Month: January 2015

WINDS OF SHAME

Fugitive toxic emissions at the Times Beach incinerator reveal lax safety policies of Syntex, the DNR and the EPA

BY C.D. STELZER

First published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), May 8, 1996

Gary Pendergrass stood before the St. Louis County
Council last Thursday and tried to explain the latest in
a series of snafus at the Times Beach incinerator, which
have resulted in the releases of unknown quantities of
dioxin into the environment.
      It was not an easy task for Pendergrass, who is
the Times Beach project coordinator for Syntex, the
company found liable for the Superfund cleanup.
Defending the project's already questionable safety
record  became even less tenable due to the belated
actions of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources
(DNR).  Earlier in the day, the state agency announced
it had shut down the controversial incinerator in the
wake of the most recent incident, an electrical power
outage on April 28. 
     DNR Director David Shorr could not be reached on
Monday. Nina Thompson, a spokeswoman for the department,
said the amount of the dioxin released during the
emergency had not been determined as of yet. "We don't
think that it was a health risk, but we still want to
know for sure," she said. The DNR does not know how long
the shut down will be in effect, according to Thompson. 
     At the council meeting, Pendergrass blamed an
unforseen act of God for the latest debacle. "As you can
see the wind velocity range went from the 20 to 30 mph
range very quickly up to a maximum of 62 mph," he told
the council, referring to a chart he had brought with
him.  
     "When this happened, the high winds extinguished
the pilot lights on the standby combustion system,"
Pendergrass added. Less than a minute later, the
electricity went out, according to Pendergrass. The
combination of the high winds and electricity outage
prevented the full burning of dioxin-contaminated
materials and thereby allowed toxic matter to spew
untreated out of the dump stack reserved for such
emergency releases.
     "Honestly, the events were very unfortunate the way
things worked,"  Pendergrass said.  The Syntex official,
nevertheless, reassured the council that the release
posed no danger to public health. To prevent a similar
occurrence, a wind screen has been installed to shield
the pilot lights, and a private weather forecaster has
been hired, Pendergrass said.
     The incineration of dioxin-contaminated soils is
scheduled to continue over the next several months,
according to the terms of the 1990 federal consent
decree. The plan -- signed by Syntex, the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and the DNR -- calls for burning
toxic waste from Times Beach and 26 other sites in
Eastern Missouri.  
       Under questioning from Councilman Gregory Quinn, 
Pendergrass testified that IT Corp. -- the incinerator
operator contracted by Syntex -- would calculate the
amount of toxins released and provide their estimate to
the DNR and the EPA for further evaluation.  
     Quinn then asked why air monitoring data on the two
previous emergency releases, which occurred on March 20
and March 30,  had not yet been provided to the St.
Louis County Health Department. Pendergrass responded by
saying the data would be forthcoming and added: "There
has been no attempt to hide anything on this project."      
     Opponents of the incinerator disagree. Dan
McLaughlin, who spoke to the council prior to
Pendergrass, alleged that "air monitors that surround
the site are ... either by accident or purposely shut
off during these releases."
     Joe Taykowski, the local resident who has been
videotaping the emergency releases from a bluff
overlooking the incinerator, says he has documented
other problems with the project. "They (Syntex) don't
want to talk about the fugitive emissions that are
coming out of the bottom of this stack at least five
times an hour -- every day," said Taykowski. 
      Reached for comment over the weekend, Steve
Taylor, a spokesman 
 the Times Beach Action Group (TBAG), criticized the
state and federal regulators for permitting incinerator,
which he says is an inherently dangerous. "The only
people surprised that this happened are the DRN and EPA,
the agency's that have been charged with safeguarding
public health. The community anticipated this," said
Taylor. 
      Last month, federal Judge John F. Nangle, the same
jurist who cobbled the 1990 consent decree, dismissed a
suit brought by the Citizens Against Dioxin Incineration
(CADI), a group affiliated with TBAG. By so doing, the
judge sided with the lawyers representing the  EPA and
Syntex,  who contend that Superfund law prohibits any
court challenges until after cleanups are completed.
Nangle's latest decision follows an earlier ruling in
which he overturned a St. Louis County ordinance that
sought to impose stricter emission standards on the
incinerator.

ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN

Two emergency releases of dioxin-laden pollutants at the Times Beach incinerator have residents burning mad

First published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), April 3, 1996

BY C.D. Stelzer

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicted it
would happen. But no one on either side of the
contentious issues surrounding the Times Beach dioxin
incinerator was totally prepared to deal with the
reality of watching thousands of pounds of dioxin-laden
particulate matter spew into the air. 
     Two emergency releases, which bypass the Superfund
incinerator's pollution control system, have already
occurred in the first two weeks of what is expected to
be a seven month burn. The latest accident occurred last
Saturday morning when a valve failed. On March 20, an
electrical power outage resulted in a discharge of
dioxin-contaminated pollutants that lasted for about one
hour, according to a spokesman for the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources. Environmental
activists, on the other hand, claim the same incident
lasted three-and-a-half hours. 
     The eminent danger posed by emissions is the main
legal argument of a federal lawsuit filed earlier in
late March by the Citizens Against Dioxin Incineration
(CADI). CADI is comprised of Eureka-area residents and
the Times Beach Action Group (TBAG), a group of
environmental activists. 
"We are convinced that incineration is releasing
substantial amounts of dioxin and other dangerous
poisons into the environment both from the stack and
from other sources at the incinerator," says Mick 
Harrison, the attorney for CADI. Concerns over public
health is reason enough, according to an existing
federal environmental law, to take the issue to court,
Harrison says. In a separate legal action, CADI will
also ask the court this week to allow the group to
intervene and become a party to the 1990 consent decree
that mandates the cleanup, Harrison adds. 
     For its part, the EPA continues to maintain that
emissions from the incinerator will have a negligible
impact on the health of nearby residents. Those
reassurances, however, contradict the agency's own
studies, which estimate that the population of the
entire country has already been overexposed to dioxin.
That opinion is further bolstered by a 1994 EPA analysis
that indicates dioxin is a probable human carcinogen and
is responsible for immunological and reproductive
disorders.
     According to the EPA's initial Times Beach risk
assessment, a typical emergency venting "may occur at a
frequency of once per week and last for several minutes.
... Because of the absence of a gas cleaning system,
approximately 350 pounds of treated particulate matter
may be emitted during a typical ... release." This
means, by conservative estimates, more than a ton of
toxic material escaped from the dump stack on March 20.
The EPA euphemistically refers to such occurrences as an
"Environmentally Safe Temporary Emergency Release
(ESTER).
In a subsequent risk assessment published in late
February, the EPA called ESTER events "hypothetical."
The same report downplayed both the potential effects of
such accidents and even the possibility of them
occurring. 
     Nevertheless, the pollution control system has now
been acknowledged to have been circumvented twice.
Unfortunately, ESTER events are only one of the
potential hazards tied to the incinerator's inefficient
operation. Video tapes made by incinerator opponents
clearly show repeated incidences in which billowing
plumes of brown clouds can be seen escaping from the
foundation and intake conveyor. 
But the DNR denies any knowledge of these fugitive
emissions.
     "Obviously, we had the ESTER events," Jim Silver of
DNR told a group of local residents last Saturday
afternoon. The impromptu meeting at the agency's office
near Times Beach took place after the second emergency
in as many weeks. Silver told the concerned residents
that he was unaware of any other problems at the site.
When asked about the brown smoke pouring out of the base
of the incinerator, Silver replied:      "I'm not sure
what you're talking about."
The DNR official admitted no one from the state
regulatory agency or the EPA monitors the incinerator
site 24 hours a day. Instead, they rely on data provided
by Syntex. Syntex has in turn contracted IT Corp. to
construct and run the incinerator. 
Chesley Morrissey, a member of the St. Louis County
Dioxin Monitoring Committee, has accused the DNR
official of not responding to the March 20 emergency in
a timely manner. Morrissey, who was appointed to the
watchdog group by County Executive Buzz Westfall, says
the Silver did not inform her of the first emergency
release until well after it happened. It then took three
days of repeated telephone calls for her to reach him,
she says.
     The Monitoring Committee member is concerned about
the frequency of the emergencies given the brief time
the incinerator has been operating. "It's very alarming
that you don't know what's going on," Morrissey told
Silver on Saturday.
     Morrissey and other residents of the area have been
observing the incinerator operations occasionally from a
bluff overlooking the site. "This is kind of amazing. We
don't go up there that often to see what is going on and
just the few times we have gone up there we've got this
on tape," she says, referring to multiple instances of
both fugitive emissions and emergency releases that
bypass the pollution controls.
     Last week, U.S. District Judge Charles A. Shaw
transferred the CADI lawsuit to Judge John F. Nangle,
the senior jurist in the 8th Circuit who oversaw the
negotiations of the 1990 consent decree. In August,
Nangle upheld the limited terms of that court-ordered
agreement by outlawing a St. Louis County ordinance that
imposed stricter emission standards on the incinerator. 
     Both the EPA, and Syntex, which entered the CADI
suit of its own volition, are asking Nangle to dismiss
the case. According to their arguments, Superfund law
prohibits all litigation until after cleanups are
completed, making any citizens' objections to such
projects a moot point.
Not surprisingly, Harrison, the attorney for CADI,
disagrees with that legal stance. "There is a provision
of the Superfund statute that says consent decrees can
be challenged, set aside, or modified not withstanding
any other provision of the Superfund law," says
Harrison. This interpretation of the law has been upheld
in other federal cases, according to the environmental
attorney. As of yet, the Supreme Court has declined to
take up the issue, he says.
     As the legal fight continues, the
dioxin-contaminated soil continues to roll into Times
Beach from some of the 26 other sites in Eastern
Missouri that are a part of the cleanup. All together
more than 100,000 cubic yards are scheduled to be
burned. 
     An observer can see all this activity quite well
from up on the bluff overlooking the Meramec Valley. The
vantage point is populated by a small colony of prickly
pears that cling precariously near the edge of a rock
outcropping. These dwarfed cacti are evidence of a
botanical transition zone. Human influences on the
environment are far less subtle.
In the background, an EPA air monitoring station hums
incessantly. Earlier in the day, workers installed a
second cyclone fence around this equipment, and topped
the new barrier with three strands of barbed wire. New
roads are being bulldozed along this ridge, too. The
3-acre wooded lots here sell for more than $50,000. Soon
houses will be built and foraging deer will move
elsewhere.
     Meanwhile, in the flood plain below, a column of
white smoke rises from a tall stack and then drifts away
on the whims of the wind.
Some days it blows toward the high school in Eureka,
other days it drifts toward Sacred Heart elementary.
Next to the smokestacks at the incinerator site, the
U.S. and Missouri flags also wave in the breeze.

DIOXIN, PCBS, THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND NATIONAL SECURITY

BY C.D. STELZER

Previously unpublished, Feb. 14, 1996

Whenever PCBs or dioxin are mentioned, secrecy seems to
descends: doors close, sources become unavailable,
Freedom of Information requests go wanting, and lies are
told.  
     Former U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton (D-Mo.) recognized
early the consequences of such a flawed policy.  "If we
were discussing national security such as the A-bomb or
nuclear warheads, I could see where there would have to
be a cloak of secrecy," Eagleton told the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat in 1982. ... "But we are discussing a
situation that is affecting people's lives. ... The worst
thing is for there to be secret leaks that may be
misleading to the people in those affected areas,"
Eagleton said.     
     That the senator referred to national security is
telling. From the beginning, the military-industrial
complex has inhabited the edges of the dioxin
controversy. 
     Hoffman-Taff and Monsanto, of course, both
originally  manufactured a chemical component of Agent
Orange for use by the Army in Vietnam. But Monsanto's
military connections predates that era by decades. As far
back as World War II, the chemical company did work for
the government. In 1944, for example, the St. Louis Star
Times reported that Monsanto had gained approval from the
Army to produce a catapulting rocket" fashioned after the
German "robot bomb," an allusion probably to the early V
2 missiles used by the Nazis. 
     Another intriguing detail is that Syntex -- 
Hoffman-Taff's  parent and the company ultimately held
liable for the Times Beach cleanup --  is incorporated in
Panama, a center for clandestine banking and
international espionage.
      The Roche Group, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical
conglomerate bought Syntex in 1994. During World War I,
the allies suspected Hoffman-LaRoche of aiding Germany.
More recently, the company's American subsidiary 
provided a hallucinogenic drug, quinuclidinyl benzilate,
known as BZ, to the U.S. Army. The Army Chemical Corp is
reported to have conducted human experiments using BZ  at
the Edgewood Arsenal between 1959 and 1974.  
     There are also indications of a close working
association between public health officials and the
military. As already stated, health officials were
steered to the Verona plant by the Defense Contract
Administrations Services, a part of the Pentagon. In
addition, one of the early investigators of the Missouri
dioxin case had a background tied to the armed forces. 
In a 1975 deposition relating to the Piatt case, Coleman
Carter, a physician for the U.S. Public Health Service
(PHS), testified he had joined the health agency less
than two years before, while still a commissioned officer
on active reserve duty. Carter worked under the auspices
of the Epidemiological Intelligence Services (EIS).  EIS
had been specifically set up to respond to the threat of
biological warfare, according to Alexander D. Langmuir,
the chief epidemiologist for the PHS  from 1949 to 1970. 
     In addition, the Bliss Waste Oil Co. picked up used
motor oil from Ft. Leonard Wood near Rolla. One former
Bliss driver alleged that the company also collected
waste from Scott Air Force Base near Belleville.  IPC,
the St. Louis company that sub-contracted Bliss to haul
the dioxin-contaminated waste from Verona, was a
subsidiary of Charter Oil.  During the 1970s, Charter Oil
engaged fugitive financier Robert Vesco, and Billy
Carter, the brother of Pres. Jimmy Carter, to negotiate
trade deals with Libyan dictator Moammer al-Qaddafi.
     Perhaps the most bizarre footnote to this toxic
odyssey are the tete-a-tetes Bliss reportedly shared with
the late U.S. Rep. Richard Ichord (D-Mo.)  In a 1980
prison interview,  an alleged Bliss Waste Oil Co.
employee, recalled witnessing  meetings between his
former employer and the ultra-conservative congressman. A
transcript of the interview is on file at the IEPA
offices in Collinsville.  According to the transcript,
DNR and EPA officials and an assistant Missouri attorney
general interviewed inmate Scott Rollins at the Missouri
Penitentiary in Jefferson City. Rollins is quoted as
saying Bliss met Ichord, on more than one occasion, at an
unspecified restaurant and the two would sometimes leave
together. 
     Ichord is probably most remembered for being the
last chairman of the House Un-American Activities
Committee, and a zealous anti-communist. After leaving
office, he became a lobbyist for the extreme-rightwing
American Freedom Coalition, which received funding from
the Unification Church, founded in Korea by the Rev. Sun
Myung Moon. During his tenure in Congress, the
congressman also strongly supported chemical weapons. In
1980, Ichord pushed a more than $3 million appropriation
through Congress for a binary nerve gas facility at the 
Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. In the prison interview,
Rollins mentions that Bliss also did business in that
state, but didn't say where. 
     Whether the congressman and the waste oil hauler
ever met is, for now at least, still a matter of
conjecture. But it is clear that they both, in their own
ways, contributed to massive pollution problems. The Army
is now faced with destroying tons of chemical weapons. 
In this way, it faces the same kind of problem the EPA
has at Times Beach. Local residents in both circumstances
oppose the use of incineration as a means of destroying 
toxic chemicals.  
     In a 1970 speech before the St. Louis County Chamber
of Commerce, Ichord, warned that the environmental
movement could someday be subverted by the radical left.
Speaking at Slay's  restaurant in Affton, the congressman
said, "Solving the problems of pollution will require
sound and pragmatic actions from state and city
governments, plus massive volunteer activities as well as
the support you have the right to expect from the federal
government."      
     Although Taylor, the organizer for TBAG, would
likely not match the late congressman's profile of a good
citizen, he agrees that the federal government, in
particular Congress, does have an important obligation. 
     "The Times Beach Action Group has always wanted to
uncover the truth about what's been happening with these
toxic sites," says Taylor. "We have requested a
congressional investigation from (Rep.) Jim Talent. Also,
we've sent a letter requesting (the same) of (Sen.
Christopher "Kit") Bond."
      TBAG hasn't heard back from Bond. They're not
holding their breath.

CHEMICAL LIVES

BY C.D. Stelzer

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Feb. 14, 1996

One of the most disturbing scientific debates to have
resurfaced lately is over the decline in male sperm
counts. Studies indicate a drastic reduction in healthy
sperm in the last two generation. In 1992, A Danish
researcher  estimated that sperm counts throughout the
world went down 42 percent since 1940. Some scientists,
including those at the EPA, suspect that dioxin and PCBs
may be at least partially responsible.       
     Perhaps most germane to Times Beach and the hazard
waste situation in Missouri, however, is the close
relationship PCBs share with dioxin. Evidence suggests
that small amounts of dioxins and dibenzofurans, a
related chemical, can actually be created inadvertently
during the manufacturing of PCBs. More important, as PCB
oil ages and begins to breakdown, the concentrations of
dioxin-like chemicals increase, according to authorities
on the subject.  
     The rule of thumb is the more chlorinated the PCBs,
the more toxic the contaminated soil will become with
dioxin-like chemicals as it ages, says Tom Gasiewisz, a
University of Rochester professor of environmental
medicine.  The scientist also offers another caveat: "In
some of those earlier days, they didn't have an isomer
specific analysis on ... dioxins and furans present in
those formulations. ... Although the compounds might
have been suspected to be there, the exact isomer
concentrations were probably unknown," says Gasiewisz.
In laymen's terms, this means the contents of some PCBs
are uncertain.
     The effects of exposure to the chemical is less of
an enigma, however. Although not as potent as dioxin,
PCBs, nevertheless, pose many of the same health risks.
In 1991, the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services labeled PCBs carcinogenic. Exposure to the
chemical has also been linked to  birth defects,
immunological problems and reproductive disorders. If
all this weren't enough, the federal Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) warns that PCBs
don't burn easily. The chemical's resistance to heat is
one of the reasons they were formerly used as an
insulators in electrical transformers.   
     PCBS were first commercially produced in the United
States by the Swann Chemical Co. in 1929. But for
decades thereafter Monsanto Chemical Co. exclusively
manufactured PCBs up until 1977, when production stopped
shortly before the federal government banned the
chemical as apart of the Toxic Substances and Control
Act (TSCA).  Monsanto produced PCBs at its  W. G.
Krummrich plant in Sauget, Ill. and at another facility
in Anniston, Ala. 
     An industry source estimates more than one billion
pounds of the indestructible chemical were manufactured
since 1929.  Hundreds of millions of  pounds have since
been indiscriminately dumped, according to EPA
estimates. As a result, ground and surface waters have
been permanently polluted from coast to coast.  
     PCBs are part of a family of more than 200
different related chemical compounds, which range from
light oily fluids to heavy greasy substances. For
decades prior to their prohibition, they were used as
insulators in electrical transformers and capacitators.
Many other products once contained PCBs, including:
plastics, adhesives, paints, varnishes, pesticides,
carbonless copying paper, newsprint, fluorescent light
ballasts and caulking compounds. 
     Concerns about PCBs developed in 1964, after a
Swedish scientist became aware of their persistent
nature and tendency to accumulate in higher
concentrations as they moved up the food chain. Four
years later,  a PCB leak at a rice factory in Japan
resulted in the best documented case of human exposure.
Those who ate the contaminated rice were later found to
be 15 times more likely to contract liver cancer.

