State of the Havertown PCP Site October 11, 2005
A discussion and call for improvement of the Superfund site remedy at the corner of Eagle and Lawrence Roads has been presented here each month since April 2005. Additionally, by last count, over 150 detailed Emails have been received/written/exchanged on the subject with the sole purpose of securing a FASTER, BETTER, CHEAPER remedial action. Replies that I have received are puffery, posturing, evasions and/or lies; not one commissioner in an affected ward has shown more than lip-service. A FOIA document request to EPA was illegally stalled for 3-months; Haverford would have to pay $180. for them.
Improved and complete information has been requested for: chemical data analysis for all substances to compare with drinking water; hazardous chemical abatement; mid-course remedy corrections; technology transfer from over 100 other wood preserver sites to Haverford. The August 19, 2005 5-year review of the site is unresponsive to these questions; it appears to be a minimally funded next to useless anonymously authored sub-contracted report of the sort that bureaucracies order up. There is no proof offered that: the nearly 10-year old remedy is protective of human health, there is no current health risk assessment nor is the installed cap established as 100% effective, no efficiency is described for removal of substances from groundwater or that the remedy is worth over $1Million/year, most of it outside Haverford.
After 4 presentations, no elected official responded to EPA's letter request for participation in the 5-year review. Haverford's EAC is chaired by an appointee of the administration who is an employee of Pennoni Associates, the township engineers; this is a conflict of interest; I have called for his resignation and, if he doesn't resign, Pennoni - who knows about this - should. Other EAC members are ineffective or absent themselves. Residents who are appointed to township committees will be astonished - if not outraged - to find township administrative staff pulling the strings of a volunteer committee when there is ample precedent for securing an uncoerced opinion; to make matters worse a legal opinion has been sought; you might hear such a diatribe tonight.
I have one question. You
should have an immediate verifiable written response: When and how will Haverford's
commissioners obtain a FASTER, BETTER, CHEAPER Superfund remedy with your
whole-hearted support?
Michael
H. Levin, Ph.D., F.A.A.A.S. (PhilaMike@aol.com)
|
|
EPA Contact Information:
|
