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Ontario's environment ministry guarantees no risk during PCB removal
The woman spoke of the children who attend a daycare across the street from the former Westinghouse plant, and in an emotional tearful plea, she said "I'm not here for myself tonight. I'm here for my son who attends the daycare across the street. I'm so worried that something will happen to the children." After a long pause, punctuated by deafening silence, MOE Southwest Region Director Jim Richardson replied. "I think your point about the daycare… we will ensure that there is no risk to your children. I will guarantee it, 100 per cent," he said. Richardson had sat quietly until that point in the meeting, which offered up details regarding the history of the initial cleanup of PCBs in the 1980s, and the construction methods of the four vaults that currently sit on 11 acres behind the former Westinghouse plant on Clark Road at Huron Street, the largest PCB storage site in Ontario. The MOE presentation also reviewed the decommission process, which was announced in March as part of the provincial budget with a price tag of $56 million, and will ultimately remove and destroy 78,000 tons of contaminated soil and materials that was cleaned up in and around London's Pottersburg Creek more than 20 years ago. And while all areas discussed drew questions and concerns from those in attendance, the meeting reached a boiling point during a presentation by the Middlesex-London Health Unit's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Graham Pollett. The audience quietly listened to Pollett detail the history of PCBs and their uses in industry and other functions, the various studies to examine their toxicity in animals and humans, and the fact the most common source for PCBs found in humans is through our food source. But when he came to details regarding a study completed on behalf of the health unit using a sample of 50 people considered to have been at the greatest risk for PCB exposure as a result of the Pottersburg Creek dumping, emotions flared, the study's accuracy was questioned, and calls were made for a new, up-to-date study on the entire community. The health study was conducted in 1985 and 1986 and involved 234 households and 50 people who were tested on three different occasions, Pollett said. The blood tests showed that the average PCB concentrations among the 50 people tested was 5.7 parts-per-billion. This level was compared to a second test group who were considered to have normal, everyday exposures to PCBs through the common source of food, and the results showed that the Pottersburg Creek samples were actually lower, on average, in PCB blood concentrations. As a result, Pollett continued, the study concluded that "Adverse short or long term health effects are unlikely to occur from the level of PCBs in this population." Ali Haidar, the man behind the London PCB Watch group who has been aggressively advocating for the community in relation to this issue took exception to Pollet's remarks and the study's findings. He said the study failed to consider the findings of the Centre for Disease Control in the U.S. which says that normal levels in the general population who are generally exposed to PCBs from food is 0.9 to 1.5 parts-per-billion, and levels of 5.7 are considered to increase the risk of health effects on humans. "Five-point-seven is five times higher than what's normal for the general population according to the Centre for Disease Control and what is accepted in the scientific literature," he said. "There is significant studies that link that level to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, thyroid malfunction, lower IQs, birth deficiencies, cancer, lupus, MS, and a host of things." He said there are many studies and, "The people of this community deserve more than half truths. I've been trying to get these answers for a month. I'm one person. I was able to find this study in the library." Haidar also found another study in the library which showed that the original clean up only included soil with concentrations less than 20 parts-per-million, but greater than 10. The rest was left behind and covered with six inches of fresh soil. "The literature now says that anything above 10 parts-per-million is dangerous. So there are parts in that creek that were left there and covered in six inches of soil – that's unacceptable." He said further tests must be done on the people who live in the area, on the former workers of the Westinghouse plant, and on the creek and surrounding areas. "People think their family members have died from this – have become ill from this. There needs to be further studies," he said. "The workers at (Westinghouse) did not have proper protective equipment. They would go home with that stuff on their clothes and wash them. They (Westinghouse) were dumping it in the creek and they knew. We deserve answers," Haidar said. MOE District Manager for the London District Tina Dufresne said the monitoring of PCB levels in the creek stopped in 2000, after "PCB levels decreased dramatically – they leveled off." However, the ministry does plan to undertake additional monitoring in Pottersburg Creek and Walker's drain to update the data. "And we're going to make it available to the public," she said. MOE District Engineer Todd Fleet, who will be heading up the decommission of the Pottersburg Creek PCB site, said while the work will be carried out by a private, expert contractor, the ministry will oversee every step of the project from start to finish. Water and air monitoring will be required, along with dust control throughout the project and the City of London and the MLHU will be involved in the project. The decommission work will begin in the summer, and the PCBs will be removed and destroyed by December of 2009, Fleet said. "We have a very aggressive timeline on this. We want to minimize the disruption to the area, ensure we have controls in place to protect the environment and the health and safety of the folks that are in the area." The MOE's plan is to bring the property back to industry standards and sell the land. But the potential sale has nothing to do with the decision to decommission the site. "There is no profit mode in this," Richardson said. "We want to put it back to an active use." Both Dufresne and Richardson emphasized the ministry's belief that it's best to remove the contaminated soil from the community and destroy it so that there will never be a risk of it entering the environment. Unlike in the mid-80s, technologies and facilities now exist that can safely and securely destroy the PCBs, and the cost of $56 million is considerably less than the estimated $120 to $140 million price tag of 10 years ago. Additionally, government officials are anticipating legislation to be in place soon that will require the destruction of all PCB waste. Dufresne said the MOE met with the present owner of the former Westinghouse building, Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), shortly after the announced decommission in March, and though the company has also expressed an interest in selling the property, there are concerns of PCBs laying beneath the structure. Jim Mann, who sat on the technical advisory committee during the initial clean up in the mid-80s, said at that time there were initial findings that PCBs were coming from under the building. "And it was thought they were coming from the floor drains. So they actually sealed all the floor drains with epoxy. So I suspect under the building and the floor drains there will be a lot of PCBs," he said. "We would like to see both sites cleaned up," Dufresne said, "although ABB doesn't have a fixed schedule for that yet. But we will work with the company to make sure that if they do sell it, it will be brought to compliance with our brownfields' regulations before that sale takes place." The MOE has also conceded that there are other PCB sites in London, but despite repeated requests they are yet to provide information regarding their locations. The additional sites are relatively small compared to the Pottersburg Creek site, and are privately owned, ministry officials said. Concerns were again expressed for former Westinghouse employees who were never warned of the dangers surrounding PCBs and handled the material, without protection, on a daily basis. Some called for these people to be included in any future health unit testing, while others said it was an issue for the Ministry of Labour and the Workers' Safety Insurance Board. Ward 3 Coun. Bernie MacDonald, himself a former Westinghouse employee, said he has spoken to London-Fanshawe MPP Khalil Ramal, both who were present at the public meeting, and Ramal plans to take all concerns back to Queen's park. Once the contract for the decommission work is complete, Fleet said the MOE will hold another public meeting to provide specific details regarding what the decommission activities will involve, including modes of transport and routes to be taken by the removed contaminated soil. RELATED STORY: Environment Ministry set to face public over Pottersburg Creek PCBs RELATED STORY: IN-DEPTH REPORT: London's PCBs – 'It was leaking then, I know it's leaking now' RELATED STORY: $56 million PCB east London clean up: why now, why taxpayers money? |
| Anyone else think its slightly irresponsible and dangerous for the ministry to announce the transportation routes for removing these PCB's? If you have not noticed, the world has lost its marbles and I dont particularily think its safe to announce routes that could give a nut job an oppourtunity to cause alot of problems. Just my two cents |
| By: Jeff on 05/20/2008 |
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