DANGEROUS GROUND

Doxins aren’t the only problem in Missouri. PCB contamination continues to be overlooked or denied by both public regulators and Monsanto

BY C.D. STELZER

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Feb. 14, 1996

First, hundreds of birds started dropping from the
rafters like so many miners' canaries. Then dogs and
cats began to die. By September 1971, seven horses had
perished at the Shenandoah Stables in Moscow Mills, Mo.
Before the scourge abated, scores more would die. 
     Humans also succumbed, developing flu-like symptoms
and skin rashes. On August 22, Judy Piatt, the co-owner
of the stable, admitted her 6-year-old daughter to St.
Louis Children's Hospital. The girl, who played
frequently inside the equestrian arena that summer, had
lost 50 percent of her body weight and was hemorrhaging
from the bladder. On a hunch, her mother filled an empty
Miracle Whip jar with dirt from the arena floor. That
soil ended up at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
in Atlanta, where in 1974 scientists confirmed it
contained trichlorophenol and a related waste byproduct
-- 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD) -- commonly
known as dioxin. 
     After the CDC announced its find, dioxin became the
buzzword that grabbed headlines, spurred by its links to
Agent Orange and the Vietnam War. The resulting clamor
allowed the additional discovery of highly-toxic
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the same soil to
escape the media's attention.
     This single detail is a clue in a mystery that
challenges the conventional history of Missouri's long
sordid affair with hazardous waste. It also raises
doubts about soil characteristics at other sites, the
origins of the toxins and the consequences of the
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) plans to burn
them soon at Times Beach.
     The legal authority for the EPA and the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to mandate
incineration hinges on protecting public health. But
test burns conducted in November show problems 
foreshadowing their plans, including the malfunctioning
of an important anti-pollution device. The EPA's
inability to fully account for PCBs and other pollutants
at nearly one third of the designated cleanup sites adds
another potential danger to  an already uncertain
combustion equation. 
     These are among the reasons the Times Beach Action
Group (TBAG), a group opposed to the
incinerator,contends the consent decree authorizing the
Eastern Missouri Superfund cleanup is void. TBAG also
asserts the EPA failed to address PCBs in its 1994 risk
assessment.The activists' position is supported by a
recent report prepared by the Environmental Compliance
Organization (ECO), the firm hired through an EPA grant
to represent citizens interests. In addition,  Rep. Jim
Talent (R-Chesterfield) has raised questions about PCBs
at Times Beach, and again asked the EPA to delay
incineration so alternative technologies can be given
more consideration.      Last week, the congressman's voice
was muted, however, by the release of a General
Accounting Office study favoring incineration. The
decision corresponds with the deregulatory mood of the
Republican-controlled Congress, and the trend of
delisting Superfund sites. 
    Turning a blind eye on the environment may be in
vogue  among certain special interests, but an
investigation by the Riverfront Times has turned up
long-neglected facts that warrant consideration.
     * No PCBs were found at the facility in Southwest
Missouri, where the dioxin in the St. Louis area
supposedly originated. This means PCBs that are present
came from another source or sources. Monsanto
exclusively manufactured PCBs in the United States until
1977. 
     * As early as 1972, an EPA official informed
Monsanto about PCB levels at the Bliss Waste Oil
Co.tanks in Sauget, Ill., according to a copy of a
correspondence obtained by the RFT. This contradicts the
EPA's  own chronology. 
     *Russell Bliss, the owner of the company blamed for
the dioxin contamination in Eastern Missouri, signed at
least two contracts to haul hazardous waste from
Monsanto facilities in the mid-1970s. In 1977, a Bliss
driver dumped hazardous waste at a site in Jefferson
County. The sludge included PCBs that state officials
suspected came from Monsanto's research lab here. The
cleanup took six weeks and cost taxpayers approximately
$515,000.
    * More recently, the EPA failed to provide relevant
information to the independent laboratory hired to
analyze soils from the Eastern Missouri dioxin sites. In
an appendix to the federal agency's 1994 risk
assessment, the lab cites multiple instances of missing
data, and states  PCBs were found at four locations that
had not previously been listed by the EPA. 

The predisposition of federal and state regulators to
underplay PCB contamination has led some local
environmentalists to muse that governmental concerns lie
not so much in protecting the environment as in
destroying evidence. 
     The Times Beach dioxin incinerator near Eureka is
scheduled to begin burning some 100,000 cubic yards of
dioxin-contaminated soil from 27 sites in Eastern
Missouri perhaps as soon as March. Plans for the burn
are proceeding despite the independent ECO report, which
questions whether current EPA methodology for measuring
stack emissions "leads to a vast underestimation of
risk." The citizens watchdog group also warns that
because of ambient levels already found in the
environment "further exposure by populations to any
dioxin should be avoided."  ECO concludes that "(EPA)
data ... is insufficient to demonstrate that the sites
have been adequately characterized to all potential
constituents and the various congeners of dioxin."
     In a pointed 3-page letter sent to the EPA regional
administrator Dennis Grams on Dec. 27, Rep. Talent takes
issue with the legality of burning PCBs without a proper
permit. In addition, he asks why sampling data for some
of the sites is missing. 
     These are all legitimate concerns. Incinerating
PCBs can actually create dangerous dioxins and furans.
Nevertheless, the EPA and the Missouri Department of
Natural Resources (DNR), say the project poses
absolutely no threat to human health. 
      "We're not saying that PCBs are not dangerous, but
it's an issue of risk, and the risk associated with very
low levels of PCBs is not significant," says Feild.
"It's not like PCBs are not suitable for incineration,
that's the way you deal with them." 
     For its part, Monsanto denies any poisonous past
relationship with Bliss, the man responsible for
spreading the waste. "To the best of our knowledge
Bliss's company did not haul PCB or dioxin-contaminated
material from any of our St. Louis area facilities,"
says Monsanto spokeswoman Diane Herndon. "We're not
saying that we didn't use him, but to the best of our
knowledge, we don't believe that he hauled any PCB or
dioxin-contaminated material." 
    Nevertheless, PCBs are undeniably present in some of
the contaminated soils. There existence is a toxic
subject that remained buried until the environmentalists
uncovered it. "It wasn't until we discovered the
Kimbrough report, which showed very high levels of PCBs
in the arena soils, that they (the EPA) gave us any site
specific data at all," says Steve Taylor, an organizer
for TBAG.     
     Taylor is alluding to a scientific article by
Renate D. Kimbrough, a physician for CDC. She first
wrote about dioxin and PCB contamination at Shenandoah
Stables in 1975. Kimbrough then cited dioxin as the
cause of the Shenandoah Stables catastrophe -- but she
also said the contaminated soil contained up to 1,590
parts per million (ppm) of PCBs. The federal cleanup
standard for PCBs has been set at 50 ppm. 
     Earlier this month, Feild of the EPA admitted that
priority pollutant data was missing on six of the 27
sites that are a part of the Times Beach cleanup, nearly
one third of the total. This revelation follows the
release of EPA data sheets to environmentalists that
were missing PCB test results. The gaps in PCB data
raises serious doubts about the status of hundreds of
other locations in Eastern Missouri that are known or
suspected to have been sprayed by the Bliss Waste Oil
Co.       
     "If they (EPA) are saying they didn't test for
those (pollutants) or a percentage of the them are lost,
I find that hard to believe," says Nina Thompson, a
spokeswoman for the DNR. But when asked if the DNR is
aware of all the sites that Bliss may have sprayed with
PCBs, the department spokeswoman replied: "Have we gone
out and tested every site in Missouri? No, we didn't do
that." Instead, the state agency depended on the EPA.
But despite the EPA's missing data, Thompson is
confident regulators followed  proper protocol and
tested for required priority pollutants other than
dioxin. 
     Nevertheless, there is a chance contaminated sites
may have been overlooked. According to research by
former DNR official Linda Elaine James: "State and
federal officials ... investigated over 375 sites in the
St. Louis area based on information that Bliss may have
sprayed there. About 45 of these sites were never
sampled because the investigation could not substantiate
Bliss at the site. Thirty were ruled out without
sampling because they appeared to have been sprayed by
Bliss after 1972 or 1973, the assumption being that
Bliss had used up all of the (dioxin-contaminated)
wastes by this time. Over one hundred (other) sites were
sampled and dioxin was not discovered." But the PCB
levels at these locations remains, for the most part, an
enigma. 
     Interestingly, the environmentalists were not the
first to be denied information on PCB levels at the
Eastern Missouri dioxin sites. Mantech Environmental
Technology Inc., an independent laboratory that analyzes
soils for the EPA,  refers to missing data in an
appendix to The appendix also states that four different
Aroclors --  Monsanto's commercial name for PCBs -- were
found at sites, where the compounds had not been
originally indicated on spreadsheets. 
     "It's disturbing that these data are not available
given the amount of money that they (the EPA) spent in
the early 80s gathering samples," says Taylor.  "It's
rather like going to the moon and losing the rocks at
taxpayers' expense. It would appear that they were
trying to keep certain other sources of pollution from
public scrutiny."  

All Roads Lead to Verona, or do they?

