Tag Archives: Seven Out

Children, cancer clusters, citizen water tests @ GA EPD 2014-07-17



Citizens are not convinced EPA, GA-EPD, and GA Dept. of Health
are doing enough to find what’s causing widespread sickness and death
in Waycross, GA.
They asked questions and provided data and anecdotes for more than
an hour, demanding more testing and answers, at a meeting
about the Seven Out Superfund and other air and water contamination,
for example from CSX and AGL.

Georgia Department of Health did

offer a new survey, with local help.
She also offered to send a local health dept. rep. right out whenever
they were alerted a certain site stunk after rains.
EPA and GA-EPD admitted there was a problem and said they were
trying to fix it,
which is a step forward from

their preliminary Waycross meeting last November.
But not a big enough step or quick enough to satisfy Waycross people who are or
who know many who are sick or dying.

They asked very insightful questions, about Continue reading →

Seven Out Superfund Assessment Public Meeting @ GA EPD 2014-07-17



6-8PM Thursday 17 July 2014

Memorial Stadium, 715 Dewey St., Waycross, GA 31501

The Environmental Protection Agency, GA Environmental Protection
Division, and Georgia Department of Public Health will be present to
discuss sample collection and results from the Seven Out Tank site
in downtown Waycross.

EPD will also be available to address issues and answer questions
regarding CSX.

From Satilla Riverkeeper’s

facebook event.
Here’s
a map: Continue reading →

Children dying, mothers crying: Silentdisaster accuses state of hiding true health risks

Seen on

Silentdisaster.org’s facebook page.
The
EPA and GA-EPD meeting last November
and later test results did not satisfy them.
Wastewater from that Waycross contamination

was shipped to the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County,
adding to

the other toxic materials in that landfill.
-jsq

PDF

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

April 1, 2014

By: Silentdisaster.org, a citizens group in Waycross, Georgia



Testing conducted by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division
(EPD) have left residents frustrated and angry. Many children are
sick and have died from being poisoned by toxic chemicals and
residents who live, week-to-week on small budgets, are spending
their own money to do testing because they don’t trust government
officials who are paid ˜to protect the people and keep them safe’.
They should be spending their money on feeding their families and
getting well. The lack of honesty in the EPD’s reports is a disgrace
to our community and our State.

Newly released environmental testing results Continue reading →

Fossil fuels are a disaster: literally in WV

300,000 people have their drinking water poisoned by
a coal chemical in a disaster declared by a state and the federal government.
Do we know what’s in that coal ash

coal ash
in the Lowndes County landfill?
Do we trust a pipeline company
with

a long list of safety violations
to dig into our aquifer?

David Jackson wrote for USA Today yesterday,

Obama sends disaster aid to West Virginia,



President Obama is sending federal assistance to West Virginia,
where schools and businesses are closed after a chemical spill
Thursday into a Charleston river.

“The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of
West Virginia and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local
response efforts,” said an administration statement on Friday
morning.

Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal
Emergency Management Agency will coordinate efforts with local
officials.

Kiley Kroh
wrote for Thinkprogress yesterday,

West Virginia Declares State Of Emergency After Coal Chemical Contaminates Drinking Water, Continue reading →

U.S. EPA, GA DNR, GA Health Dept., and landfill in Lowndes County @ EPA 2013-11-14



At the

EPA meeting in Waycross about the Seven Out Superfund site,
EPA, GA EPD, and state health officials also had information about
crossover contamination in Lowndes County.




Matthew J. Huyser, On-Scene Coordinator for U.S. EPA,
told me that before

EPA shipped those 196,500 gallons of wastewater from Seven Out to the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County
they had applied procedures that were supposed to ensure those liquids
were no longer toxic and had tested them to be sure.
He said he would send me the specifics on that.
I didn’t ask him whether

CSX toxic wastes were shipped to Lowndes County.



Huyser also said EPA had checked the record of that receiving landfill
before sending anything there, and it had a good record.
He seemed surprised to learn Continue reading →

EPA, GA EPD, and Southeast Health in Waycross about Seven Out Superfund @ EPA 2013-11-14



Now

EPA is convinced that the public wants answers, after dozens of citizens
turned out to ask questions at

Waycross City Hall 14 November 2013.
A study of contamination sampling is in peer review,
and

GA EPD and

GA Health Dept. are also involved.
Citizens and

silentdisaster.org and

Satilla Riverkeeper and

WWALS Watershed Coalition are watching.





