Cancer Risks in Garfield Homes More than 2,000 Times Allowable Risk

About 175 residents turn out to demand answers about health risks from toxic chromium found in  homes and school

[Update 3: 10/2/10: more from Bergen Record: Feds Recommend Superfund for Garfield Chromium Contamination

Update 2 : 10/1/10- we were unfortunately right about the risks from this site: Bergen Record Feds Issue Public Health Advisory in Garfield

Update 1: media coverage – NJ TV 12 story and CBS NY TV story]

I just got home from a public hearing tonight in Garfield, NJ where toxic heavy metal chromium has been found in the basements of homes and a local school, at levels EPA described as “very harmful” to the health of the residents that live there.

It is unclear at this time exactly how many homes are poisoned, but today’s Bergen Record reported only 16 (a number I am sure is far too low). See the Record story: Carcinogen found in 16 Garfield homes

Harmful levels of a cancer-causing chemical that has polluted groundwater in a Garfield neighborhood for more than 25 years have been found in the basements of 16 homes, officials said Wednesday. …

The state Department of Environmental Protection began monitoring the chromium spill, but in 1985 it agreed it would be prohibitively expensive to continue the cleanup and instead suggested the company monitor the chromium levels beneath its plant. The company failed to do so, according to DEP records.

So again we see many years of gross mismanagement at DEP that resulted in people getting exposed and poisoned in their own homes.

DEP has known about the contamination since 1983 (27 years) , but made a decision (without the Garfield community’s knowledge or approval) that it was “prohibitively expensive” to cleanup the pollution, thus sacrificing people’s lives to industry profits.

Again we see a total DEP failure to enforce cleanup laws. And again DEP failed to notify or warn people of the risks – and as a result again people lose all trust in DEP.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen the same story played out across dozens of NJ towns. The most recent is in nearby Pompton Lakes.

When will the managers at DEP be held accountable for this? When will DEP begin to enforce cleanup laws and force polluters to cleanup?

How many people have to get sick and die before things change?  

At tonite’s hearing, when I pressed EPA scientists to quantify what a “very harmful” cancer risk is, they indicated that the risk in sampled homes was 2 in 1,000, or 2,000 TIMES higher than the acceptable risk under NJ laws, which is 1 in a million.

The chromium contamination problem appears to have been created by an industrial site known as EC Eletroplating, where a 1983 spill polluted groundwater with toxic chromium. Additional pollution sources are suspected, but EPA refused to identify them at tonight’s hearing. EPA was given the case by NJDEP, after many years of failure by DEP to enforce NJ state cleanup laws.

I  can’t write about the complete story tonight – I am exhausted – but will provide additional information after I get a chance to review the documents distributed tonight. These documents include a site history, the DHSS risk assessment and DHSS Health Consultation.

My over-all take – based only on the power point presentation tonight –  was that the EPA and DHSS again downplayed the community health risks, and thus mislead the community. Both EPA and DHSS refused to admit that mistakes were made or assign accountability for mistakes made. And they both again failed to acknowledge the mistakes that have been made at this site by the NJ DEP, who has known about the problems since 1983, 27 years!