Georgia Gazette Thursday, June 4, 2009

Join host Rickey Bevington tonight for Georgia Gazette. On tonight's show ... The Environmental Protection Agency looks for a likely carcinogen in Northwest Georgia’s drinking water supply. Nine Georgia banks have closed already this year but credit unions continue to perform well. How soldiers from Georgia’s 48th brigade are training to survive real-life scenarios they will face in Afghanistan... Plus, we preview tonight's Atlanta Symphony Orchestra broadcast on GPB and give you another chance to win our weekly giveaway. These stories and more tonight on Georgia Gazette at 6, 7 in Athens, re-broadcast at 11, hear our show any time at www.gpb.org/georgiagazette , and download a free podcast on iTunes.

EPA Looking For Likely Carcinogen in NW Georgia Drinking Water

GPB has learned the Environmental Protection Agency tested drinking water supplies for a likely carcinogen in the Rome and Dalton areas earlier this year.

Samples were collected at the end of March. The agency tested for PFOA, and for other similar compounds. That’s according to internal EPA documents obtained by GPB.

According to preliminary results, the EPA found the likely carcinogen in the drinking water supply at one part per billion. Federal officials say that’s an acceptable level, however, that level is at least twice as high as what’s allowed in other states, such as Minnesota and New Jersey.

Those states are concerned about the health risks of exposure to PFOA and other similar compounds. PFOA has been linked to infertility, birth defects, various types of cancers, dementia and stroke. The chemical is believed to come from the carpet industry in Dalton, where it’s been used as a stain guard. The EPA expects the final results to come in by the end of the summer. No public health advisories have been issued, or are expected to be issued, based on the preliminary results.

11th Hour PFOA Advisory Issued by Bush Administration

Before leaving office, Bush administration officials issued a first-ever advisory on how much PFOA, a likely carcinogen, should be in drinking water.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says drinking water should contain only .4 parts per-billion of PFOA.The likely carcinogen has been found in concentrations as high as five-parts per-billion in Northwest Georgia's Conasauga River, a drinking water source to Rome and other communities.

The chemical compound gets in the river from a spray field operated by energy provider Dalton Utilities.The advisory, however, is not mandatory and Dalton Utilities says, it won't take any action on it until told to do so by the company's permitting authority, the state Environmental Protection Division.

So far, the EPD hasn't commented on the federal advisory, a first of its kind. Other states, including Minnesota, have put even stricter limits on PFOA, measuring its acceptable levles in parts per trillion.

For all of GPB's coverage of PFOA in the Conasauga, log onto:
http://www.gpb.org/georgiagazette/conasauga

Augusta, Columbus make EPA air pollution list

Residents in Augusta and Columbus are at risk for breathing air that is too sooty, according to an Environmental Protection Agency statement on Monday.

The EPA notified elected officials in 211 counties in 25 states that their air quality violated newly tightened daily standards for fine particles of pollution from diesel-burning trucks, power plants, wood-burning stoves and other sources.

Particle pollution can cause heart attacks and strokes, and cause irregular heartbeats, lung cancer and premature births, according to a statement by the American Lung Association, in response to the EPA report.

The regions in question include about 100 million people.

Areas on the EPA's so-called non-attainment list have until 2012 to devise a plan for cleaning their air, and must implement it by 2014.

State and federal agencies collected data on particulate emissions over the past three summers in Muscogee, Harris, and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia, and Lee and Russell counties in Alabama.

Columbus city planning director Rick Jones has said that reaching non-attainment standards could limit federal funding for projects.

Old power plants and factories due for renovation or expansion in these areas must show the EPA that it would not cause further air pollution. It could mean also controls on vehicle emissions and regions having to take pollution into effect when they build new roads.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about air quality issues statewide.

Fishing Advisory Possible On Parts of Conasauga

A spokesman for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division says a fishing advisory could be issued for the Conasauga River in Northwest Georgia. That's if a report showing high levels of a likely carcinogen is confirmed.

The EPD expects their testing of four sites on the Conasauga to be completed by the end of the month.

