Officials Reject Water From Superfund Site
Posted on: Wednesday, 5 April 2006, 09:00 CDT
By Chris Parker, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
Apr. 5--Amid controversy over the safety of its drinking water, Tamaqua Borough Council on Tuesday voted against accepting water that runs through a Hometown Superfund cleanup site into its water treatment plant.
Council's vote finalized a rejection of the request from Nassau Metals Corp.
On March 27, the Borough Authority denied a request to treat water that runs through the Eastern Diversified Metals Superfund site.
The authority said it would have to pay for expensive tests for metals at its sewage treatment plant. Members also were concerned the metals could damage the plant.
The Superfund site contains a 60-foot-high, 3,000-foot-long and 500-foot-wide pile of dioxin-contaminated shredded plastic, called "fluff," just north of Routes 54 and 309.
The fluff pile was left behind when Eastern Diversified Metals, which recycled metal from insulated wiring, went out of business in 1978.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency announced its cleanup plan for the site in 2001.
In 2003, Nassau Metals Corp., a Lucent Technologies subsidiary, agreed in a settlement to pay $10 million to cap and monitor the 350 million pound pile of fluff.
Lucent, which was spun off from AT&T in 1996, is paying for most of the cleanup because its former parent company supplied the bulk of the wire recycled at the site.
Nassau Metals admitted no liability in the settlement.
The EPA says dioxins are a cancer hazard and can cause reproductive and developmental problems and immune system damage, and can interfere with hormones.
The agency said dioxins formed at the site when the fluff pile caught fire in the 1970s.
The site also is contaminated with zinc, lead, copper, manganese, polychlorinated naphthalenes, volatile organic compounds and PCBs, the EPA says.
The borough is currently planning studies to gauge possible contamination of the Still Creek Reservoir, its water source. Many residents believe the water is polluted by chemicals from the former McAdoo Associates Superfund site, about a mile from the reservoir.
In other matters, council on Tuesday debated and eventually approved a contract renewal for "cat control" with the Ruth Steinert Memorial SPCA.
Some council members were concerned that cats trapped by the borough were housed overnight or over weekends in the basement of borough hall, requiring employees to feed and clean up after them.
The SPCA should pick up the cats the day they are trapped, council said.
Councilwoman Cathy Miorelli said a new animal rescue organization is being formed in the borough and may eventually assume the job of sheltering strays.
chris.parker@mcall.com
610-379-3224
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Source: The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania
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