OT: San 's toxic triangle

[Guest guest]

Important story. If you know anyone who lives in this area, you should send

them this article.

http://www.sacurrent.com/news/story.asp?id=70108

It’s

been more than two decades since plumes of toxic chemicals were

discovered seeping from the former Air Force Base into the soil

and groundwater under the surrounding neighborhoods. More than 20,000

homes sit above these plumes in an area residents have come to call the

“Toxic Triangle†because of higher than normal rates of cancer and

birth defects.

Residents

of the Toxic Triangle who have watched neighbors and family members

sicken and die believe those chemicals — primarily trichloroethylene

(TCE), a degreasing agent, and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a paint

stripper and dry-cleaning chemical — are the cause of the area’s high

incidences of liver, kidney, and other cancers. The official studies

have been inconclusive, but two recent developments have led area

residents to believe their suspicions were warranted all along.

In

March, a Congressional subcommittee released a scathing report

criticizing the work of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease

Registry, the federal agency originally tasked with assessing the

health problems near . Shortly after that report was released, the Current

discovered that a cancer expert hired in 2006 to

analyze data from the Toxic Triangle was threatened with legal action

if he spoke about his results. His report, released to the Current this month by

the San Metropolitan Health District, argues that

the Air Force’s toxic legacy may indeed be responsible for some of the

neighborhoods’ health problems.

The

Air Force dumped TCE and other chemicals used for aircraft maintenance

into open pits on the base for decades. In addition to TCE and PCE,

workers also used and dumped dichloroethene (DCE), benzene, vinyl

chloride and thalium.

“One former worker admitted he was under orders annually to drain vats

of chemicals into the ground during the Christmas holidays,†reported

the Express-News in 2006. Toxic Triangle resident Yolanda told theLA

Times

in 2006 that those chemicals periodically flooded the area during heavy

rainstorms, sending the overflow through surrounding streets that

lacked storm drains. In the same article, local hydrologist Rice

said it was known that people in the neighborhood had used shallow

wells, dug illegally, for drinking water, gardening, and washing cars.

The Air Force has capped some 75 such wells.

When

San Metro Health commissioned a study of liver cancer in

southwest San in 2006, the Texas Cancer Registry provided data

confirming 319 cases of liver cancer in the 14 ZIP code study area near

between 1995-2003, versus 381 cases in Bexar County’s 61 other

ZIP codes. Male liver-cancer death rates were found to be

“significantly higher than expected†in three of the studied ZIP codes.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has found elevations of

birth abnormalities in the area such as Down syndrome and lung defects,

while ATSDR has reported elevated rates of lung and kidney cancer, as

well as leukemia.

“We

call ourselves the living dead, because we know our time is coming

because of the plumes that were there,†says 67-year-old Toxic Triangle

resident Alvarado, who is on a list for a kidney transplant, and

is almost blind due to an aneurysm. His wife and one of his daughters

were treated for thyroid cancer, while his cousin Lou Ornelas, who

worked at the base for 18 years, developed liver cancer and died in

2006 at age 59.

Alvarado

and his family have lived in the predominantly Mexican-American

neighborhood for almost 40 years. It’s an area where many of the

’50s-era houses appear somewhat dilapidated, while others may be modest

but are well-kept. Poverty is high. Per-capita income for District 5,

where much of the Toxic Triangle sits, was projected by the Westside

Development Corporation to be less than $11,000 in 2008.

Working

with the non-profit Southwest Workers Union, Alvarado helped found a

group called the Committee for Environmental Justice Action.. To

highlight the extent of the area’s health problems, they distributed

purple crosses to homes where at least one family member had been

diagnosed with cancer. They chose purple, Alvarado says, so that the

crosses would stand out in the yards. In 2006, the Current reported that SWU

members had knocked on 350 doors in the triangle; half of those homes qualified

for a purple cross.

Agencies

in charge of the base’s cleanup tend to speak and act as if the

situation is nearing resolution, despite the community’s continuing

health problems and accompanying decline in property values. Since

1999, the Air Force has spent $320 million on cleanup, including

the installation of underground barriers and a pump-and-treat system to

flush contaminants.

