Bad-Air Report Came From Bad Data, Local Officials Say; AP Survey Put Two Area Neighborhoods on List

By Jim DeBrosse jdebrosse@DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — A study that put two Dayton area-neighborhoods among the 200 most at risk from industrial air pollution was based on 5- year-old data for plants no longer in operation, regional air pollution officials said Friday.

The study "means nothing today," said John Paul, supervisor of the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency based in Dayton.

According to the report, eastern Vandalia, east of Interstate 75 and north of I-70, ranked 192 and the Burkhardt neighborhood of East Dayton ranked 194.

The information came from a government database that ranks every neighborhood in the country according to a government estimation of the health risk from industrial pollution.

The Associated Press further analyzed the data to compare risks between neighborhoods and to study the racial and economic status of affected neighborhoods.

The AP gleaned its data from Toxic Release Inventory forms for the year 2000 that every plant in the nation must submit to federal authorities. The forms include annual estimates of the pollutants that plants release to the air and water or send off to landfills, Paul said.

In these cases, the Inland brake plant in Vandalia and the WCC Foundry in East Dayton listed phenol among their air emissions. Phenol is a caustic substance produced in the destructive distillation of wood, coal and other organic materials.

But Inland, now Delphi, no longer produces brakes at the Vandalia site, and the WCC Foundry went out of business several years ago, Paul said.