When CDC officials began investigating at Shenandoah
Stables, they suspected either PCBs or nerve gas. After
finding dioxin, however, health officials turned their
attention toward Agent Orange, a defoliant used in 
Vietnam. Information from the Defense Department
narrowed the search to four sources, including Monsanto.
Syntex, the company ultimately held liable for the Times
Beach cleanup had purchased Hoffman-Taff Inc., one of
the suspected firms. Hoffman in turn implicated the
Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Co. (NEPACCO),
which leased part of its Verona, Mo.plant. NEPACCO
created dioxin as a waste byproduct of hexachlorophene.
Hoffman-Taff had hired another responsible party,
Independent Petrochemical Co. (IPC) of St. Louis, to
dispose of the toxic material. IPC sub-contracted the
work to Russell Bliss.
     In six 1971 trips, Bliss hauled more than 18,000
gallons of dioxin-tainted sludge from Verona to his 
Frontenac storage tanks. His drivers then sprayed the
toxic mixture as a dust-suppressant on horse arenas,
unpaved roads, truck terminals, and parking lots.
     However, the CDC's  soil analysis from Shenandoah
Stables, raises questions about this standard version of
events. That's because tests conducted on contents of
the  "black tank" at Verona, where all of the
contaminants allegedly originated, indicated the
presence of dioxin -- but no PCBs. If PCBs found at
Shenandoah didn't come from Verona, then there had to
have been one or more other sources.
     One of the conclusions of the ECO report is "there
is insufficient data to support the contention that a
single tank in Verona, Mo. is the sole source for all
dioxin contamination." Besides Monsanto, Bliss collected
waste from:  Union Electric, Wagner Electric,  Signet
Graphic, Benjamin Moore (Paint Co.), Edwin Cooper,
White-Rogers, Jackes-Evans,  American Can, General Cable
, Carter Carburetor and the Orchard Corp, according to
court records. Some, if not all of these companies,
generated PCB-laden waste.
      In September 1971, after she had sued Bliss, 
Piatt, the co-owner of Shenandoah Stables, and her
partner Frank Hampel began tailing Bliss drivers on
their daily routes. Their surveillance would continue
for more than year.  During that time, the pair
sometimes disguised themselves: Hampel donning a woman's
wig and Piatt wearing a man's cowboy hat. 
     The undercover work paid off. The pair observed
Bliss' drivers wantonly dumping waste into streambeds,
and fields.  On one occasion, Piatt watched a Bliss
driver pick up a load at the Monsanto facility in St.
Peters, Mo. and dump it in a Mississippi River slough.
In another instance, she witnessed chemical wastes being
dumped at Times Beach.
     In late 1972, Piatt compiled an 18-page report on
her investigation. Her dossier cited 16 different
companies whose waste had been dumped by Bliss drivers.
Piatt's list also included 31 locations that had been
sprayed. She submitted the report to the EPA, DNR and
Missouri Department of Health (DOH).  
     Piatt's case would reveal that one of Bliss'
Frontenac tanks contained PCBs. A decade later, the
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency found
trichloroethylene and PCBs in a Bliss storage tank in
Sauget. 
     Private tests conducted in Times Beach in late 1982
detected not only dioxin and PCBs, but ethyl benzene,
acetone,toluene, xylene and other hazardous substances.
Depositions from 1972 through 1988 also indicate Bliss
and his drivers picked up waste products at the Monsanto
research laboratories on North Lindbergh and the
company's silicon wafer plant in St. Peters. Bliss
claimed his company disposed of its toxic cargo at a
landfill in East St. Louis. But the loads didn't always
make it there.
     Most telling -- Bliss himself testified on Nov. 20,
1972  that he had sprayed the streets of Times Beach.
     Despite this early knowledge, nothing happened. It
would be 10 more years before any attempt would be made
to deal with the problems. Unfortunately, the CDC
informed state authorities erroneously that dioxin had
an estimated half-life of only one year. While officials
waited for the disaster to disappear on its own accord,
the dilemma would be compounded by the excavations and
movements of contaminated dirt to other sites, including
residential properties.
     "There's clearly PCBs everywhere," says Gerson
Smoger,an attorney who has been involved in Times Beach
litigation."They didn't test, because dioxin was the
chemical of concern. They weren't looking for it, but it
was there -- everybody knew it was there. So to say it's
not there is ludicrous." Originally,the Times Beach
personal injury suits included Monsanto as a defendant,
Smoger says, but the plaintiffs' attorneys later dropped
Monsanto because "it complicated the case too much."  
     Bliss' widespread activities also complicated
cleanup efforts.In 1983, Fred Lafser, then-director of
the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) told
The New York Times: "The feeling is why go look for more
problems when we do not have the staff to solve what we
know about?" More revealing are comments Lafser made to
the RFT that same year. "Most of our hazardous waste
problems (in Missouri) can be traced back to him (Bliss)
-- including problems with PCBs, solvents and inks,you
name it." 
     The EPA now defends its inaction by claiming
ignorance. "We didn't even discover Times Beach or any
of the Eastern Missouri dioxin sites until after 1980,"
says Feild, the agency's current Times Beach project
manager. "There was no work being done except for the
Centers for Disease Control, who were investigating some
horse deaths starting in about 1974."
      But there is evidence that both the EPA and
Monsanto took an early interest in PCB contamination in
eastern Missouri relating to Bliss' activities. In one
letter dated Sept. 12, 1972, an EPA official provided
details to a Monsanto executive about testing for PCBs
at Bliss' oil storage tanks in Sauget, Ill. The letter
is from W.L. Banks, chief of the EPA's Oil and Hazardous
Substance Branch. It is addressed to W.B. Papageorge at
the Monsanto research labs on North Lindbergh. 
     When asked to comment on the Papageorge letter,
Herndon of Monsanto read this statement prepared by the
company's law department: "The 1972 letter to Papageorge
in no way implies that Bliss was hauling Monsanto PCBs.
Since PCBs had only recently been identified as an
environmental concern, it might be very likely that
Bliss and many waste haulers would have PCBs in their
storage containers at that stage."     
      The EPA letter to Papageorge is, nevertheless,
noteworthy given the Monsanto executive's background.
During  his more than 30-year-career with the company,
Papageorge managed a PCB plant. By 1972, he had moved up
the corporate ladder to become Monsanto's director of
environmental control. 

The Dittmer Incident     

A record of the fire is preserved in a routine report
filed away at the Cedar Hill Fire Protection District
headquarters in Jefferson County.  
     There is nothing ordinary, however, about the call
the rural department received at 5:21 p.m. on March 11,
1977. When firefighters arrived at the Albert Harris
property near the town of Dittmer, they were greeted by
a toxic maelstrom. Gusty 25 mph winds fanned flames that
licked the sides of a recently dug pit near a small
tributary of Calvey Creek. The searing heat inside the
10-foot-deep trench had caused toxic waste drums near
the edge of the excavation to explode. Investigators
later found 125 other  barrels scattered at the site.
Working in the rain, 20 firefighters battled the blaze
almost an hour before bringing it under control. 
      After receiving complaints about more pollution
problems at the same location, the DNR and EPA began
investigating lot number 21 of the Greenbriar
subdivision. Testing of the pit's contents revealed high
concentrations of PCBs  --  up to 20,000 ppm. The
agencies found other toxins at the site, including
bromophenol chlorophenol, a chemical produced only by
Monsanto in 1964, according to the EPA. 
     "It was a real chemical soup," recalls Robert
Zeman, a former DNR official who now works for the
Metropolitan Sewer District. "This pit was just about
every color of the rainbow from stuff that was in it.
The guy who was bringing the materials out there was an
employee of Russell Bliss. In the ensuing investigations
and discussions, (we determined) that Bliss was likely
involved in the activity." 
      Bliss later testified that bottles found in the
toxic pit came from Monsanto's research lab. When asked
from what major source he acquired his hazardous waste,
Bliss stated: "Oh, I would say Monsanto." The waste oil
hauler said that his company was regularly paid $200 to
pick up a 40-barrel load from Monsanto's research lab.
The cleanup of the Dittmer site cost the federal
government more than $500,000.
     Despite indications that much of the Dittmer waste
came from Monsanto, the chemical company is certain the
PCBs did not. "Monsanto's records indicate that PCBs
were not in the materials mishandled by Bliss," says
Herndon, the Monsanto spokeswoman. 
     The composition of the waste will never be known,
however, because Bliss took steps to literally coverup
the incident.After the DNR discovered the site, the
waste oil hauler pumped out an estimated 4,000 gallons
of sludge without the state agency's approval, and then
hired a contractor to fill in the pit. The nearby creek
continued to be polluted by runoff from the buried
wastes, however. So despite further warnings by the DNR
to leave the site alone, Bliss returned again before
dawn one morning. The same contractor opened the pit
back up. Bliss, his son and one employee then hauled
away contaminated soil and  barrels. When neighbors
tried to follow one of the trucks, another Bliss vehicle
blocked their way. 
     At a 1977 DNR hearing, Monsanto bills of lading
signed by a Bliss driver were entered as evidence. The
receipts identify the wastes from the Monsanto research
lab as "one truckload (of) organic non-toxic solvents."
"I just tell them I don't want nothing toxic; that's why
I have them put on the tickets non-toxic," Bliss
testified. 
     The transcript of a later hearing , however,  shows
that the "non-toxic" classification contradicted the
wording of legally binding agreements between Monsanto
and Bliss.
      In 1983,  the DNR's Hazardous Waste Management
Commission met to consider granting Russell Bliss's son
a hazardous waste hauler's permit. At the meeting, the
DNR brought up the Dittmer incident as a reason not to
issue the license. The agency also submitted two
contracts, from 1975 and 1976, between Russell Bliss and
Monsanto. According to one contract: 
     "...Organic solvents waste from the Research Center
consists of ... trace amounts of almost any conceivable
chemical (organic or inorganic). ... Contents of the
drum are accumulated from literally hundreds of
laboratory samples and organic and inorganic solvents
present in the drum are not known or controlled. Since
it is probable that the total content of any particular
drum is at least as toxic as the solvent mixture,
CONTRACTOR SHOULD EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION IN THE
HANDLING OF THE WASTE. CONTRACTOR IS HEREBY WARNED THAT
SUCH WASTE MAY BE TOXIC. ..." 
     In addition, the contracts stipulated Bliss
possessed necessary skills to perform his duties, that
he would abide by the law and dispose of the waste
properly. It is evident the waste hauler broke the terms
of the contract. It is also arguable that Monsanto's
actions were not above reproach. Even if the company
followed the letter of the law, it still made the
dubious assumption Bliss was qualified to handle such
hazardous materials in the first place. There is no
proof the chemical company asked the waste hauler about
his qualifications.  If Monsanto had inquired, Bliss
might have responded as candidly as he did later to the
DNR. The waste hauler told the agency his knowledge of
chemistry amounted to an understanding of BS&W --
"bullshit and water," a term he used to describe
adulterated waste oil.  Bliss also stated he had only
two methods of testing the contents of the waste he
hauled:  "I sometimes taste it, or put it on a napkin
and see if it will burn." 

