NCD980602163_19840921_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Public Affairs Officer letter to Henderson Dispatch-OCR

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESO~RCES
32!5 NORTH SALISBURY STREET
JAMES B. HUNT. JR. RALEIGH 27611 SARAH T. MORROW, M.D .. M.P.H.
GOVERNOR
Mr. Bill Dennis, Jr., Managing Editor
Henderson Dispatch
Post Office Box 908
Henderson, North Carolina 27536
Dear Mr. Dennis:
SECRETARY
TELEPHONE
919/7SS-4SS4
The current campaign for the United States Senate ~etween Governor Jim Hunt
and Senator Jesse Helms has brought the issue of PCB's oack into the headlines.
For several months, I have watched as -one person after ~nother accuses Governor Hunt
of having "allowed toxic material, PCB, to lie along our roads for four years" and
then "dumping the PCB in Warren County." ·
I
This is a misleading and inaccurate oversimplifica~ion of a very complicated
issue. 0 would like to present the facts surrounding t ~e PCB controversy in order
to set the record str~ight~
North Carolinci"o.fficials were first informed of po ~sible PCB contamination
along a Warren County roadside on July 30, 1978. (we illl11ediately sent chemists and
environmental engineers to the site to determine just hqw large of an area was
contaminated and in what concentrations~ After three days, we had identified more
than 240 mil es of roadsides in 14 counties where PCB-1 aced oil had been deliberately
and illegally dumped.
.
Health and environmental officials met and decided ~nan imnediate ~t>s~f;y
solution to i111110bilize the PCB's by placing activated cal~bon and asphalt(on top of · ~,}--es
the PCB's to prevent the contamination from spreading an
1
d to minimize any threat to
public health. This action was t,ken less than three we,eks after we received the
first report of PCB contamination~ I
(once we were as~ured that the PCB was not~g to Eigrate off-site, and later
sampling in 1982 demonstrated that it did notJ we startetl work on a long-term
solution. (Qur first choice was to treat the contaminated soil in place, bu~ the
federal Env1ronmental Protection Agency, ()lhich had to approve whatever solution we
came up with} decided that in .. place treatment was too experimental and too risky.
t-l " . .}...... We tthe~')considereq the option of picking up the con ~aminated soil and burning
it at an incinerator.g..;R,owever, the amount of soil involt,ted made')that option ~$
practically impossible and too expensive.
"
The only remaining course open to us at that time was to pick up the more than
50,000 tons of soil and place it in a secure, well-designed landfill. We surveyed
more than 90 potential landfill -sites in the 14 affected counties. We narrowed
the choice to six sites and selected the one in Warren County because it met all .of
EPA's technical requirements and it was available.
We were prepared to build the landfill and start mo ~ing the soil in the fall
of 1979, but before we could begin construction a temporary restraining order was
issued and a lawsuit filed by local officials and re'Side ~ts of Warren County -,_•·\ __ _, --,.~
Q"hat lawsuit;, which prohibited us from taking action to solve the problem.J dragged --· :,
on for two years before it was dismissed by a federal di strict court judge. His
decision was appea 1 ed. 1
__
~ 0~~
nee Warren County officials were assured that ~ver~1precaution was being taken
to ma ·e the 1 andfi 11 safe, the appea 1 was dropped.) ~s sqon as) the appea 1 was dropped -
we were able to move forward with construction of the landfill and clean-up of the
soil. (_Follow-up testing showed that all of the contamin~ted soil was removed from
the roadsides·) . . A
¼luring that time)we also vigorously pursued thec{r~~~~~~~n of the men
responsible for dumping the PCB-laced oil along the road sides. (Jhey were convicted
of criminal charges;·: two received active jail tenns, two 1received probation. We
are conti-nuing legal action against these men in an effo11t to recover the cost of
the clean-up. ·
We also continue to closely monitor the landfill inJWarren County.{ We conduct
monthly and twice-yearly inspections~ To date, all of or inspections have shown
absolutely no leakage of PCB from the landfill. (We will continue to monitor the .
landfill regularly in the future :,
/
Bear in mind -that all of the decisions concerning ~~e PCB landfill were made
not by one individual, but by teams of state and federal ~nvironmental and health)
experts and by the courts. If the finger of blame must ~e pointed . tt should .be
(e_ointed)not at the state or the governor, but at the men !responsible for the
contamination.
Sincerely,
~~?t!j/
Lee Mi ttel stadtf
Public Affairs Officer
Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Branch
919/733~4471 I