County to test site for toxins

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County to test site for toxins

By Wyman and Brittany Wallman Staff Writers

Posted August 14 2002

FORT LAUDERDALE · After years of proclaiming the possible dangers of the old

Wingate incinerator in northwest Fort Lauderdale, Legal Aid Service of

Broward County scored a huge victory Tuesday, when the County Commission

agreed to test for toxins at schools and county lands near the Superfund

site.

The news came as a pleasant shock to Legal Aid attorney Sharon Bourassa, who

has long led a campaign for Wingate testing. " What, what? You're kidding?! "

she said.

Bourassa wrote in a letter distributed to county commissioners Tuesday that

she has tried in the past to get the city, county or School Board to test

for dioxin or other toxins in the soil at schools around Wingate.

" Since 1954, black children have been exposed to dioxin, " she wrote. " It is

in their schoolyards, their home yards and everywhere they go in the Wingate

area. "

County officials said they would research Bourassa's claim that her requests

had been rejected, but they didn't want to wait any longer to get the

testing done.

Fort Lauderdale operated the Wingate incinerator, on Northwest 31st Avenue,

from 1954 to 1978. The site was added to the Superfund cleanup list in the

1990s. Earlier this year, the city completed its cleanup by covering the

toxic dump with a geosynthetic liner.

Bourassa and others have begged for studies for years without much success.

No tests have been done on school properties, she said.

But recently, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

and the Florida Department of Health agreed to conduct a cancer and disease

survey of people in the Wingate area.

The Environmental Justice Project, a high-powered law firm formed to aid

Wingate residents, is attempting to gather experts to do its own study.

" This case is an octopus. This case is a killer, " Bourassa said. " I've had

this case eight or nine years. It progresses at a snail's pace because

money's involved. "

A study last year by the Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies Coalition of Broward

County showed black infants in the county had a higher mortality rate than

nonwhite infants -- particularly in two zip codes, one of which includes the

Wingate area. That has helped finally bring plausibility and credibility to

residents' longstanding claims that the site poisoned people and still is

doing so.

County commissioners said they were concerned about the infant mortality

rate around Wingate. One commissioner, phus Eggelletion, said he thinks

he may have personally been affected. He said he developed a kidney

infection while playing at the landfill as a child.

" We're losing our babies in that area, " Commission Chairwoman Lori Parrish

said. " It could be a lack of prenatal care or other things, but we need to

know what's going on. "

The move to do the testing came at the request of Commissioner

s, whom Bourassa had gone to for help.

The type of testing, and its cost, is yet to be determined. So, too, are the

locations of the testing. Bourassa said there are seven schools within a

one-mile radius of Wingate, such as Dillard High School and Larkdale

Elementary, but the county may choose its own radius for testing.

s said she may eventually ask the county to help pay for autopsies of

any children who died in the neighborhood.

" I want answers, " s said. " I don't want to say this is Fort

Lauderdale's problem or the state's problem or the polluters' problem. It's

all of our problem. When babies are dying, we need to get answers and get

them now. "

The city has done no testing as a result of the mortality study.

" I don't see any indication that it has anything to do with Wingate, " said

Mayor Jim Naugle, " but I would welcome any studies. They took a zip code,

33311, which includes people living ... far away and not downwind from

Wingate. There could be other factors involved, including socioeconomic. "

Naugle rejected Bourassa's claim that the city has fought testing efforts.

He said the city has done all the testing the federal Environmental

Protection Agency has asked it to.

" We got rid of the garbage the way that all communities across America got

rid of the garbage, " Naugle said. " In 1954, the year I was born, the year it

opened up, it was all farming out there. "

Naugle said the city has no problem with the county's study of school sites,

provided there are " control " studies done in other parts of town.

" We insist that any testing that's done is done with accepted scientific

means and not some sort of a political situation, " he said.

Wyman can be reached at swyman@... or 954-356-4511.

Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@... or

954-356-4541.

Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel