Kaufman Right On the Money

By RICHARD W. FUNK
Lehighton Times-News
(Jan. 22, 2007)

A Hazleton area man says recent developments in and near the city's former landfill is "proof positive" that the area is becoming the dumping ground of the eastern United States.

Following a published report, environmental activist Phil Kaufman said he never had a doubt that materials other than river dredge sludge from the Delaware River near Philadelphia would be dumped at the landfill, scheduled to be the future site of an amphitheater and upscale stores.

"What did I tell you?" Kaufman said after learning demolition debris from a New Jersey chemical company was going to be brought to the site adjacent to the landfill. "The dredge was just the tip of the iceberg and all they're doing is turning this into another toxic waste site."

The material coming to the Hazleton area will be brick, block and soil from Phillipsburg-based Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc., which has 15 areas of contaminated soil and two sites that have groundwater contamination.

Reportedly, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection gave the material its stamp of approval and an estimated 410,000 cubic yards will be dumped on the land, owned by Hazleton Creek Properties.

Under New Jersey standards, the material is suitable for recycling.

However, there was beryllium found during testing, but it could not be determined that the material would be used in the project. In New Jersey, the acceptable beryllium rate is 2 parts per million, while the permit obtained by Hazleton Creek Properties allows 320 parts per million.

"I wonder why it's higher for this project?" Kaufman asked.

Hazleton Creek Properties applied for and received permission from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to bring the material, which will be used as fill, to the site. The demolition debris is from three buildings that were razed in early fall.

Kaufman says this latest news out of the project is a sign of things to come.

"If somebody needs a place to dump something, Hazleton would be more than happy to take it," he said. "They don't care what it is ... just bring it in."

When plans for the project surfaced approximately two years ago, Kaufman predicted that local residents would start seeing signs of sickness if it moved forward. That prediction, he said, has proven true and a number of people living in and near Cranberry are reporting an increase in respiratory problems. At least one started having nosebleeds shortly after the dredge started to arrive, while others have said the dust is "horrible."

In spring of 2005, shortly after the project was announced, Tamaqua's Army for a Clean Environment (ACE) spelled out exactly why harbor dredge and fly ash are not safe fill materials.

"Fly ash contains 17 metals, including aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, boron, cadmium, chromium copper, iron, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, and zinc," ACE reported. Fly ash may also contain dioxins, PCBs and other toxic organic chemicals. Fly ash is toxic."

An Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) study found that marine dredge material from the Delaware River contains at least 128 different contaminants and more than 100 organic toxins.

"When sludge was dumped in the Atlantic Ocean, it killed the fish," ACE reported. "River sludge is toxic. If this project is allowed to go forward in Hazleton, the city will be contaminated with fugitive dust coming from the reclamation site and from trucks delivering the dust and trains delivering the sludge."

ACE further indicated that groundwater will be threatened by the dumping of the river dredge/fly ash mixture.

"In time, the toxins will leach from the site into your waters," it said.

Kaufman said the latest batch of materials being brought to Hazleton is just a continuation of former toxic dumping on the site, one he says is already heavily polluted. Although some have called him an "alarmist," Kaufman points to health statistics that HE calls alarming.

Citing numbers from several sources, Kaufman said that 65,000 Pennsylvanian's suffer from lupus. He said there are 10,000 cases in Luzerne County, much higher than normal.

"Multiple sclerosis strikes an average of one in 10,000 Americans," Kaufman said. "There is one case for every 1,000 people in the Greater Hazleton area. The rate of colon-rectal cancer cases is 25 percent higher in Luzerne county than the rest of the United States and there are 84 cases of polycythema vera between Freeland and Tamaqua."

The statistics, Kaufman said, point to a major environmental problem and instead of trying to solve it, the recent dumping is only making matters worse. He also believes that the increasing Hispanic population will be the latest victims of the threat.

"They have no way of knowing the amount of chemicals that were dumped here over the years," Kaufman said. "They're going to start getting sick and have no idea why. They came here to work but didn't know what they were getting themselves into."