News

Halted Underground Storage Tank Cleanups Threaten Groundwater!

Gas station owners in North Carolina pay a modest fee for each underground storage tank (UST) to help pay the cost of clean ups of fuel spills that happen when tanks rust or pipe joints spring a leak. Because the "UST Fund" pays all cleanup costs above $20,000 (the amount covered by the owner), there has been no incentive for owners or contractors to keep costs in check. In fact, some cleanup contractors have been caught overcharging the Fund or doing exorbitant work that has little impact on the final safety of groundwater. Eight of these companies have been indicted and are in settlement talks with state officials. With over 13,000 underground fuel tanks in NC, leaks are the biggest potential source of contamination to drinking water in the state.

In 2004, the partly taxpayer-supported UST Fund had fallen $32 million in debt, taking in less in fees than it had spent on clean ups. The NC legislature passed an emergency bailout measure, transferring funds from the Highway Trust Fund to balance the books, but attached tight strings to control future cleanup spending. UST Fund officials report that clean up work on contaminated plumes continues at only about 50 of over 9,000 current sites across NC. Funding for "emergency" measures, including supplying bottled water to those with contaminated wells, will allow some work to continue at about 50 more. State officials say that they will resume cleanups at more sites when they see the Fund reaching financial stability. While CWFNC realizes that cleanups need to be prioritized and cost-effective, this is a brutal way to make such changes. With stopped cleanups, it's likely that plumes of contamination will continue to spread into drinking water sources, and re-starting cleanups will add further costs.

To protect our groundwater sources, we need a shift toward full accountability for tank owners and fuel users (that includes higher gas prices for us, too!), and requiring better containment to prevent spills and leaks. The Fund must also support larger state staff for monitoring wells and oversight of cleanups.CWFNC will be asking for YOUR support as we push for long-overdue reforms to the UST Fund, so that we can get hundreds of groundwater cleanups back on track as quickly as possible!

Physician Links Suicide "Cluster" to Toxic Air Releases Top

Dr. Richard Weisler, a Raleigh psychiatrist and researcher associated with the University of North Carolina, analyzed death certificates for Salisbury from 1994 through 2003. Remarkably, he has documented a highly significant 3.7 fold increase in death by suicide above the statewide rate in a census tract of 1561 residents downwind from a asphalt facilities. For 2003 deaths alone, the suicide rate was about sixteen times the overall NC rate. The potential toxic exposures were also indicated by 566 documented resident complaints for noxious odors and respiratory related problems. NC Division of Air Quality officials calculated rotten egg smelling hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S) up to 600 parts per billion in the census tract with elevated suicide rates. CWFNC and other groups continue to fight to tighten NC's air quality standard below 120 ppb-health effects have been documented as low as 7 ppb. Other chemicals such as benzene may have also been released by the asphalt terminal, the hot-mix asphalt plant, and a former petroleum tank farm.

Because of hydrogen sulfide's known neurotoxic effects, Weisler hypothesizes that chronic low level environmental H2S and other neurotoxic chemical exposures affect residents' moods and lead to an increase in suicides. CWFNC, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League and environmental justice allies join Dr. Weisler in calling for a "precautionary approach" by public health officials: immediate action to reduce exposures and educate local residents about the hazards they may be living with, including psychological follow-up.

Water Utilities Manipulating Drinking Water Lead Results? Top

Many of the country's largest municipalities have recently been caught manipulating the results of random household lead tests for water, possibly leaving millions of Americans at risk for consuming contaminated water. Based on an extensive investigation by Washington Post reporters, some major water suppliers including the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, have thrown out results showing high lead levels, and strategically avoided repeat tests of households with previous contamination. Communities all over the country, therefore, face misleading reports from their water providers, and are at unknown risk of exposure to lead.
Water suppliers may be motivated to reduce their expenses by decreasing lead testing and avoiding the cost of installing new distribution pipes or other cleanup measures. Most often, the widespread problems with high lead levels at the tap are caused by changes in the treatment method used to disinfect water. Changing from chlorine to chloramine disinfection in some cases has been found to increase leaching of lead from distribution or household pipes, as revealed in Washington, DC earlier this year. CWFNC recommends that folks find out about your water suppliers treatment methods and check your own lead level at the tap, using the non-profit, certified Clean Water Lead Testing service. You can order low cost kits on-line or by mail at www.leadtesting.org.

