{"id":6956,"date":"2013-12-08T13:14:31","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T18:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6956"},"modified":"2013-12-08T13:29:31","modified_gmt":"2013-12-08T18:29:31","slug":"epa-ga-epd-and-southeast-health-in-waycross-about-seven-out-superfund-epa-2013-11-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/epa-ga-epd-and-southeast-health-in-waycross-about-seven-out-superfund-epa-2013-11-14.html","title":{"rendered":"EPA, GA EPD, and Southeast Health in Waycross about Seven Out Superfund @ EPA 2013-11-14"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nNow\r\n\r\nEPA<\/a> is convinced that the public wants answers, after dozens of citizens\r\nturned out to ask questions at\r\n\r\nWaycross City Hall 14 November 2013<\/a>.\r\nA study of contamination sampling is in peer review,\r\nand\r\n\r\nGA EPD<\/a> and\r\n\r\nGA Health Dept.<\/a> are also involved.\r\nCitizens and\r\n\r\nsilentdisaster.org<\/a> and\r\n\r\nSatilla Riverkeeper<\/a> and\r\n\r\nWWALS Watershed Coalition<\/a> are watching.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
\r\n\r\nMatthew J. Huyser, EPA<\/a> (l. standing blue shirt),\r\n\r\nJim Brown, GA EPD<\/a> (c. standing white shirt),\r\n\r\nAshby Nix, Satilla Riverkeeper<\/a> (facing Brown, paper in hand),\r\n\r\nJoan Martin McNeal, silentdisaster.org<\/a> (r. in group)\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nRoger Naylor, Public Relations Director for Southeast Health District<\/a>,\r\nis quite familiar with\r\n\r\nJanet McMahan’s discovery of arsenic in groundwater<\/a>\r\nand says\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nJane Perry of the state health department\r\nis in charge of peer review for the contamination sampling\r\nthat\r\nEPA’s Matthew Huyser mentioned<\/a>; see below.\r\nThat’s the same Jane Perry who eventually confirmed enough evidence that\r\n\r\nhealth districts across south Georgia<\/a>\r\nrecommended\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\ntesting for arsenic<\/a>.\r\nSee also separate post about the\r\n\r\nLowndes County Pecan Row landfill<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nJim Brown, Program Manager<\/a>, Hazardous Waste Corrective Action Program,\r\nGeorgia Department of Natural Resource (GA DNR),\r\nEnvironmental Protection Division (GA EPD),\r\nLand Protection Branch,\r\nmostly seemed to indicate EPA was in charge.\r\nSee also separate post about the\r\n\r\nLowndes County Pecan Row landfill<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMatthew J. Huyser, On-Scene Coordinator for U.S. EPA,\r\ntold me the main purpose of the meeting was to determine\r\nwhether there really was citizen demand for answers,\r\nor was it just a handful of very vocal people.\r\nHis conclusion: yes, there were many citizens who wanted answers and action.\r\nPlus he wanted to inform citizens that sampling has been done and\r\nis still going on, and a study is forthcoming.\r\nSee also\r\n\r\nseparate post about EPA and the Lowndes County landfill<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nOut front, keeping the attendance list, was\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nSherryl A. Lane, Community Involvement Coordinator, EPA<\/a>,\r\nwho was\r\n\r\ncited in Enterprise online<\/a>\r\nas the EPA contact for that meeting.\r\nSee also separate post about the\r\n\r\nLowndes County Pecan Row landfill<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThis meeting was requested by\r\n\r\nJoan Martin McNeal<\/a>\r\nand the other organizers of\r\n\r\nSilentDisaster.org<\/a>\r\n(facebook<\/a>).\r\nShe was continually encouraging citizens and questioning the government\r\nofficials.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nShe expressed some disappointment\r\nthat there was no formal presentation and no opportunity for\r\nthe officials to answer questions where everybody could hear all at once.\r\nEPA’s Huyser<\/a>\r\ndid indicate there would be followup meetings.\r\n

\r\nThis is serious business.\r\nMany people are getting sick and dying in Waycross.\r\nPeople want to know why.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nPersistently questioning each government official was\r\n\r\nAshy Nix<\/a>,\r\nthe new\r\n\r\nSatilla Riverkeeper<\/a>.\r\nShe is the contact for\r\n\r\nGeorgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen 2013<\/a>\r\nabout the Seven Out Superfund because it’s on that list:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nLurking within Mary Street Park, a tree-lined neighborhood park in\r\nWaycross, is a silent killer—toxic pollutants from a defunct\r\nindustrial wastewater treatment facility known as Seven Out Tank.\r\nOpened in 2002, the industrial waste handler operated only two years\r\nbefore multiple environmental violations led to the facility’s\r\nclosure. Now, after eight years and a U.S. Environmental Protection\r\nAgency (USEPA) supervised cleanup of the industrial site,\r\ncontamination still threatens the health of local residents,\r\nmunicipal drinking water supplies and tributaries to the Satilla\r\nRiver.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAlso met there but not in the above meeting picture:\r\n\r\nGA Rep. Ellis Black District 177 State representative Jason Spencer District 180<\/a>\r\nand\r\n\r\nGA state Rep. Ellis Black (district 174)<\/a>.\r\nThis is where Black confirmed he was coming to the\r\n\r\nSpectraBusters meeting against the Sabal Trail methane pipeline<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nWhen contamination gets into a watershed,\r\nwhether from a hazardous chemical “cleanup” company\r\nor a railroad or a pipeline,\r\n\r\nit tends to spread<\/a> into the aquifer, drinking water, wetlands, and rivers,\r\nand maybe even into the air.\r\nPerhaps EPA will be more thorough this time.\r\n

\r\n\r\nJoan Martin McNeal of silentdisaster.org<\/a>,\r\n\r\nSatilla Riverkeeper Ashby Nix<\/a>,\r\nand I (in my hat as a director of\r\n\r\nWWALS Watershed Coalition<\/a>)\r\nwere the last citizens to address\r\n\r\nEPA’s Matthew J. Huyser<\/a>,\r\nreminding him: we’ll be watching.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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 […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,8,20,32,73,55],"tags":[210,3271,7289,2010,3212,6907,8722,8701,111,6214,7291,7019,8702,8710,12,7,7290,7287,8715,7292,8731,7288,6917,7286,6916,6,8727,2597,8740],"class_list":["post-6956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-georgia","category-law","category-pollution","category-safety","category-water","tag-aquifer","tag-arsenic","tag-ashby-nix","tag-cancer","tag-death","tag-drinking-water","tag-epa","tag-georgia","tag-groundwater","tag-janet-mcmahan","tag-jim-brown","tag-joan-martin-mcneal","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-matthew-j-huyser","tag-org","tag-pollution","tag-roger-naylor","tag-safety","tag-satilla-riverkeeper","tag-seven-out","tag-silentdisaster","tag-superfund","tag-valdosta","tag-water","tag-waycross","tag-wwals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Oc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6956"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6971,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956\/revisions\/6971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}