This is the first time the EPD has publicly raised the possibility of a fishing advisory since a University of Georgia study showed high levels of PFOA contamination in the river in January. PFOA, or C-8, as it’s also called, is a chemical produced during carpet finishing. It is also used for other applications, such as Teflon.

The US Environmental Protection Agency calls PFOA a “likely carcinogen.” It ends up in the river through a sewage spray field in Whitfield County. Jeremy Smith, a project manager for the EPD, says it would be premature to consider other regulatory measures until further studies are completed. And that research, which is expensive, would come only if necessary. However, Smith says a fishing advisory may be needed.

"If they're [PFOA LEVELS] around those concentrations that Minnesota listed as potentially harmful, if they are, that [fishing advisory] could happen.”

The UGA study showed levels in the Conasauga are two times higher than Minnesota's allowable standard in ground water. As GPB reported earlier this year, internal documents show US EPA sampling found PFOA levels higher than the UGA study.

You can view GPB's extensive reporting on PFOA contamination in the Conasauga by clicking here: http://www.gpb.org/georgiagazette/conasauga

Environmental groups lose challenge

Federal appeals judges are upholding the Environmental Protection Agency's refusal to take away state pollution permits for two Georgia Power coal-fired generating plants. The Sierra Club and the Coosa River Basin Initiative were suing to stop permits for Plant Bowen in northwest Georgia and Plant Scherer just north of Macon. They argued the plants violate the Clean Air Act. This recent ruling upholds a previous judge's ruling that that environmental groups had not proved the permits fail to enforce the law, even though the EPA issued a violation notice against the plants in 1999.

Ex-EPA scientist fights agency over sewage sludge

David Lewis is a lab rat with no lab, a researcher with no salary, a once-influential scientist whose only perk these days is a lonely cubbyhole.

In his heyday, he was a high-ranking Environmental Protection Agency scientist whose discovery that dental equipment could be a haven for the HIV virus in the 1990s earned him prestige and respect.

Now he's a pariah, working out of a spare office at the University of Georgia and waging a quixotic battle with his former patron over sewage sludge, the reason for his gradual fall from grace.

More than a decade ago, Lewis began to challenge the EPA's policy allowing farmers to spread the semi-solid byproduct of wastewater treatment plants over their fields as a free, nutrient-rich fertilizer.

He's investigated illnesses and deaths he claims are linked to the sludge; he said his work has helped prod government officials to issue guidelines for workers who handle the sludge. He's also filed a flurry of lawsuits, the latest in March 2006 claiming UGA was complicit in a scheme by EPA leaders to justify the agency's program that distributes sludge to farm fields.

"Science is getting trumped by politics and I want that fixed," said Lewis. "My case is the worst case scenario where politics is blocking good science."

There was more than a hint of a conspiratorial tone in his voice recently when he said he's up against "an effort organized by multiple federal agencies and powerful industry groups with support of tens of millions of dollars in congressional earmarks."

The UGA and EPA researchers have stood by their work and deny wrongdoing.

"There's no cover-up. There's no conspiracy," said Robert Brobst, an EPA environmental engineer and a defendant in the lawsuit. "We're a bunch of nerdy scientists. How the hell do we know how to cover up and do conspiracies? We're boring."

For Lewis, who said he's trying to reclaim his reputation, it's been a costly crusade. He's lost his job with the EPA and was spurned by UGA, where he once hoped to land a gig as a tenured professor.

But he has reason to be encouraged. A federal judge has refused to throw out Lewis' lawsuit against UGA, and his work is helping focus attention on sewage sludge beyond the small circle of scientists who now study it.

"There really has not been adequate research about what this material is, let alone the repercussions," said Rob Hale, an environmental chemistry professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. "Folks were told that this stuff had been studied to death, and Lewis is concerned that they're overstating what they knew about the material."

Wastewater treatment plants across the nation produce about 7 million tons of the sludge each year as a byproduct, and slightly more than half of it is used as fertilizer. The EPA has long argued the sludge is safe as long as it's applied properly.

