EPA Says Health Risk Gone

The Brunswick News

For 60 years, Paul Redding has lived near Burnett Creek in Brunswick.

He likes the area, and he is especially fond of the creek and nearby ponds where, in the old days, in the 1940s and 1950s, people could fish and swim without a worry of contamination from toxins with more letters and syllables than most people care to pronounce.

Things started to change around 1960, after the Escambia Treating Co. began operating Brunswick Wood Preserving on 84 acres in the area. Operations at the facility contaminated the groundwater with creosote, pentacholorophenal (PCP), and copper chromium-arsenate (CCA), all of which were used in the wood-treating process.

In 1986, the property was sold to the Brunswick Treating Co., and wood-treating operations - and contamination - continued.

In August 1989, there was a major diesel oil spill that affected Burnett Creek. A fire broke out in 1991. About that time, the company declared bankruptcy.

Now, nearly 50 years after the whole debacle began, Redding and other residents are left with a large swath of fenced-off land with signs warning potential trespassers to stay out. Last week, Redding went to the site and pointed out a pipe that he claimed was still draining toxins into Burnett Creek.

"See the difference in the color of the mud right down there?" Redding asked, pointing toward the creek bottom. "That's where it's settling."

Daniel Parshley, project coordinator for the Glynn Environmental Coalition, identified the toxins as diesel fuel and PCP. Though the plant was closed down about 15 years ago and the buildings are long gone, rainwater continues to flush the hazardous waste from the old drain pipe and into the environment, he said.

Redding, who said he appreciates the work that has been done on the site in the past, said he just wants to see it finished.

"I'd just like to see them clean it up and make usable property out of it," he said.

Parshley would like to see cleanup finished, too - not only at Burnett, but also at three other sites in Glynn County that, like the one contaminated by Brunswick Wood Preserving, have been deemed hazardous enough in the past to earn a spot on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

The list is a collection of waste sites located throughout the nation that, because of their condition, are eligible for investigation and cleanup under the federal Superfund program.

Of 10 counties in Georgia that have Superfund sites, Glynn has the most with four. Dougherty comes in second with two.

There are 21 other counties in the United States with four Superfund sites, giving them the rank of 15 among the country's counties with most such sites.

While Glynn is not as bad off as places like Santa Clara, Calif., which boasts a whopping 23 such sites, having even one in the area can still be a tad unnerving.

Glynn County has two Superfund sites related to Hercules, a chemical plant in Brunswick. One concerns a landfill site along Ga. Highway 25; the other concerns untreated wastewater the plant discharged into the Terry Creek area up to 25 years ago.

The other Superfund site is at the location of the old LCP Chemicals plant, located off Ross Road, where 100 years of manufacturing operations from multiple businesses at the site left the environment exposed to a number of toxins.

How vigorous the government is pursuing cleanup of the sites is a topic of debate. While Parshley says the EPA is dragging its feet on the cleanup of the sites, the EPA says the threats to public health at all sites have been neutralized and plans are going as scheduled.

"The EPA is doing its job as far as protecting human health and the environment," said Dawn Harris-Young, an EPA spokesperson in Atlanta.

She said none of the sites currently requires funding that is available for emergency cleanup for areas that pose an imminent threat to the public.

As for the Brunswick Wood Preserving area, Brian Farrier, EPA project manager for the site, said it offers nothing dangerous to the public as long as people stay away from ponds on the property, which contain contaminants.

"That's why we keep it fenced off," he said. "That's why we have a perimeter fence and an (additional) exclusion fence."

As for the drainage pipe, he said any discharge from it does not represent a threat to the public.

"It may be a possible ecological threat," he said. "But we want to emphasize that what is coming out of the pipe does not represent a public health threat."

But it will be a long time before the fences are ready to come down. That may be distressing to Redding, who may never see it become the usable property he's hoping to one day see.