The Politics of a Hazardous Waste Coverup

Rep. Talent is not the first congressman to sound the
alarm over PCBs. Rep. William F. Ryan (D-NY) raised the
issue in 1970. Monsanto officials responded to Ryan by
saying they were "well aware of the concern" over PCBs
(see sidebar). The company also said steps had been
taken to insure public safety, but denied knowledge of
whether any PCBs had been released from its Krummrich
plant in Sauget. The next year, Monsanto began burning
PCBs at a liquid injection incinerator at its Sauget
facility.The burning of the toxic waste continued for
most of the next decade.    
     The PCB controversy resurfaced again in 1980, when
Missouri Gov. Joseph P. Teasdale made a campaign stop
near Ellisville, at a place that is now one of the EPA's
27-designated dioxin sites in Eastern Missouri. With the
TV news cameras rolling, the top elected official in the
state railed against the hazardous waste dumped at the
location. Teasdale, however, directed his attack at PCBs
not dioxin, and his lambaste placed the onus for the
toxic contamination on Monsanto.
     "I request that you help pay the cost of the
sampling and analysis work, and that if PCBs are
discovered that you pay for the cleanup of the site,"
the governor told Monsanto. Newspaper coverage of the
event failed to divulge that the site in question was on
or near property owned by Bliss. Teasdale wanted
Monsanto to pay for the cleanup of three Bliss
Ellisville sites, and all other PCB-contaminated
locations in Missouri. Monsanto later claimed their own
analysis showed insignificant PCB levels at the
Ellisville sites. The company refused to consider
covering the cost of other PCB cleanups. 
     In 1981, the DNR paid to dispose of more than 100
barrels at the Ellisville/Bliss sites that contained
traces of PCBs. According to a report issued by the EPA
last summer, more waste is still buried there.   
     Teasdale was not alone in his attempt to make
political hay out Missouri's hazardous waste crisis. On
Oct. 31, 1982, while running for re-election,  Sen. John
Danforth (R-Mo.) announced a promising new method for
cleaning contaminated soils. The technique involved
spraying the effected areas with sodium hydroxide and
polyethylene glycol. The method had only been previously
successful in treating PCB contaminated soil -- not
dioxin. The idea to use the technique in Missouri had
been suggested to Danforth by Rita Lavelle, the
controversial EPA assistant administrator. 
     Prior to her dismissal, Lavelle allegedly used the
billion-dollar Superfund program for political ends. In
addition, congressional investigations in 1982 and 1983
revealed Lavelle had private discussions with officials
at Monsanto and other corporations concerning regulatory
matters. When Congress subpoenaed documents -- including
those related to Times Beach  -- the EPA initially
withheld the information on the advice of the White
House and  Department of Justice. The level of
stonewalling reached a crescendo when Congress
discovered EPA officials had ordered the wholesale
shredding of sensitive files. 
      The showdown with Congress ultimately forced
Reagan to replace EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch with
William D. Ruckelshaus, who had headed the agency at its
inception.  
     Ruckelshaus' resume, however, contains more than
one entry to that has received criticism.
Environmentalists point out that during his career,
Ruckelshaus has had many close ties to polluting
industries -- including a directorship at Monsanto.

HALL STREET BLUES

The EPA plows ahead With its dioxin cleanup despite workers’ concerns

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Nov. 1, 1995

(Beep) Carl, my name is Art Compton. I am an employee of NW (Nationsway Transport Inc.). My father died at Jones Truck Line next door of dioxin-related cancer. We are very upset because the federal government is going to remove that dirt starting next week. And we’ re very concerned about what’s going to happen to the people at NW when they do this. They are going to do this while we are working.They’re having a meeting Monday at NW; the EPA is going to meet with some people. I would like very much to talk to you.

The  week after receiving my first telephone
message from Art Compton, he called again. This time his
voice sounded a little weaker, the words came a bit
slower,  but the 50-year-old Teamster's resolve hadn't
lessened a bit.
     "I don't die easy," said Compton. The Vietnam
veteran had a heart attack at the office of the
Nationsway (NW) truck terminal on the morning of Oct.
23. The seizure occurred shortly after Compton had
argued strongly with federal and state officials over
their plans to excavate dioxin-contaminated soil at the
nearby Jones Truck Lines, one of the 27 sites that are a
part of the Times Beach Superfund cleanup in Eastern
Missouri. Compton has since been released from the
hospital and is now convalescing at home. "I think that
I brought a lot of awareness ... to the EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency) that this is more
serious than they thought, "  he says.
     At the hastily arranged meeting on Oct. 23,
representatives of the EPA, the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Missouri
Department of Health (MDOH)  fended a barrage of
questions from Compton and other NW employees. About two
dozen employees attended the meeting. The workers and
their representatives from Teamsters Local 600 asked the
EPA to delay excavation at the nearby Jones site. 
     The labor union also requested that the interior of
the NW terminal itself be tested. After the Teamsters
brought in their own health experts early last week, the
EPA acceded.  Initial test results have now verified the
presence of dioxin-contaminated dust at levels as high
as 1.18 parts per billion (ppb) in the rafters at the
truck terminal, union officials say. Last Friday
afternoon , NW management sent workers home early so the
EPA could do further testing, union officials say.  At
press time on Monday, a union spokesman told the RFT
that most of the latest test results from the had been
determined to be invalid. Further sampling is
anticipated.      
     Despite the discovery,  the EPA is plowing ahead
with the excavation of a contaminated section of roadway
behind NW. At the same time,  the agency  has now
acknowledged the existence of dioxin-contaminated soil
at  yet another location -- Gully Transport -- a truck
terminal immediately south of the Jones site. This
latest revelation comes as local environmentalists are
alleging the possible presence of polychlorinated
biphenyls (pcbs) and other toxic substances in the soil
at some of the cleanup sites, including Jones. If proven
true, the additional toxins could invalidate  the EPA's
projections on stack emissions at the incinerator. 
     Contaminated soil at the abandoned Jones truck
terminal on Hall Street was scheduled to be removed
beginning last week. The Times Beach project involves
transporting an estimated 100,000 cubic yards of dioxin
contaminated soil from more than two dozen locations and
burning it at a temporary incinerator that has been
constructed at the site of the former town of Times
Beach in St. Louis County.
     On Oct. 13, the St. Louis County Counselor's office
asked Judge John J. Nangle to temporarily halt use of
the incinerator pending appeal. It is unlikely the judge
will grant the stay, however, since the appeal seeks to
reverse an earlier decision by Nangle in which he
overturned a county ordinance that would have set a
strict emissions standard for the incinerator. 
     Meanwhile, NW  truck terminal employees are
concerned about potential exposure from additional
airborne dust once the asphalt lot at Jones is dug up.
The Nationsway terminal is directly adjacent to the
Jones site.The EPA belatedly acknowledged that dioxin
contamination has migrated from Jones onto the  property
where Nationsway is located (Toxic Migration, the RFT,
Oct. 11). Workers at Nationsway were not informed until
early last month about the imminent cleanup or the
migration problem despite test results being completed
more than a year ago. 
     According to the EPA's tentative time schedule, the
excavations on this portion of Hall Street are to be
finished in a few weeks. The original  plan included
excavating soil both on and off of the Jones site,
vacuuming the interior of the defunct terminal warehouse
and filling in a large sinkhole in the Jones  truck lot.
     
