Times beach, Mo

[Mark Robinowitz <mrobinowitz@igc.org>]

Return-Path: owner-activ-l@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU
Date:         Sun, 6 Oct 1996 01:32:19 GMT
Reply-To: Rich Winkel <rich@pencil.math.missouri.edu>
Sender: Activists Mailing List <ACTIV-L@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU>
From: Rich Winkel <rich@pencil.math.missouri.edu>
Organization: PACH
Subject:      Times Beach, Missouri Dioxin Cleanup Still Controversial
To: Multiple recipients of list ACTIV-L <ACTIV-L@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU>

/** headlines: 129.0 **/
** Topic: Times Beach, Missouri Dioxin Cleanup Still Controversial **
** Written  6:02 PM  Oct  2, 1996 by econet in cdp:headlines **

/* Written 11:58 AM  Sep 29, 1996 by tbag in ef.general */
/* ---------- "Scandal and Deceit in Times Beach" ---------- */

Citizens at odds with the Times Beach incineration policy were recently
informed that EPA administrator Carol Browner had removed herself from the
Missouri dioxin cleamup.  Browner removed herself because her sister,
Michelle Browner, is employed by the company responsible for the Times
Beach cleanup.

This maneuver places politics over public health.  Citizen appeal to the
Environmental Protection Agency has been severely restricted for reasons
incompatible with the responsibility of safeguarding public health and the
environment.  Yet, the management of the eastern Missouri dioxin sites and
the Times Beach incinerator by federal and state agencies has been
embroiled in scandal from Day One.

Shortly after the Times Beach story began to unfold, several EPA officials
alleged that authorities did not take action or inform citizens until
almost a decade after state and federal authorities were well aware of the
contamination.  The debate culminated in the controversial replacement of
Dan Harris, EPA's regional dioxin coordinator.  Harris, who was
responsible for initiating the dioxin investigation in the 1980s, stated
to the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" at that time, "I got the feeling that
they [EPA] were trying to bury the whole investigation."

In 1982, as flood waters forced the evacuation of dioxin-contaminated
Times Beach, Congress investigated the negligence of the EPA and Centers
for Disease Control in responding to dioxin contamination in eastern
Missouri.  President Ronald Reagan ordered EPA administrator Ann Gorsuch
to withhold documents under "executive privilege."  Rita Lavelle, head of
the hazardous waste program, began to shred documents.

Gorsuch was forced to resign along with 19 other appointees, and Lavelle
served six months in jail for perjury and obstruction of justice in an
investigation into political use of waste cleanup funds.  Pollutant data
from many of the Missouri sites remain "lost" according to the EPA.

In 1990, a report by the Committee on Government Operations, "The Agent
Orange Coverup," was submitted to Congress.  It said: "The Centers for
Disease Control study [of exposed veterans] was controlled and obstructed
by the White House because the Reagan administration had adopted a legal
strategy of refusing liability in military and civilian cases of
contamination involving toxic chemicals and nuclear radiation."

Some of Missouri's dioxin contamination resulted from Agent Orange
production.  The CDC study was investigating the health effects of Agent
Orange on Vietnam Veterans, in particular the toxic effects of dioxin in
the herbicide.  This year, President Bill Clinton signed a bill expanding
compensation to veterans and their children for debilitating effects of
exposure to Agent Orange.  To date, there has been no compensation to
citizens exposed to the same chemicals as a result of the improper
disposal of dioxin in Missouri.

In 1990, metaTRACE, a St. Louis-based analytical laboratory in Earth City,
was suspended from EPA contracts.  The regional EPA official's request for
suspension cited many violations including charges that metaTRACE "had
falsified and fraudulently submitted computer generated
pesticide/polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) test data."  The request also
said, "EPA has made policy decisions that are potentially life threatening
relying on this invalid data."

MetaTRACE handled large contracts for work at Times Beach and Weldon
Springs, including a dioxin analysis designed specifically for Times
Beach.  Two former executive vice presidents eventually pleaded guilty;
one was sentenced to five years in prison.

On May 2, 1995, a researcher funded by the Agency for Toxic Substance and
Disease Registry testified to the St. Louis Dioxin Monitoring Committee
that blood levels had decreased in citizens living next to an incinerator
in Arkansas.  The researcher, Morris Cranmer, reversed his findings after
the federally funded report's data were obtained by Greenpeace.  In 1988,
a federal court had found Cranmer guilty of defrauding the Farmers Home
Administration of nearly $10 million.

This August, the EPA met with Missouri citizens to hear evidence that a
laboratory owned by the same company that operates the incinerator held
for more than a week samples from sensistive trial burns.  The samples
were later analyzed to determine if the incinerator was performing within
EPA guidelines.  The laboratory, Quanterra, was 50 percent owned by
International Technologies, the owner of the Times Beach Incinerator.
International Technologies formed Quanterra several years after acquiring
MetaTRACE.  MetaTRACE was suspended from EPA contracts in 1990.  The
location and phone number, along with some equipment and employees are the
same as metaTRACE's.  The Department of Natural Resources is investigating
a possible conflict of interest.

If all goes as planned, Times Beach will soon be a park with the ash from
27 eastern Missouri dioxin sites buried along the Meramec River.  State
and federal authorities hope that a blood study soon to be released will
ally the concerns of those living near the incinerator.  They hope that
past indiscretions will be forgotten.  But for many of us who have lived
through the Times Beach saga, we will know that among the toxic ash is
buried the integrity of officials and agencies that the public has
entrusted to safeguard our health and environment.

Steve Taylor- Co-founder of the Times Beach Action Group
Commentary published in the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch", Thursday, September
19, 1996.

For more information contact the Times Beach Action Group:

tbag@igc.apc.org
314-227-1995

** End of text from cdp:headlines **

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