"If it's misused, if it's overapplied, if it doesn't meet quality criteria, of course it's going to be a problem," said Brobst, who has specialized in this area for 30 years.

Still, "Based on what we know today, yes, it's safe," he said. "Science takes little steps, but if you add up all the little pieces in 1,500 articles in the last five years, you have a safe argument."

Lewis, who was never shy to question EPA policies, turned his attention to sewage sludge in 1996 after the issue kept coming up during an informal poll of his colleagues.

He started collecting samples from sewage treatment plants, using some of the same methods he used while investigating dental products: Collecting gunk and analyzing it for harmful pathogens and toxic materials. He soon found some that certain pathogens in the sludge could survive disinfection by taking shelter in fatty greases and oils.

"It doesn't take but a high school education in science to understand this stuff: Bacteria hides in hunks of gunk," he said.

He presented his findings at a national conference in 1998, prompting a new round of media coverage - and more scrutiny from his employer. Other EPA researchers soon conducted a study that refuted some of his work, though Lewis has questioned their methodology.

Lewis' growing reputation didn't do him any favors with his bosses, who offered in 1998 to pay his salary at UGA for four years as long as he retired after the contract was up. At UGA, though, he said he wasn't granted the freedom he had hoped, and started conducting research on his own dime. UGA never did offer him a job, and when his EPA contract was up, Lewis refused to retire and was let go in 2003.

Since then, he's turned his full attention toward fighting his former employers in court, where he's had a few successes and some stinging defeats, such as a 2004 administrative judge ruling that said Lewis has not provided "scientific evidence to back up his belief" that the sludge could pose a significant danger to people.

On the walls of Lewis' modest home in Watkinsville are some of the proudest images of his career, and in his office is a silver cabinet full of sludge files.

To Lewis, they are a constant reminder of the score he still wants to settle. And to some of his colleagues, that's not such a far-fetched idea.

"He's got a lot of guts and fortitude, and he's been right in the past," said Hale. "You need people like that, whether you agree with him or not."

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of environmental issues.

EPA Emails Show PFOA Levels Five Times Higher than Previously Reported, Researchers Also Skeptical of Carpet Industry Claims

According to emails obtained by GPB through a Freedom of Information Act request, EPA researchers found PFOA levels in “water from Dalton” at levels of five parts per billion (ppb). The emails do not specify where the sample was gathered.

A previous study showed PFOA to be present in the Conasauga river that runs through Whitfield County at about 1 ppb.

The EPA classifies PFOA as a “likely carcinogen.” Studies have linked the chemical to cancer in lab animals, fish, and prostate cancer in humans.

Both levels found in the Conasauga are higher than what some other states with PFOA contamination allow.

The Conasauga eventually joins another river to form the Oostanaula, which is a source of drinking water for the cities of Calhoun and Rome.

PFOA comes from the manufacturing of carpet. Carpet executives have told GPB the compound is a manufacturing byproduct.

Yet, in the emails obtained by GPB, a PFOA expert at the EPA, is skeptical. In 2006, John Washington, who is based in Athens, wrote “While the industry has claimed that PFOA is an unintended impurity, I now suspect that it has been intended---or at least very onvenient---because it helps to stabilize the …particles.”

Meanwhile, sources working on a PFOA water monitoring project with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division say their work “is being held up.” Georgia EPD announced the plan to test for PFOA in drinking water sources earlier this year. However, these sources told GPB the sampling is being bogged down because there are questions of whether EPD has the testing standards in place to acquire accurate results.

The sampling is considered a first step in establishing the severity of PFOA contamination in the Conasauga.

EPA proposes higher mercury emissions for chlorine plants

A federal agency is proposing a new emissions standard for companies that make chlorine using mercury.

The new standard would release more mercury into the air.

Olin Corporation in Augusta uses mercury in its chlorine production. It's one of five in the nation that still do.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to raise the percentage of mercury, called fugitive emissions, it allows companies to release into the air from the cell room where the chlorine is produced.