     Officials from the EPA, MDOH and ATSDR all tried to
convince the workers on Oct. 23 that  levels of dioxin
at the Jones site are so low that they pose little or no
health risk. Dioxin levels of more than 400 parts per
billion (ppb) have been found at the site. The 
established industrial standard requires excavating and
removing dioxin-contaminated soil that exceeds 20 ppb. 
The officials stressed that long term exposure to the
toxin is the real danger. Gale Carlson of MDOH told the
workers that diesel fumes they breathe daily contain
higher levels of dioxin than the contaminated soil that
is to be removed. Carlson's  assurances, however, came
before the discovery of the dioxin-contaminated dust in
the NW terminal's rafters. 
     At the same meeting, Gregory R. Evans, a community
health expert at St. Louis University, spoke to the
employees at the request of the NW management. Evans,
who lays claim to more than 20 years of experience in
dioxin-related research, told the workers there is
nothing to be concerned about.
      "I don't care what physician told you what there
has not been a person who has ever been documented to
have died from dioxin. I don't care what any physician
has told you. I've been doing this work for 20 years.We
have evaluated every single person that ever lived in
Times Beach. Every person that has lived in sites that
has levels 1,000 times higher than levels next door
there, and we followed them for years. There has never
been a person who has ever even come down sick with
anything done with dioxin," says Evans. "I'm not saying
that there aren't reports out there that don't say that
it's not dangerous. ...  I'm not saying that if I go out
and spray myself with pure dioxin that there might not
be a problem with that. I'm talking about the site next
door. I'm talking about most of these sites around here
in which we are talking about low-levels of dioxin that
for whatever legal purposes there are, they got to get
rid of," Evans says. 
     Not all health professionals or scientists agree
with Evans, however. Paul Connett, an environmentalist
and chemist at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.,
is among those who feel that dioxin exposure, at any
level, is more than a legal problem. "He can't even see
the evidence in front of his own eyes," says Connett of
Evans. "There has been a lot of documented sickness in
the people that have lived in Times Beach. Now whether
they've done a good enough epidemiological study to
satisfy themselves,  that's a different issue. The fact
is that many people in the Times Beach area have shown a
litany of sickness, which has not been explained."
     The EPA's  recently finalized reassessment of
dioxin found it to be a probable human carcinogen and
responsible for reproductive and immunological
disorders. In 1993, the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) recognized an association between Vietnam
War veterans exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide
containing dioxin, and a number of illnesses.  Those
dioxin-related maladies include: soft-tissue sarcoma,
non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, chloracne and
porhyria cutanea tarda (a liver disorder).  Other
diseases are suspected of being associated with dioxin
exposure.
      In 1991,  a St. Louis jury awarded the family of
the late Alvin Overman $1.5 million. Overman, a Hall
Street truck-terminal employee,  died in 1984 of soft
tissue sarcoma. Syntex, the corporation responsible for
the Times Beach cleanup along with  Northeastern
Pharmaceutical Chemical Co (NEPCCO),  and Independent
Petrochemical Co. (IPC) were found liable in the case.
The truck terminal that employed Overman had been
sprayed with dioxin-contaminated waste oil in the early
1970s.   
      Given that fact alone, the Teamsters have
reasonable cause to doubt Evans' reassurances. NW
employees are uncertain why there is a need for the EPA
to now rush ahead with the cleanup. If the agency would
temporarily hold off on the Jones excavation, workers
say the potential for further human exposure could be
lessened because NW's lease expires early next year and
the company has had  longstanding plans to relocate to a
larger facility.  In defense of the agency's plans, 
Mark J. Thomas, the EPA's on-site coordinator, claims
the 1990 federal consent degree, which mandated the
cleanup, requires the EPA to begin excavating at Jones.
There is, however, no time schedule for individual site
cleanups included in the consent decree.
     "These guys probably have been exposed long term,
because before they paved these lots, the dust was
there," says Rick Schleipman, a business agent for Local
600. "In my heart, I believe that they (the EPA) were
just going to come in there, dig it up, move it and be
on there way without our involvement, whatsoever." 
Since the union interceded,  the agency has agreed to
excavate the areas closest to the NW facility over the
weekend, when none of the employees are there. The EPA
has also now decided to store the excavated soil
temporarily in a building on the premises, instead of
simply covering it with plastic, Schleipman says.
     Compton,  the worker who had the heart attack, is
one of two NW employees who say they have deceased
family members that worked at the Jones terminal. In
1971, Russell Bliss sprayed the then-unpaved truck lot
with dioxin-contaminated waste oil as a dust
suppressant. 
     "My father passed away while he was working for
Jones Truck Lines," says Compton. "He had multiple
cancers. Whenever they diagnosed him, they gave him six
months and he died in 29 days."

TEAMSTERS FIGHT EPA SECRECY

by C.D. Stelzer

previously unpublished, Oct 18, 1995

Representatives from two federal agencies and a Missouri
Department of Health (MDOH) official fended off a
barrage of hostile questions from employees at the
Nationsway Transport Service Inc. on Monday. At the
meeting,  workers and their union representatives asked
the EPA for a delay to allow independent health experts
to assess the situation.  It was not clear at press time
on Monday whether the EPA would accede to the request. 
     The controversy has risen in advance of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans calling for
the excavation of  the Jones Truck Lines site this week. 
The abandoned truck terminal on Hall Street is one of
the 27 designated dioxin sites in Eastern Missouri,
which  are scheduled to be remediated as a part of the
Times Beach Superfund cleanup. That project involves
transporting an estimated 100,000 cubic yards of dioxin
contaminated soil and burning it at a temporary
incinerator that is being constructed at the former town
of Times Beach in St. Louis County.
     Nationsway truck terminal employees, most of whom
are members of Teamsters Local 600, are concerned about
the potential exposure they will face when the EPA
begins moving the toxic dirt.  The Nationsway terminal
is directly adjacent to the Jones site.  The  EPA 
belatedly acknowledged that dioxin contamination has
migrated from the Jones site and onto the property where
Nationsway is located (Toxic Migration, the RFT, Oct.
11). Workers at Nationsway were not informed until
earlier this month of the imminent cleanup or the
migration despite test results being completed more than
a year ago. 
      On Monday, a spokesman for the agency told  those
attending the meeting that dioxin has also been found at
Gully Transportation,  the truck terminal to the south
of Jones. Workers there have yet to be informed, says
Mark J. Thomas, an EPA  on-site coordinator. 
     According to the EPA's time schedule, the
excavations on this portion of Hall Street will be
finished in a few weeks. The cleanup  includes digging
up soil both on and off of the Jones site, vacuuming the
interior of the defunct terminal warehouse and filling
in a large sinkhole in the  truck lot.      
     Officials from the EPA, MDOH and the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) all tried
to convince the workers that  levels of dioxin at Jones
are so low that they pose little or no health risk.
Dioxin levels of more than 400 parts per billion (ppb)
have been found at the site. Industrial standards
require cleanups of dioxin levels exceeding 20 ppb.  The
officials stressed that long term exposure to the toxin
is the real danger. Gale Carlson of MDOH told the
workers that the diesel fumes they breathe daily 
contain higher levels of dioxin than the contaminated
soil which is to be removed. 
     Gregory R. Evans,  a community health expert at St.
Louis University, spoke to the employees at the request
of the management of Nationsway. He asserted that
dioxin-exposure has never been proven to be lethal. 
"(Moreover), there has never been a person who has ever
even come down sick with anything done with dioxin,"
Evans told the workers. 
      The recently finalized reassessment of dioxin
conducted by the EPA found it to be a suspected human
carcinogen and responsible for human reproductive and
immunological problems. 
      Given that fact alone, the Teamsters have
reasonable cause to doubt Evans' reassurances. On
Monday, Local 600 officials asked the EPA to delay the
Jones excavation. Thomas of the EPA gave no indication
that the project would be held up more than possibly a
day. In defense of the agency's plans,  Thomas claimed
the 1990 consent degree, which mandated the cleanup,
requires the EPA to begin excavating at Jones. There is,
however, no time schedule for individual site cleanups
included in the consent decree.
      Union members are concerned about the rush and
they question why they were not informed in advance of
the EPA's plans. If the EPA would temporarily hold off
on the Jones excavation, workers say the potential for
further human exposure could be lessened because
Nationsway's lease expires in February and the company
has had  longstanding plans to relocate to a larger
facility. 
      "Our local attorneys are checking into whether we
can get any kind of court order against them (the EPA),"
says Rick Schleipman, a business agent for Local 600.
Schleipman was unsure at press time on Monday what the
union lawyers would recommend. At the same time, the
local has gained the support of its International union,
which is supplying its own health experts. They are
expected to arrive in St. Louis early this week to begin
their own investigation of the Jones site.
      More than one of the Nationsway workers say they
have relatives  that worked at the Jones terminal who
died of multiple forms of cancer. In 1971, Russell Bliss
sprayed the then-unpaved truck lot with dioxin
contaminated waste oil as a dust suppressant.
     "My father passed away while he was working for
Jones Truck Lines," says Nationsway employee Art
Compton. "He had multiple cancers. Whenever they
diagnosed him, they gave him six months and he died in
29 days. Twenty of those days were on morphine." After
arguing with the federal and state health officials at
the meeting on Monday, Compton, 50, had a heart attack
at the scene and has now been hospitalized.

Toxic Migrant

By C. D. Stelzer

first published in the Riverfront Times (St.Louis), Oct. 16, 1995

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has
discovered dioxin contamination on property in St.
Louis that the federal agency had previously listed
as clean, the Riverfront Times has learned.
 
Soil tests conducted in June 1994 at the
Nationsway Transport Service Inc., a truck terminal
at 5701 Hall St., revealed dioxin levels of up to
15 parts per billion, according to an EPA
correspondence and sampling data provided to the
RFT by an anonymous source. Despite the lapse of
more than a year since the test results were
issued, employees at the terminal and their union
representative were never officially notified of
the contamination by the EPA or the company. 

In September, Bob Feild, the EPA project
manager for the Times Beach dioxin cleanup,
repeatedly told the RFT that samples taken at four
sites in 1994 had uncovered no further dioxin
contamination. "They were found to be clean, ..."
said Feild. 

When asked last week about the Nationsway
terminal, Feild admitted the property was among
those he had previously identified as
uncontaminated. Feild and Martha Steincamp, the
regional counsel for the EPA, now maintain it is
likely that the newly discovered dioxin-tainted
soil migrated from the adjacent Jones Truck Line
lot, and, therefore, cannot be considered part of a
separate site, according to the terms of the 1990
federally-mandated consent decree. 

"I guess we're having a little semantical
problem about whether there are other sites," says
Steincamp. "Superfund doesn't care about property
boundaries, they clean up contamination. ... There
is migration at a lot of the sites," adds
Steincamp. Officials at the EPA and the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) say
the concentrations of dioxin at Nationsway are well
within health-based standards for industrial or
commercial properties and pose little risk because
the contamination is limited to the periphery of
the property. Nevertheless, the EPA says it will to
excavate and burn the toxic soil at Nationsway.

The abandoned Jones Truck Line property, at
5601 Hall St., is one of the 27 designated sites
that are part of the EPA's Times Beach Superfund
cleanup. The project involves transporting and
burning 100,000 cubic yards of dioxin-contaminated
soil in Eastern Missouri. As a part of the plan, an
incinerator is now being built at the site of the
former town of Times Beach in West St. Louis
County. Test burns may start before the end of the
year. The EPA intends to use some of the
contaminated soil from the Jones site as feedstock
for those burns, which will require that the
cleanup at the Hall Street location begin soon.
 
As of last week, no one yet had informed
Nationsway employees about the imminent excavation.
In 1983, the EPA deemed the site -- formerly known
as Trans Con -- to be clean, but workers at the
terminal have long been concerned about potential
dioxin exposure.

"As far as I know there hasn't been any
announcement of any plans to clean it up," says
Rick Schleipman, the business agent for Teamsters
Local 600, who represents many of the workers at
the Nationsway terminal. "If there is something
wrong on the property, they should definitely let
them know," says the labor official. 

When risk manager Jerry Baer was contacted at
Nationsway's corporate headquarters in Denver, he
denied any knowledge that dioxin contamination had
been found at the company's St. Louis facility.
"Our understanding is that there is dioxin at the
site next door," Baer says. He refused to talk
about the company's policies regarding notifying
employees of potential dioxin exposure. He would
only say: "I know that they are aware of it, (but)
I don't know how they became aware." Nationsway --
an international transport company -- is controlled
by Jerry McMorris, the owner of the Colorado
Rockies baseball team.

The property on which the Nationsway terminal
is located is owned by Justin Williamson III of
Ladue. In a letter dated August 8, 1994, the EPA
notified Williamson of the dioxin contamination. "A
review of the data shows that 2,3,7,8-TCDD (dioxin)
was detected on your property ranging in
concentration from 0.336 to 15.0 parts per billion
(ppb)," the letter states. Williamson, a prominent
St. Louis businessman and philanthropist, also owns
Midwest Transfer, another transport company located
on Hall Street. He says he informed the management
of Nationsway about the dioxin contamination, and
otherwise bears no responsibility in the case.
Williamson has owned the property for four or five
years, he says. He refused further comment.
 
"He is essentially an innocent landowner,"
Steincamp, the EPA lawyer, says of Williamson. "In
other words, the contamination came to be located
on his property through no fault of his."

An estimated 3,278 cubic yards of toxic dirt is
supposed to be dug up at the 5.65-acre Jones site
and hauled to Times Beach for incineration,
according to the EPA's Engineering Evaluation/Cost
Analysis (EE/CA). Excavation, at this site alone,
will cost more than $1.3 million. The total price
tag for incinerating the tainted soil at Jones is
expected to be more than $4.2 million. In addition,
more than 182,000 square feet of the contaminated
soil will at capped with asphalt and remain at the
location. The cost of capping the remaining soil
will be more than $500,000.

The ostensible purpose of the
scorched-earth-and/or-asphalt policy is, of course,
the protection of human health. Established EPA and
ATSDR standards require residential property be
cleaned up to below one part per billion (ppb). The
same guidelines, however, allow dioxin levels of up
to 20 ppb in certain commercial or industrial
areas. The reasoning behind the double-standard is
that children are more vulnerable to the effects of
dioxin. The toxin is a suspected human carcinogen
and is known to cause immunological and
reprodcutive problems. "Children are just more
sensitive and they also, through their play habits
and eating habits, ingest more dust, more soil than
a worker does," says Denise Jordan-Izaguirre of the
ATSDR. The federal health official says that
studies "have shown that adult, healthy men, in a
work place, are exposed to much higher levels (of
dioxin) without any impact on their health." 

Opponents of the EPA's plan see things
differently. "It's a liability removal project,"
says Steve Taylor, an organizer for the Times Beach
Action Group (TBAG). "It's very suspicious that
these sites haven't been cleaned up for 20 years.
TBAG has long demanded that public officials help
us to uncover the dioxin coverup."

Fred Striley of the Dioxin Incinerator Response
Group (DIRG) shares a similar view. "The plan says
that they can cap over dioxin-contaminated soil,
and that will be safe. They've capped over a lot of
soil and its been that way for ten years," says
Striley. "I don't see why they have to burn it, if
it's safe to cap it. Why not cap it all, if it's
safe? I don't believe it is safe in the long term,"
says Striley. "I think the sites should be cleaned
up and the stuff should be stored." 

The dioxin-contaminated soil in the St. Louis
area was created as an unwanted byproduct at the
Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Co.
(NEPACCO) plant in Verona, Mo. in the late 1960s
and early 1970s. NEPACCO manufactured
hexachlorophene, an antiseptic, which has since
been banned by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. At the time, the company also
leased part of its facility to Hoffman-Taff, a
producer of Agent Orange, the herbicide used in the
Vietnam War. Syntex Agribusiness Inc. later
acquired Hoffman-Taff. During this period, NEPACCO
contracted Independent Petrochemical Corp. (IPC) to
dispose of the dioxin. IPC then hired Russell M.
Bliss. Beginning in 1971, Bliss mixed some 18,000
gallons of the dioxin residue with waste oil and
sprayed it as a dust suppressant at horse areas,
parking lots, truck terminals and the unpaved
streets of Times Beach. Bliss' folly did not become
publicly known until late 1982.

Six of the 27 confirmed sites sprayed by Bliss
were truck terminals in the city of St. Louis. 


In late 1994, more than 50 former
dioxin-exposed employees of Jones Truck Lines or
their surviving family members received an out-of
court settlement for a suit filed in 1983. The
defendants in that case included, NEPACCO, IPC and
Syntex -- the company liable for the Times Beach
cleanup. 

The same parties were defendants in a 1991
civil trial. In that case, a St. Louis Circuit
Court jury awarded the family of deceased truck
terminal employee Alvin Overman $1.5 million.
Overman died of soft tissue sarcoma, a rare form of
cancer associated with dioxin exposure.

"We are not more worried about company owners
than the people that work there," says Steincamp,
the EPA counsel. The lawyer remains firm in her
conviction that the agency she works for stnads by
its name and is more concerned about public health
than private interests. Steincamp, however, would
probably have a difficult time convincing former
Teamster Ken Manley of this. 

In the early 1980s, Manley helped run a dioxin
task force for Local 600. He recalls the Teamsters'
investigation initially received the support of the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and got
favorable coverage in the daily newspapers. A
health study proposal sponsored by the union
identified 700 members who had worked at three St.
Louis truck terminals that were then known to have
been sprayed by Bliss. 

"Then all of a sudden it just stopped," says
Manley."I can't tell you exactly what happened, but
somewhere along the line the issue just got shut
down. I mean it literally got shut down." 

Not long before the task force folded, Manley
received a tip that a playground on the near
Southside by Ralston Purina had been contaminated
with dioxin, he says. "I informed CDC and EPA,
(but) by that point they weren't doing any further
testing."

TRYING TIMES

BY C.D. STELZER

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Sept. 20, 1995

Fifteen environmental activists are charged with trespassing for their Times Beach protest

“It’s kind of easier to just close your eyes to what’s going, on” says Jillian Borchard. The thought causes her to do just that. She shakes her head, unfurling hanks of tousled brown hair. Traffic noise envelopes her laugh, which is lost in the chatter at the sidewalk cafe on Delmar.

The levity of the moment masks serious concerns the young woman has about her future. Brochard is a 22-year-old art student at Washington University . She is also a criminal in the myopic vision of the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office.

Last Friday, Borchard and 14 other environmental activists were formally charged with first-degree trespassing for their involvement in a protest that took place at the site of the Times Beach dioxin incinerator on July 27. On that day, St. Louis County police arrested the demonstrators who stepped past a gate at the Superfund site entrance. The maximum sentence for the offense is six months in jail or a $500 fine, or both.

Opponents of the incinerator say stack emissions will endanger public health by dispersing dioxin into the air. Officials for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contend that the plan is safe. Test burns may begin as soon as November, with the incineration of some 100,000 cubic yards of dioxin-contaminated soil from 27 sites in Eastern Missouri scheduled to begin early next year.

Borchard and Sarah Bantz, another of the protestors who was charged, are members of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) at Washington University. Both suspect that the timing of the issuance of the charges was more than coincidental. In their opinion, the legal hurdles are being used to diffuse opposition to the project as the date of the test burn approaches.

Efforts to stop the incinerator continued last Tuesday, when more than two dozen opponents took over the agenda of the monthly Dioxin Monitoring Committee meeting. In addition, U.S. Rep. Jim Talent (R Chesterfield) met with four West St. Louis County mayors the preceding day. The elected officials discussed seeking a delay in the project. In the past, Talent has asked that the incineration be halted at least until the completion of a congressionally-sponsored study.

Neither Brochard nor Bantz have been informed by the county of the charges against them. Instead, they learned of their legal situation from a news account. “I don’t understand why the public knows about this before the person involved,” says Bantz.