Mebane Bypass Opponents make Transportation Committee Squirm Top

Residents along the proposed north-south route of a bypass of the small city of Mebane, just west of the Triangle, felt they'd been sidetracked into a "stakeholder" process while those with local economic interests continued to drive for a new highway that the area doesn't need. Working with CWFNC, Woodlawn and White Level residents with concerns ranging from degrading drinking water to increased traffic, and destroying rural communities targeted critical decision-makers to stop the bypass.

With the regional Transportation Advisory Committee, which had voted to support the bypass, firmly in their sights, Pat Brewer and 15 allies called on Committee members with conflicts of interest to step down at a November meeting. Committee Chair Ed Hooks, who runs a heavy construction equipment company, knew he was a target of this comment, but claimed that the bypass would be "vital" for Mebane's future. A growing group of allies will keep the pressure on until the Committee votes again on regional priorities in late 2005. They've learned the value of analyzing power relationships and developing targets, writes Brewer. "Because of you and CWFNC, we did it! Keep it up--you are really empowering a lot of folks."

Buncombe/Haywood Get Worst of Hurricane Damage-Have We Learned Anything? Top

In a season where at least 6 hurricanes impacted North Carolina, the worst loss of life and damage hit the western, mountainous counties. No one could have predicted freak landslides that took homes, buildings and trees all the way down mountainsides, but it's clear that some types of damage were utterly avoidable.

Fuel tanks, buildings and other hazards were located well within obvious flood plain areas, resulting in extensive property damage to homes, businesses and water quality. Many observers reported a strong petroleum smell in waters around Asheville and in Haywood County for days after the first flood impacts. Blue Ridge Paper Products, the regions largest non-utility toxic emitter, sits right on the Pigeon River and was flooded twice. Fuel tanks, untreated sewage and contaminated sediments washed down the long-polluted river, leaving toxic residue for many miles. Parts of Asheville lost water supply for up to a week when one of the city's biggest distribution pipes was undermined by flood waters and gave way.

It's not simply a matter of funding for flood plain maps, as some suggest. We need to exercise some basic common sense, including stronger local ordinances to protect waters and downstream residents from flood hazards, with enforcement, and fair, sustainable rates for publicly supplied water (get rid of discounts to business and industry!), so that aging infrastructure can be maintained and replaced BEFORE it fails!

Cleanup of Old Explosives in Butner Moves Slowly Top

When your child carries a 17" unexploded shell into the house, it gets your attention. More than two years after rapid residential development in large parts of a former weapons firing range began revealing a wide array of unexploded ordnance, a "Restoration Advisory Board" has begun to meet to prioritize cleanup activities. Clean Water for NC has been selected to be a member of this board, and is working with impacted residents, who are also represented.

CWFNC has serious concerns about the pace of cleanup, the tiny resources available given huge military budgets, and the inadequate public notification of unexploded weapons in about 40,000 acres of fields, woods and residential areas. We hope that the Board will be effective in moving the process forward more quickly and fairly. If not, CWFNC and residents agree that we need to be careful not to be "stakeheld" in a process that only serves as a buffer between the Army Corps of Engineers and public needs.

Navy Caught "Reverse Engineering" OLF Site for Political Reasons Top

Folks of Washington and Beaufort Counties and environmental groups never believed that the Marine Corps had seriously looked at the environmental or human impacts for their proposed site for an outlying landing field. Hundreds of long-term and residents wanting to protect their way of life and develop sustainable wildlife tourism based on a national wildlife refuge a few miles away were to be bulldozed to make way for squadrons of SuperHornet jets doing what they do most noisily-practicing aircraft carrier landings.

At least, that is, until opponents combing through thousands of pages of documents found some emails indicating what they had suspected all along. The choice of the Washington County site had nothing to do with favorable environmental conditions and everything to do with secret deals among politicians and the Navy to placate Virginia residents who, (not unreasonably) objected to the jets' noise. A forthcoming Congressional investigation of the Navy's siting process and court decision by Judge Boyle, who had earlier stopped real estate purchases at the site, will open the Navy to even more embarrassing revelations and may be enough to save local residents and wildlife from the roar and destruction of the SuperHornets and their enormous landing field.