“The

plumes are slowly shrinking, and the remedies are in place,†said the

Environmental Protection Agency’s at an April 15 public

meeting.

But

as the plumes diminish, so does the possibility of linking the area’s

illnesses to ’s chemical trail. ATSDR conducted studies in the

’90s that acknowledged increased levels of liver and kidney cancer, as

well as leukemia, among the area’s residents, but none of those studies

connected the illnesses with the chemical plumes. The EPA recently

conducted two rounds of indoor vapor testing in 29 total homes in the

Toxic Triangle, to address concerns that gases from the plumes might

pose a threat. But reported in mid-April that the second round

of February tests, like an initial round conducted last May, did not

find significant exposure levels.

While

the EPA was brought in to conduct the vapor tests, the Texas Commission

on Environmental Quality has been in charge of monitoring the

cleanup, because despite the extent of the contamination, the base has

never been declared a federal Superfund site. Such a designation would

have enabled citizens to hire outside experts of their choosing to

study the situation through the EPA’s Technical Assistance Grants.

EPA

press officer Dave Bary says the EPA didn’t designate a Superfund

site because it was “not an abandoned site, like virtually all

Superfund sites are.†The active Hill AFB in Utah is a Superfund site,

however, as is Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. SWU filed a federal

civil-rights complaint in 1999 alleging that failing to classify

as a Superfund site constituted a civil-rights violation against the

Mexican-American communities surrounding the base. The Lone Star

chapter of the Sierra Club later joined SWU in filing a petition with

the EPA and then-Governor W. Bush to designate a Superfund

site, but the campaign failed.

A troubling military legacy

The

problems that plague San ’s Toxic Triangle are just one example

of the military’s considerable environmental liability. The Associated

Press reported in 2007 that the EPA is overseeing cleanups of TCE and

PCE at more than 150 military installations, including the Camp Lejeune

marine base in North Carolina, where contamination of the base’s tap

water exposed residents to the chemicals. The AP reported that 850

former residents of Camp Lejeune are seeking $4 billion in damages,

which comes out to about $4.7 million per person.

Retired

Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger lost a 9-year-old daughter who was

conceived at Camp Lejeune to leukemia he believes was caused by the

base’s water. He says the dollar figures at stake make it easy to see

why Uncle Sam has been stonewalling efforts to connect the

contamination at such sites to neighboring health problems.

“It’s

one of the reasons the Department of Defense is throwing so many assets

at this thing,†said Ensminger. “When you’re fighting a government

agency who is the defendant … they’ve got all the financial assets of

all the taxpayers in the United States. They’re using the taxpayers’

money as weapons against us.â€

Camp

Lejeune’s plaintiffs have been stalled in their tracks for the past two

years. A June 2007 Government Accountability Office investigation

reported that the Navy Judge Advocate General was waiting to rule on

the claims until the office received a report from ATSDR regarding how

the water affected babies in utero. The GAO said the ATSDR report was

expected by the end of 2007, but ATSDR has yet to deliver its findings.

Ensminger

recently visited Alvarado and the Toxic Triangle for a

documentary being filmed about the environmental contamination of

communities caused by military activities.

“For the life of me, I don’t know how the Air Force got away with []

not being declared a Superfund site,†Ensminger said.

Conflicts of interest

In

mid-March, Congress released a report harshly criticizing ATSDR for its

shoddy analytical work. It cited AFB and Camp Lejeune among 10

prime examples.

“The

Subcommittee has heard from many sources examples of jackleg science by

ATSDR and their keenness to please industries and government agencies

that prefer to minimize public health consequence,†said Chairman Brad

(D-NC) when his Committee on Science and Technology released its extensive

indictment.

