Hg daycare in Pa: lin Twp says it stalled day-care permit - EPA said OK

[Guest guest]

Once again, an EPA song and dance that favors an investor while placing

children at risk.

* * * *

Fri, Aug. 11, 2006

lin Twp. says it stalled day-care permit

By Sam Wood

Inquirer Staff Writer

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/15248968.htm

Offiicials in lin Township, Gloucester County, say they were so

suspicious of a local real estate magnate's plan to convert a former

mercury thermometer factory into a day-care center that they purposely

stalled on issuing local permits.

But when landlord Sullivan III produced a U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency report saying " the site does not present an immediate

threat to human health or the environment, " the township zoning officer

finally issued a permit that allowed Kiddie Kollege Daycare & Preschool to

open.

" Everybody knew what was there, " Mayor Dave Ferrucci said, referring to

mercury contamination documented at the building since 1990. " The issue

was, did it get cleaned up or not? "

It did not.

And in the end, every level of government - local, state and federal -

failed to protect dozens of children who attended the day-care center.

State law requires any business that closes to clean up any toxic

materials it leaves behind. The thermometer company, Accutherm, filed for

bankruptcy in 1994 and ignored cleanup orders.

Township officials and environmental activists said yesterday that the

state Department of Environmental Protection should have taken charge of a

cleanup if the polluting business did not.

DEP officials said that was not the agency's responsibility.

The DEP cleans up about 1,000 contaminated sites a year, said Wayne

Howitz, the agency's assistant director of responsible-party remediation.

He said the state Industrial Site Recovery Act does not require the DEP to

remove any toxic materials from properties.

The act " applies only to the owner or operator of the establishment, "

Howitz said. " It doesn't say the DEP is obligated to clean up the site. "

The Accutherm building was added to a list of contaminated sites in 1994,

Howitz said. The DEP cleans up the sites in order based on the risk to

health and the environment, he said.

" Back then, there was no indication there was a major problem, " he said.

" But it was on the known contaminated site list in 2003, when it was

transferred to a day-care center. "

The site somehow was removed from the DEP list later, a matter the state

Attorney General's Office is investigating.

" If lin Township is guilty of anything, " Ferrucci said, " it's

believing the DEP did their job. "

The state Division of Youth and Family Services licensed the day-care

center. DYFS required tests for lead paint, asbestos and radon, but state

law does not require the agency to test for mercury, spokeswoman Kate

Bernyk said.

DYFS twice cited the day-care center for not requiring children to wash

their hands before eating, according to agency records. But the DYFS file

makes no mention of mercury.

Kiddie Kollege owner Becky Baughman closed the center July 28 after DEP

officials found mercury vapors 27 times higher than the state limit.

Mercury can cause neurological damage.

The state Health Department yesterday received the urine test results for

Kiddie Kollege staff members and about 50 children and began contacting

each family. A spokesman said the department would not characterize the

results until all families had been notified.

State Attorney General Zulima Farber has vowed to find the person

" responsible for saying this building is fit to be occupied by human

beings. "

As early as 1990, the federal Occupational Safety and Health

Administration had cited the Accutherm factory for exposing employees to

unsafe levels of mercury.

A 1990 letter from OSHA to then-Mayor Mastro foreshadowed more

trouble. It said Accutherm's owner had told an OSHA lawyer that he

intended to sell the business and move out of state.

" It seems that the possibility exists of an unsuspecting buyer or lin

Township becomes saddled with the burden of this contaminated building,

while the current owner escapes cleaning up a problem he created, " the

letter said.

Four years later, Accutherm declared bankruptcy. Owner Phil Giuliano

closed the factory, left New Jersey, and found work as a real estate agent

in burg, Va., according to state and local records. Giuliano has

declined to comment.

State law expects Giuliano to have heeded DEP demands to clean up mercury

that remained in the floors and walls of the building.

Bankruptcy, however, releases businesses from many of their obligations.

There is no indication in township records that the DEP did anything to

force a cleanup.

Nor did the DEP do anything to clean up the site.

" If I get a speeding ticket and don't pay, what do I get? " Ferrucci asked.

" A warrant. "

Something like that should have happened to the Accutherm owner, he said,

adding that a lien on the property would have blocked the sale to

Sullivan.

lin Township officials said the DEP had not shared any documents that

would have revealed the property's danger.

" All we had to go on was the rumor mill, " said Bob Errera, the township

zoning officer.

Ferrucci said Errera went " above and beyond the call of duty " when he

delayed the 2003 zoning application seeking to convert the building into a

day-care center.

A permit usually takes two to three days, Ferrucci said. Errera sat on the

application for a month.

" It was held up because I didn't have the documentation that the building

was clean, " Errera said. " I knew because of the previous scuttlebutt that

it wasn't. "

Finally, he said, Sullivan produced the EPA report, which Errera said had

left him with no further reason not to issue the zoning permit.

An EPA spokesman has said that report was meant only as the agency's

rejection of the need for a federal cleanup. It wasn't meant to suggest

the property was safe, the spokesman said.

Looking back, Errera said he hadn't fully understood the EPA document but

had no reason to question its declaration that the site presented no

threat.

" I'm no chemist, " he said. " I'm not a scientist. The report was written

for insiders. "

Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 856-779-3838 or samwood@....

© 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. .

http://www.philly.com

*

The material in this post is distributed without

profit to those who have expressed a prior interest

in receiving the included information for research

and educational purposes.For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this

email for purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you

must obtain permission from the copyright owner.