Better air testing demanded
(http://www.post-trib.com/news/495831,brigadepress.article)

August 3, 2007

By Gitte Laasby Post-Tribune staff writer

A group of East Chicago residents hope to convince the government to do better air quality monitoring in their neighborhood and will lobby for better pollution control.

The so-called Calumet Project Bucket Brigade took an air sample on July 10 near the intersection of 129th Street and Indianapolis Boulevard in East Chicago. The result was 14 chemicals. Five of them -- acrolein, acrylonitrile, carbon disulfide, styrene and 1,4-dichlorobenzene -- registered well above what other states list as "levels of concern."

When the group announced its results at a news conference in Marktown on Thursday, the results didn't surprise neighborhood residents. But the possible health effects of breathing the chemicals did.

"It doesn't take a scientist to tell it is polluted. You look up in the air, you can see the particles flying. I have two children and my son lately, he's been having all these problems with his throat," said neighborhood resident Angelica Rojas. "Myself and my husband have had problems with our nervous system. We thought it was stress. It's logic to me."

According to an agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, breathing acrolein in large amounts damages the lungs and could cause death. Styrene and acrolynitrile may cause cancer. Carbon disulfide can be life-threatening at very high levels. The other chemicals can affect the nervous system and cause eye and nose irritation, depression and headaches.

Jesse Gomez, councilman at-large with the City of East Chicago, said he was concerned about the findings.

"We really need to do more to protect our environment. This whole area is contaminated, air and ground," Gomez said. "I don't know why someone wants to stay in an area that's so willing to pollute its residents."

Area resident Paul Myers agreed.

"For the last 30 years, we've neglected those quality of life issues," Myers said.

The Calumet Project Bucket Brigade's spokeswoman, Ruth Turpin, said the group is not against industry, but wants it to clean up its own pollution rather than shifting the financial and health-related burden to residents.

"They're trying to shift the cost across the fence to us," Turpin said. "We want people to be informed about what the real costs are. We want 24-hour monitoring."

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management monitors air for toxics, such as the ones in the sample, every six days at four sites in Lake County (Whiting High School, East Chicago, Hammond and Gary) and Ogden Dunes in Porter County. The latest results listed on IDEM's Web site are from May 30 this year.

The East Chicago group would like IDEM or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to monitor the area more frequently because of industry and a confined disposal facility nearby.

Although the samples were taken close to the BP refinery, the group does not have any proof that the toxic chemicals came from BP.

"Was it from a passing truck? Did they have something stored overnight? Did it blow in? We don't know where it came from," Turpin said.

BP spokesman Tom Keilman said the company is in compliance with all federal and state requirements and has not received the group's data or reviewed the sample.

"As for individuals or groups taking air samples, we are not aware of the duration, quality, location or method of their sampling. We encourage them to conduct their activities with the full knowledge and oversight of IDEM, just as we do," Keilman said. "At least one of the constituents reportedly found is not something that is handled or produced by the BP refinery."

Keilman said nearly 50 companies in the same area release toxics.

"BP's corporate philosophy is to operate the Whiting refinery and all of our operations in a manner that is safe, with no harm to the environment and to the neighbors in our communities," he said.

Gomez, who is on an environmental health committee, said he wants to arrange meetings with residents and BP.

Councilman Robert Garcia, 5th District, said he plans to draft a letter to BP to get a response to the findings. He also said he would like IDEM to put an air monitoring device in Marktown.

Results from IDEM's toxics air monitoring are available at www.in.gov/idem/programs/air/smog/toxicmonitors.html.

Scroll down to the list of sites and select the one nearest you.

Contact Gitte Laasby at 648-2183 or glaasby@post-trib.com.

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Date posted online: Friday, August 03, 2007
Volunteers will continue environmental monitoring
Analysis shows 2 probable cancer-causing chemicals

BY STEVE ZABROSKI
Times Correspondent

 Bessie Dent, of Calumet Project for Industrial Jobs, talks Thursday about the process of collecting air samples for analysis during a news conference in East Chicago's Marktown neighborhood.   The volunteer environmental monitors who said they discovered unexpectedly high levels of hazardous chemicals in the air of the city's far north side last month pledged on Thursday to continue their vigilance.

Members from two local community organizations who performed the tests just outside BP's Whiting Refinery outlined their results and plans for the future at a news conference in Marktown, just steps from where they took samples on July 10.

"Good air and water are basic to quality of life," said Ruth Turpin, of the Coalition for a Clean Environment, which conducted the study and analyzed its own findings along with the Calumet Project for Industrial Jobs.

The groups' analysis of the air samples found two probable cancer-causing chemicals; two thought to harm brain, heart and liver functioning; one that may be damaging to the lungs; and nine other possibly toxic substances, the groups said.

Though the samples were taken near BP's fence line, several of the toxic chemicals aren't even used at the refinery, according to its official Toxic Release Inventory -- a listing of substances emitted from the site.

Monitoring air quality with the low-cost sampling units -- approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1996 -- will continue, said Bessie Dent, of the Calumet Project.

Anyone can help, she said, by being a "sniffer," keeping a log book of when and where they see or smell unusual events, and chronicling periods of exceptional eye or nose irritation.

These logs can be cross-referenced with data collected from the "bucket brigades" -- the air monitors so named after the 5-gallon buckets in which the collection apparatus is housed -- and point the brigades to other locations for air testing.

The north side area's City Council representative, Robert Garcia, D-5th, said he would seek council approval to discuss the air monitors' findings with BP and address concerns of the community.

Volunteers will be out collecting air samples again in the fall, Turpin said, or even sooner if odor complaints increase and as finances permit. She said her group is currently planning fundraising events to continue the testing.

Though the collection units cost about $125, the laboratory charges $200 to analyze each sample, Dent said.