The

report says ATSDR “often obscures or overlooks potential health

hazards, uses inadequate analysis, and fails to zero in on toxic

culprits,†and that, “Time and time again, ATSDR appears to avoid

clearly and directly confronting the most obvious toxic culprits that

harm the health of local communities throughout the nation.â€

The

section on features criticism by University of land

toxicologist Dr.. Squibb, who reviewed ATSDR’s work in 2000

and 2002 after being hired by the Technical Review Committee of the

Restoration Advisory Board. Squibb found that ATSDR’s analysis at

was based on minimal information, that some Air Force studies

ATSDR relied on for its conclusions failed to measure important

exposure pathways, and that ATSDR failed to adequately assess whether

some chemicals migrated off base.

“It

is questionable as to whether ATSDR’s conclusion that no public

exposure to contaminants occurred through domestic use of groundwater

in the past is correct,†wrote Squibb. She also concluded that ATSDR

had examined health risks from exposure to soil from a part of the base

only after it had been cleaned up.

A

2001 ATSDR report again acknowledged high rates of cancer in the

area, but did not attribute them to the plumes. When questioned in

February 2009 about possible alternate causes for the neighborhoods’

health issues, ATSDR said that since they were no longer active at the

base they would have to defer the question to TCEQ. TCEQ, in turn, said

they couldn’t speak for ATSDR.

Fowler, ATSDR’s lead health assessor for its study, issued a

statement in early March saying that it is “unlikely†that groundwater

contamination is responsible for the Toxic Triangle’s cancer cluster

since the plumes were just beginning to move off base at the time of

its initial investigation in 1996, and because the contaminated aquifer

was not a source of drinking water.

But Squibb says ATSDR’s conclusions about the groundwater near were

based on weak data.

“[The

chemicals] got into the groundwater initially on base where they were

being dumped, and then it takes a while for the chemicals to move and

spread out in the groundwater. So they were going by data that

supposedly said, OK, we’ve tested off base and we didn’t find them

earlier, but now we’re just finding them near the base line, so they’re

just now moving off base and therefore they weren’t there before. But

if you go back to that reference, the data that ATSDR used … that was

not a very good, comprehensive study. So maybe it hadn’t moved off base

in that area yet, but it may have moved off base in other areas.â€

Squibb said ATSDR’s problems are part of a broken system.

“If

we’re going to fix this, we need to fix the system,†said Squibb. “If

you read through their reports, a lot of times they’ll say there’s not

enough information to make a decision … and that’s where there’s a real

failure of follow-up.â€

San

Metro Health’s studies show that the agency has relied on

ATSDR’s research as a foundation for much of its own work in the area.

Yet, in mid-April, Metro Health Director Dr. Guerra admitted

that he hadn’t yet read the 33-page Congressional report.

Guerra

suggests that preexisting conditions, such as cirrhosis, and lifestyle

choices such as tobacco use and diet, are responsible for the Toxic

Triangle’s high rate of liver cancer. “What I can say with fairly good

evidence is that there seems to be a background rate [of illnesses]

that perhaps indicates some prior exposure…. or risk-taking behavior,â€

said Guerra.

But

hydrologist Rice, a former Restoration Advisory Board

member and current Aquifer Authority board member, says Guerra

has consistently downplayed any potential link between and the

neighborhoods’ health issues.

“Dr.

Guerra would always be brought in to pooh-pooh that stuff,†said Rice,

who served on the RAB from 1994-2004. “I don’t have a lot of

faith in Metro Health when it comes to .â€

“I

doubt that EPA, TCEQ, or Metro Health will give much attention to the

new Congressional report,†said Southwest Workers Union Environmental

Justice Coordinator Lara Cushing the week before Guerra was

interviewed. “They’ve made up their mind on this community long ago.â€

A buried report

San

Metro Health hired land-based contractor HealthCare

Resolution Services to conduct its 2006-07 liver-cancer study in the 14

ZIP code area adjacent to . Cancer cluster expert Tim Aldrich from

East Tennessee State University was hired by HCRS to lead the study.

Aldrich

seemed eminently qualified, with a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the

University of Texas and minors in Biostatistics and Environmental

Health. He’s been widely published by various journals and medical

associations during the past decade.

