Sunday, December 13, 2009

Three Democratic state legislators are reaching out to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to request a meeting on a “troubling report” from the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) that there is an increased incidence of certain types of cancer among residents who live in a contaminated area of the borough known as “the Plume.” U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg and U.S. Senator Robert Menendez released a letter late Friday afternoon to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson calling for this meeting of agency officials, congressional staffers and community leaders.

“We believe that the situation in Pompton Lakes is a serious public health concern and needs immediate attention,” the letter stated.

Meanwhile, NJDHSS is expected to schedule a special hearing to discuss the latest findings on illnesses for residents who live in the area where there is groundwater contamination, known as “the plume.”

On Dec. 10, the NJDHSS and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released a report that concluded that there were two statistically high elevations of kidney cancer in women (but not in men), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in men (but not in women) between 1994-2006 in the plume area.

To make this conclusion, the NJDHSS analyzed 13 individual types of cancer from 1979 to 2006 in the plume area. All other cancer rates were similar to statewide rates.

This report explained that since the rates for these two cancers were not elevated in both men and women, no conclusive link could be established between the cancers and the groundwater contaminants.

However, the contaminants cannot be ruled out as a potential cause of the elevated rates because other risk factors, such as tobacco use or occupational exposures, could explain the elevations, the report explained.

Mayor Katie Cole said she does not want to leave this as it is and will go to federal officials to find out more information to see if these elevated numbers are results of the contaminants.

“The Department of Health is not able to take it to the next level to confirm a conclusion, so I reached out to Congressman (Bill) Pascrell’s office to find an agency possibly on the federal level that could help us,” said Cole. “I feel that a door has been open where I feel that there is a possibility, although there is not a definite possibility that it is so we need to get answers for the residents.”

“The findings are not surprising to many of us long-time residents here. I am elated to know that some of the information is finally being unfolded. Unfortunately I think it is just the beginning,” said Councilwoman Lisa Riggiola.

Regina Sisco, president of the Citizens for a Clean Pompton Lakes group, said, “If they do a real intense study and go door-to-door to everybody that lived in town and do a history of people that moved out of the area, they will find a lot more and I wish that could happen.”

This past April the NJDHSS performed a survey of this area and initially reported that cancer-related illnesses in the Plume area are not the result of contaminants in the ground water.

“It (the NJDHSS report) is a big step in the right direction that they finally documented that. We do have clusters of illnesses in the area. If you can be happy about the situation we are happy that finally things are moving in the right direction and that people are believing us and doing a thorough job this time,” Sisco also said.

This study sprung from a request made by Mayor Cole after Plume area residents learned the volatile organic compounds (VOC) Tetrachloroethene (PCE) and Tricholorethene (TCE) were seeping into the air from the contaminated groundwater.

In the 1980s contaminants were found in the groundwater below 450 homes originating from the DuPont Company, which manufactured explosives at a facility in the borough for many decades. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) ordered the company to remove these pollutants. As part of this cleanup, since the late 1990s, DuPont has been treating the contaminated groundwater on the site of its former manufacturing plant and pumping treated water back into the ground to prevent further spread of contaminants off-site.

To treat the TCE and PCE, DuPont has been arranging with every homeowner in the affected area to test the air and install a vapor mitigation system that would remove these pollutants.

The NJDHSS report explains that residents can decrease their current and future exposures to these chemicals by participating in the vapor mitigation system. According to this report, so far 368 of the 450 homes in area either have the system installed or they are preparing to do so.

If these systems are not installed, the NJDHSS has concluded there is a potential that the TCE and PCE could affect the health of residents. The report explains that if conditions such as temperature, wind or moisture change, these gases can enter their home.

On Dec. 11, DuPont’s Public Affairs Manager Bob Nelson said that DuPont is still reviewing the NJDHSS report.

“We agree with their recommendation that all homes above the contaminated groundwater Plume get a mitigation system installed to eliminate the health risk from Plume contaminants,” he said.

“Since June 2008, we have actively encouraged homeowners, in cooperation and coordination with the DEP and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to have the mitigation systems installed at no cost to residents as a remedy that is protective of human health. We will continue remediating our historic contamination in Pompton Lakes and will do so in a responsible and science-based manner that is protective to the environment and to the safety and health of residents of Pompton Lakes,” said Nelson.

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