Both women say they felt compelled to commit civil disobedience after other means failed. “Nobody wants this,” says Bantz. “It just seems like everything has been tried, and nothing works. It is not easy to get involved. You’re not expected to do anything except maybe vote,” says Bantz. “You reach this point,” she says, “where you have no option other than throw yourself at the authorities and say, `I am willing to put my body on the line to stop this.'”

Ten of the 15 defendants charged with trespassing at Times Beach are women. Organo-chlorines — including dioxin — have been blamed for increased levels of breast cancer. There is evidence women are at higher risk because dioxin-like chemicals are absorbed by fat and females naturally have a higher percentage in their bodies.

Bantz and Borchard have begun to decorate a wall of their apartment with the responses that they have received from elected officials, all of whom are males, incidentally. There are letters from the governor, the congressman and the county executive. “They’re just all the same,” says Bantz. “I’ve gotten so many responses saying it’s going to be safe — don’t worry about it.”

A benefit concert for the Times Beach 15 is tentatively scheduled for Oct 7 at Washington University. For more information on how to contribute to the legal defense fund call 458-5026, or write: P.O. Box 50, Clarkson Center, Suite 493, Chesterfield, Mo., 63017.

DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY

BY C.D. STELZER

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Aug. 30, 1995

If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has its way, thousands of dump-truck loads of dioxin-contaminated soil will begin rolling through the St. Louis area as soon as November.

The time schedule for excavating and transporting the toxic material from 26 sites in Eastern Missouri is contained in the Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA), published late last month by the EPA. The little-publicized study includes the proposed routes and estimated costs of burning the waste at Times Beach, where a temporary incinerator is now under construction. The cleanup of individual sites over the next year is expected to take anywhere from a few days to several months. The total cost of this portion of the project is earmarked at $113.6 million, according to the EE/CA. The EPA has extended the public comment period on its transport plan until Sept. 7.

On Aug. 15, following the release of the EE/CA, federal district Judge John F. Nangle turned aside an effort by St. Louis County to regulate dioxin emissions through a local ordinance passed in February. Nangle ruled the EPA and Syntex, the company liable for the cleanup, are bound only to applicable standards in force at the time of the Record of Decision (ROD), in 1988. The judge has jurisdiction over the settlement by way of a 1990 court-negotiated consent decree.

“What he (based) his decision on is what we have been trying to say,” says Martha Steincamp, the chief counsel for Region VII of the EPA. In 1988, “the county didn’t even have a dioxin standard on the books,” Steincamp says.
The EPA’s own health standard is supposed to limit exposure risks to no more than one additional cancer case per million population. The agency and Syntex both complained to the court that the county ordinance set an unattainable goal that was six-times more stringent. Nangle concurred.

In his 16-page opinion, the judge failed to mention one cogent fact: the county based its emissions standard on data from the EPA’s own health risk assessment for Times Beach. Fred Striley, a member of the Dioxin Incinerator Response Group (DIRG), views that omission as untenable. “The judge is basing his decision on false information,” says Striley, a physicist who has been studying the technical data for years. “I can get up at the blackboard and write the equations out for you. The county ordinance is probably about twice as strict as the (EPA’s) — not six times.” Furthermore, Striley maintains “the number that the county used is directly taken from an EPA document about this site (Times Beach), which said … (it) would be the worst-case emission.”

Striley and other opponents argue that incineration itself creates dioxin as a part of the combustion process and then disperses it into the environment. Dioxin is a suspected human carcinogen and is known to cause human immunological and reproductive problems, according to the EPA itself. Local environmentalists favor storing the toxic waste indefinitely at its present locations or using newer alternative technologies to destroy it. In response to their latest legal setback, incinerator opponents are advocating the county appeal Nangle’s decision.

For his part, Nangle, has remained unswayed by mounting public opposition to the incinerator. In his ruling, the judge decreed “exclusive jurisdiction for direct or indirect challenges or attacks concerning the response action pursuant to the consent decree. …” President Richard M. Nixon appointed Nangle to the federal bench in 1973. The 75-year-old jurist, who retains an interest in Republican politics, currently holds senior status in the 8th Circuit here, and spends considerable time away from St. Louis. Evaluations by lawyers, appearing in the 1995 Almanac of the Federal Judiciary, praise Nangle, but also find him to be “patronizing and imperious.” “He’s a little prima donna. He’s arrogant and procedure oriented,” commented one attorney. ” He has federal-itis. He always did think he was important even before he got on the bench …,” said another lawyer.

As a part Nangle’s consent decree, Syntex has agreed to pay for the incineration and the clean up of Times Beach. The EPA is responsible for excavating and transporting the dioxin-contaminated soil from the other 26 locations. The insurance litigation involving Times Beach and the other Eastern Missouri sites is far from over, however. Steincamp, the EPA’s Region VII counsel, wouldn’t hazard a guess as to when it will be all resolved. The case has produced staggering amounts of paperwork, hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, she says. “This case has already been to the Supreme Court of the United States, I think, twice,” says Steincamp. The U.S. Justice Department has taken the unusual step of submitting court briefs in some of the insurance cases, she says. “The Superfund is not going to cost recover very much unless somebody wins the insurance litigation, or somebody decides just to give up and settle,” says Steincamp.
The clean-up sites were contaminated in the early 1970s, when Russell Bliss hauled dioxin residues from a chemical plant in Verona, Missouri and then combined them with waste oil before spraying the mixture as a dust suppressant on horse arenas, parking lots and roadways in this part of the state.

Eleven of the locations, including Times Beach, have already been excavated. According to the terms of the consent decree, the dioxin tainted dirt is supposed to be stored at those sites “pending final management.” In addition, two other sites were partially excavated in the past year, after water main leaks forced emergency responses.

At the six residential sites, the plan is to excavate all soil containing one part per billion (ppb) or more of dioxin, and transport it to Times Beach for incineration. There are less stringent plans, however, at some other locations. “For the non-residential sites … the agency’s generally preferred response action is to excavate those areas exceeding 20 parts per billion and to cap the areas where remaining dioxin levels exceed one part per billion with a maintained impermeable cap,” the EE/CA states. Those restricted areas would then be placed on the state Hazardous Waste Registry.

One exception to the commercial-site guidelines is the 1.9 acre Bonifield Brothers Trucking location near St. Louis University Hospitals, where the EPA plans a more thorough job. The location at 3529 Hickory St. contains dioxin levels of more than 800 ppb, according to the EE/CA . Nevertheless, the university wants to develop the property. There are residences nearby even though the EE/CA lists the site as a primarily commercial area. A nursing home that is associated with the university hospitals has also been built adjacent to the site within the last year. Another variance, according to the EE/CA, involves the planned clean-up of the Southern Cross Lumber Co. in Hazelwood. At that location, some of the dioxin contaminated-soil, which measured less than 20-parts per billion, would be merely covered with soil or gravel rather than capped with concrete.

In yet another instance, a site is listed as both a residential and non-residential location in the EE/CA. The plan calls for paving over some the contaminated sections of the access road to Old Highway 141 rather than removing the waste even though the southern portion of the location is within 50 feet of a residential area, according to the EE/CA.

A random tour of three of the Eastern Missouri dioxin sites last Saturday showed only one to be fenced. None of the locations were marked by warning signs.

The EE/CA also cites a litany of concerns over the proposed transportation routes, while it defends the safety of putting 80,000 ton dump trucks filled with dioxin-contaminated soil on area roads and highways. For example, the report favors the use Interstates as the safest routes for transporting the waste, but routinely warns that “the accident rate on the freeway(s) exceeded the statewide average in 1990.” EE/CA also raises caveats about planned road construction along some of the routes in near future, and, in some cases, advises that the transportation of the waste itself will demand infrastructure improvements.

Moving the dioxin-contaminated soil along the hilly roads of western St. Louis County and northern Jefferson County sounds particularly risky, according to the EE/CA. Here is a typical description of such a ride: “Traffic along this segment can be expected to be heavy during peak periods. Also, the roadway has some rolling grades and relatively sharp curves with virtually no shoulders in several places.”

Public comments regarding the EPA’s plan should be mailed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 726 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kan., 66101. The telephone number for the EPA’s site office at Times Beach in Eureka is 938-6869.

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Because there's something happening here and you don't know what it is.

Month: January 2015

WINDS OF SHAME

Fugitive toxic emissions at the Times Beach incinerator reveal lax safety policies of Syntex, the DNR and the EPA

BY C.D. STELZER

First published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), May 8, 1996

ACCIDENTS WILL HAPPEN

Two emergency releases of dioxin-laden pollutants at the Times Beach incinerator have residents burning mad

First published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), April 3, 1996

BY C.D. Stelzer

DIOXIN, PCBS, THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND NATIONAL SECURITY

BY C.D. STELZER

Previously unpublished, Feb. 14, 1996

CHEMICAL LIVES

BY C.D. Stelzer

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Feb. 14, 1996

DANGEROUS GROUND

Doxins aren’t the only problem in Missouri. PCB contamination continues to be overlooked or denied by both public regulators and Monsanto

BY C.D. STELZER

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Feb. 14, 1996

HALL STREET BLUES

The EPA plows ahead With its dioxin cleanup despite workers’ concerns

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Nov. 1, 1995

TEAMSTERS FIGHT EPA SECRECY

by C.D. Stelzer

previously unpublished, Oct 18, 1995

Toxic Migrant

By C. D. Stelzer

TRYING TIMES

BY C.D. STELZER

DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY

BY C.D. STELZER

first published in the Riverfront Times (St. Louis), Aug. 30, 1995