Aldrich’s

analysis suggested that even after weighing all other potential factors

— such as lifestyle and genetics — 36 known cancer cases remained

unaccounted for.

“This

study found conspicuous evidence of clustering of communities with

elevated liver cancer rates nearby to the former AFB … 11.5

percent of the local area cases may be attributable to residing over

the PCE plume,†Aldrich’s report says, recommending that “further

research of the liver cancer risk in Bexar County is justified and

feasible.â€

But the community never saw Aldrich’s conclusions. TheExpress-News reported in

2007 that Aldrich’s study was “quietly released†to city

council but that a planned meeting to announce the results to those

living in the affected neighborhoods was never held.

Metro

Health subsequently convened a “blue ribbon†panel to review Aldrich’s

report, which was promptly discredited and never published.

The

panel determined that “of particular concern as an outcome of this

report was its discussion of attributable risk. The panel felt that

this study, as presented, could not accurately conclude anything about

attributable risk.†The panel also took the report to task for lacking

critical information such as a description of the chemicals that left

the base and which ZIP codes were affected.

But

Aldrich says he is not allowed to defend or explain his report because

Metro Health contractor HealthCare Resolution Services has threatened

him with a breach-of-contract lawsuit if he discusses his research with

the media or publishes the report. When the Current contacted

Aldrich to request an interview, he said he was required to direct such

inquiries to either Dr. Guerra or HCRS President Doles, who

happens to be a co-preparer of Aldrich’s report.

Dr. Guerra and other Metro Health officials denied knowledge of the alleged

lawsuit threat.

Meanwhile,

Metro Health’s “blue ribbon†panel contains two significant flaws of

its own. The panel was composed of four prestigious sounding

professors, but the chair of the panel, Dr. Arthur from Drexel

University, admitted to a possible conflict of interest.

“The

only notable potential conflict of interest was that Dr. has an

adjunct academic appointment at the School of Aerospace Medicine at the

Air Force facilities in San , and has worked with the Air Force

on occupational medicine residency activities,†says the panel’s

review. “This was shared with the group, and is therefore noted in this

report.â€

Metro

Health Public Relations Manager Patmon says is a

top-notch scientist involved in many projects, “as most scientists

are,†and that since he declared his potential conflict, Metro Health

did not consider it an issue.

Patmon

says Metro Health put together the panel with the assistance of

physician consultant Dr. Wittmer. Wittmer happens to be a fellow

of the Aerospace Medical Association. The ASMA has no official

affiliation with the Air Force, but many of its members are current or

former Air Force employees.

“They

got their own people to do the investigation,†said Alvarado.

“We’ll never get out of the circle with the same information. It’s a

dog and pony show.â€

The

panel further recommended that “while an epidemiological study would be

potentially feasible, it would be a massive undertaking and extremely

expensive.†They instead suggested that “other ongoing scientific

investigations that might shed light on this overall issue†should be

pursued. These included estimating the rate of hepatitis in the area,

as well as “a study of possible aflatoxin contamination of corn used to

make dietary items in the Hispanic population (e.g. tortillas.)â€

Aflatoxin

is a toxic mold that can grow on corn and other crops. Documentation of

such exposure, however, has most commonly been observed in agricultural

and developing economies. SWU Environmental Justice Coordinator Lara

Cushing says the community was disgusted by the aflatoxin theory. SWU

handed out popcorn and “toxic†Kool-aid in protest at the meeting where

Metro Health announced the aflatoxin study by Texas A & M.

“We

brought our concerns to Dr. Guerra, who agreed to meet with us but then

never did,†said Cushing. “We found it particularly outrageous that

cancer patients were being asked to further the research goals of a

scientist with money that could have been spent on cleanup or health

care for community members.â€

Metro

Health officials insist that Aldrich’s research was flawed and that the

agency had no desire to withhold anything from the community.