Matthew J. Huyser, EPA (l. standing blue shirt),

Jim Brown, GA EPD (c. standing white shirt),

Ashby Nix, Satilla Riverkeeper (facing Brown, paper in hand),

Joan Martin McNeal, silentdisaster.org (r. in group)





Roger Naylor, Public Relations Director for Southeast Health District,
is quite familiar with

Janet McMahan’s discovery of arsenic in groundwater
and says Continue reading →

Meeting with EPA about Seven Out Superfund Site in Waycross 24 Nov 2013


Facebook event by Joan Martin McNeal:



When: Thursday, November 14, 2013 6:30pm

Where:

City Hall, 477 Pendleton St., Waycross, GA

Will we get help Or will it be just another story? EPA Meeting
Scheduled for Thursday, November 14 at 6:30 PM Waycross City Hall to
give us an update on Seven Out Superfund Site. They will also have
on hand the Georgia Dept of Health. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!


View Larger Map

-jsq

Spectra Energy fined $15 million for PCB spills at 89 pipeline sites –EPA



Those

PHMSA fines weren’t the half of Spectra Energy’s leaks and environmental
violations.
Do we want a record-EPA-fined pipeline company running PCBs through our counties?
Don’t we have enough
PCBs in the ADS landfill in Lowndes County
that’s

in a recharge zone for the aquifer we all drink out of?
Haven’t we already

imported enough hazardous wastes from the Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross?
Maybe the Lowndes County Commission should hear about these things tonight.

L.A. Times, 21 October 1989,

Pipeline Firm to Pay Record EPA Fine, Continue reading →

From Seven Out in Waycross to CSX to Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County

CSX was involved directly in the

Seven Out contamination,
storing hazardous water that leaked:
and then that water was apparently shipped to the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County.
This is in addition to the

the CSX trichloroethylene groundwater contamination dating back to 2000 and earlier.

According to a letter from Georgia Department of Natural Resources
to BCX, Inc. of 20 July 2004,

EPA Identification Number: GAR000030007,


  1. Twenty-seven tanks of wastewater were stored at the facility.
    Four portable tanks were storing the excess capacity of wastewater next door
    on property owned by CSX Transportation.
    These portable 10,000-gallon tanks were not labeled to indicate their contents;
  2. According to a BCX representative, one of the portable 10,000-gallon tanks
    had a gasket failure on the forward manhole which caused the release of an
    unknown substance onto the ground at the site owned by CSX
    Transportation;
  3. Dead vegetation was observed in a 15 feet by 30 feet area downgradient of the
    tank that caused the release;
  4. A yellowish-green substance was observed on the ground between the portable
    tank that had the release and another portable tank adjacent to it. There was
    also dead vegetation observed between these two tanks; and

And GA EPD tested the soil and found something the document doesn’t
specify, but whatever it was was enough that: Continue reading →

CSX groundwater contamination in Waycross

The MCLG for
trichloroethylene
is zero.

Around the
Seven Out and CSX contamination areas in Waycross more than 100 people
have gotten sick or died,
most since 2000, with groundwater contamination
known since 1985, according to Joan Martin McNeal,
So the CSX problem long predates

the Seven Out problem.
Here’s her map of the CSX property (in yellow) and contamination, sickness, and death:




brown stars: known contamination areas

red markers: confirmed deceased or confirmed cases of severe illness
mostly cancer (bone, lung, prostate, blood, colon, breast),
some severe neurological disorders, some heart failure,
with ages ranging from 4 to 85 years.

green markers: likely early stage cases of such problems

According to this February 2000


tricholoroethylene isopleth map,

there was already extensive contamination in the CSX railyard by 2000,
extending across an internal drainage ditch that goes into the
Waycross Canal that become Tebeau Creek, running through downtown
Waycross into the Satilla River.

According to U.S. EPA,

Trichloroethylene 79-01-6 Hazard Summary-Created in April 1992; Revised in January 2000, Continue reading →