The EPA's maximum limit for fugitive emissions is basically a trigger point for companies to wash down the cell room, to prevent further emissions release. That trigger point would be higher under the proposed rule.

The agency says that allowing the higher rate of emissions would ironically give companies less time "chasing alarms," as the EPA put it, and more time for maintenance activities.

And, the EPA would require companies to implement a more accurate system to monitor the emissions.

Mercury can be toxic, especially to children and fetuses.

"It's another demonstration of the EPA allowing Olin to continue to pollute the Augusta area," says Tonya Bonitatibus, a field representative for the environmental watchdog group Oceana. She says the group is still studying the proposed rule but opposes the higher emissions.

David Blair, the plant manager at Olin in Augusta, declined to comment on the proposed rule, but did respond to the emissions issue in a written statement. "We've invested millions of dollars in technology and workplace practices during recent years," he said. "We already have in place a system that continuously monitors emissions at the cell room."

Blair said the company had reduced its emissions by more than 85 percent by 2007.

New Ozone Standards More Than Perdue Wanted

Despite the objections of Governor Sonny Perdue and Senator Saxby Chambliss, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new smog guidelines aimed at curbing pollution this evening.

Perdue and Chambliss lobbied for no changes to the ozone standard set in 1997 of eighty parts per billion. The EPA’s science advisory board wanted tighter regulations, recommending ozone levels be set at seventy parts per billion. The new standard basically splits the difference. EPA director Stephen Johnson told reporters during a conference call that the new standard of seventy-five parts per billion was reached after an exhaustive look at available science.

“In the end, it is a judgment, a judgment that meets the standard, I adhered to the law and adhered to the science" Johnson said.

Metro Atlanta has struggled to meet the previous standard. In Governor Perdue’s letter to the EPA, he argued many states are only now beginning to catch up with the 1997 revision of the Clean Air act, and any further tightening of the standards could be “disruptive to our progress.”

Dozens speak on air pollution proposal

A federal proposal could force the state and private companies to clean up Georgia's air. Dozens of people weighed in Wednesday at a public hearing in Atlanta.

Sherian Wilburn of the Georgia Industry Association told U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials that their proposal to further restrict pollutions would be bad for businesses.

"It will definitely put pressure on manufacturers," Wilburn says. "They'll look elsewhere and we could easily drive jobs offshore."

Wilburn says Georgia has lost 80,000 manufacturing jobs in the past seven years.

But environmentalists came to the hearing in force. Patty Durand of the Sierra Club told regulators that, several times this summer, she would not let her son play outside and she urged her husband not to go running because the smog level was so high it posed a health hazard. Durand says tougher federal ozone standards might be the only thing that will motivate Georgia leaders to act.

"They would be forced to look at transit, whereas right now they're judgmental," Durand says. "It would require them to take care of our air. Right now they're not focused on it."

But Governor Sonny Perdue is siding with industry. In April, he sent a letter to EPA opposing the proposal. In it, he wrote "the science may not be definitive enough to warrant another revision."

The last time the EPA revised its ozone standard was in 1997. It will make a final ruling on its proposal by March.

Tougher EPA proposed standards could challenge Georgia

Federal officials proposed tougher ozone standards Thursday. If adopted, Georgia would face an uphill climb to meet them.

The Enviromental Protection Agency has proposed that states cut ground level smog, or ozone levels, by up to 12-percent.

Kevin Green is executive director of the Clean Air Campaign. He says Georgia has no choice but to step-up and meet the challenge:

"Breathing is not optional, and air quality standards are set-up so they can be revisited. I think everybody's in favor of sound science influencing good policy decisions…and I think the process just needs to play out".

The state's Enviromental Protection Division Air Protection branch chief recently said she'd like to see more time given to the current standards.

In Georgia with tougher rules, Augusta and Columbus would be in trouble meeting air quality standards, joining metro Atlanta, Macon, and northwest areas of the state already in non-compliance.

Federal officials will public hearings over the next few months on the proposed standards. A final proposal wouldn't come until next year.