one mile.

Over the last decade, cleanups have slowed to a crawl because the program lost its stable "polluter pays" funding base in 1995. A series of Republican-controlled Congresses allowed the industry taxes that support the program to expire and ignored yearly requests by the Clinton administration to reinstate them.

When President George W. Bush took office, the principle that polluters need not pay went from de facto to official public policy. The largest beneficiaries of this policy are oil and petrochemical companies whose record profits and outsized CEO compensation packages are front-page news nationwide. ... In addition to the "pain at the pump" caused by high gas prices, the American people are hurting from tax policy that places the interests of wealthy corporations over public health.

The report profiles 50 sites. Although none of them are in the Hometown area, the problems plaguing them are similar. Consider the following passage, which could very well be describing the McAdoo Associates Superfund site just north of Hometown and the Still Creek community:

"At many Superfund sites, cosmetic changes have been made—rusting barrels have been removed from the surface, and vegetation has reemerged on what were moonscapes 20 years ago. Beneath the surface, though, the toxic stews continue to circulate, moldering and spreading, adding chemicals to aquifers, rising to the surface of the soil as the land freezes and thaws, and releasing methane and other volatile gases."

To download a copy of "The Toll of Superfund Neglect: Toxic Waste and Communities at Risk," click here.