“[Aldrich’s]

info was of concern because it wasn’t jiving with what we already had

from the state,†said Guerra. “It was clear that he exceeded what he

was meant to have done and there was concern about methodology.â€

Guerra

says that Metro Health’s standard contract reserves the right not to

publish reports it commissions. He deferred the Aldrich issue to HCRS.

HCRS’s Doles refused to address Aldrich’s allegation.

“You’re

barking up the wrong tree,†Doles said. Asked point blank if she would

confirm or deny that she personally had threatened Aldrich with legal

action if he speaks about his Toxic Triangle research, Doles issued a

“no comment†and said, “I can only refer you back to the City of San

.â€

The

“blue ribbon†panel’s conflicts of interest pale in comparison to those

of HCRS, a land-based company that has boasted of its “roster of

Air Force clientele.†When Doles was recognized in 2006 as one of

theWashington Business Journal’s

“Women Who Mean Business,†a press release indicated that HCRS’s

revenues had “skyrocketed†to $7.4 million in 2004, $12 million in 2005

and a projected $20 million in 2006 “thanks to successfully fulfilling

numerous government contracts, including several high-profile ones in

the military.â€

Austin-based

environmental attorney Rick Lowerre, who represented SWU’s Committee

for Environmental Justice Action when they requested a contested case

hearing over ’s closure plans in 1998, says the situation with

Aldrich is very unusual. Lowerre says Aldrich’s research could be used

by a trial lawyer to convince a jury that Toxic-Triangle residents are

at increased risk for cancer due to the plumes from the base, and that

the Air Force should pay for the community’s health problems.

U.S.

Representative Charlie has helped earmark money over the years

for Metro Health’s Public Center for Environmental Health to attempt to

assess and treat the health issues in the region. But he doesn’t seem

troubled about Metro Health’s decision to bury the Aldrich report.

“Neither

you nor I can in any way modify [a] contract that we have nothing to do

with,†said . He said he felt Metro Health was being

forthcoming by sending the Current a copy of Aldrich’s report.

As

the cleanup around proceeds, the beleaguered community feels time

is running out to prove that the Toxic Triangle’s health problems were

caused at least in part by the Air Force’s negligence. The base is in

the process of being privatized as the Port San industrial

park, and when the cleanup is deemed finished, the Air Force will be

able to wash its hands of its toxic legacy at .

“The

Air Force wants to walk away from by the end of next year and

leave behind highly contaminated soils and water, cleanup procedures

expected to take decades, and a contaminated Leon Creek,†said SWU’s

Cushing. “Failing to connect the cancer epidemic to the contamination

essentially lets the Air Force get away with murder, because without

this missing link the Department of Defense is never held to account

for the suffering of workers and the community.â€

________________________________

Military campaign

San

’s Toxic Triangle is not the only community dealing with the

environmental fallout from former military operations. Including these

sites, the EPA is supervising the cleanup of TCE and PCE contamination

at more than 150 military installations.

Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, NC: TCE and PCE contaminated the

base’s tap water and 850 former residents

have filed suit for $4 billion in damages. The Navy’s Judge Advocate

General is still awaiting an ATSDR report due at the end of 2007 before

ruling on whether the claims have a basis.

El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, Santa Ana, CA: Closed in 1999 after a TCE

plume spread into Orange County for 20 years

without base vets being notified of potential exposure. The Superfund

site is also contaminated with radionuclides from Radium 226, which was

used to create fluorescent aircraft instruments.

Tucson International Airport Area, Tuscon, AZ:

This Superfund site had a 50-year history of contamination dating to

military contractors dumping TCE during and after the Korean War. The

TCE plume contaminates groundwater to this day.

The Industrial Excess Landfill, Uniontown, OH: Citizens

allege the Army secretly dumped Cold War weapons waste in the late

’60s, and fear it threatens the area’s water supply. The EPA convened a

“blue ribbon†Scientific Advisory Board in 1994 to assess the Superfund

site, including questions about radiation. The panel ruled there was no

such concern, yet when queried in 2006, a majority admitted they

weren’t qualified to assess radiation issues or had not contributed to

the assessment.