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The Brunswick News May 15, 2000 Section(s) Frontpage For nearby residents, little is 'super' about polluted site By JACQUELINE BERLIN It is just the sort of neighborhood children love. There are trees for climbing and playhouses. One residence bears a sign, "kids spoiled here." There is a creek. The water is clear and tadpoles are swarming. A makeshift bridge of boards allows little feet to cross. A small black snake curls around a tadpole cage. Nearby are several plastic shovels and rakes attesting to their owners' plans to return. On a Friday afternoon, a school bus discharges students from nearby Glyndale Elementary School, who happily shout and run down the road. Watching the children is Ray Buskey, 57, who holds his 3-year old granddaughter, Alyssa. Buskey does not find the scene idyllic. It is he who points out that the snake looks like a cottonmouth. It is he who sees a snake where he once thought he had found paradise. Buskey moved to a house on Marie Trace, seven miles northwest of Brunswick, in 1992. He was unaware at the time that he was also living less than a mile from what was once the Brunswick Wood Preserving site owned by Escambia. The now-defunct plant has been declared a Superfund site by the federal government, meaning it is considered either a hazardous waste emergency or poses long-term problems. As the government takes new steps to remove the area's toxic wastes and an environmental group criticizes it for doing too little, too late, Buskey worries. He has a wife, three children and a granddaughter in his household. He worries about their health. He worries about the neighborhood boys who are "always" in the stream flowing directly from plant grounds. He worries about declining home values. "I couldn't sell without letting the buyer know what was going on here," he said. Most of all, Buskey fears that the EPA is in no hurry to clean up the mess. In 1989, the Escambia plant became the site of a federal cleanup after a chemical spill sent toxins into Burnett Creek. Six years later, the emergency cleanup finished, the EPA began a long term assessment of what needed to be done. "We could be here for the next decade for groundwater and the marsh," said EPA project manager Alan Yarbrough at the time. This past week, Brian Farrier, Escambia's remedial project manager, said it will be more than five years before the place is clean. Cleaning means removing cancer-causing agents from the area. Farrier says the EPA would move faster if there was a threat to human life. While he says it is an ecological problem especially for wildlife, humans should remain unharmed. Kevin Pegg, a toxicologist, says not enough studies have been done to make a qualified statement as to the risk. As the community technical adviser, Pegg is supposed to act as an independent who translates EPA documents for the public, something he says he is hindered in doing because he has too little information to work with. "We were supposed to get the environmental base line risk assessment in winter of 1999. We haven't seen it and that is a cause of concern," Pegg said. "If they have to do more studies they should tell us what they are doing. It doesn't take this long to do the assessments and provide the information." An EPA public meeting was postponed last month. It will be held later this year or early next year, Farrier said. He said the meeting was delayed because the EPA has decided to clean the whole site, not just part of it. A top priority for the cleanup is water purity. Farrier says that Escambia could have used Burnett Creek as a midnight dumping ground for years. Last week the EPA began drilling 31 wells to monitor water level contamination. As workers drill, they are also checking the soil for contamination. Daniel Parshley, the project manager for the Glynn Environmental Coalition, says it is all fine and dandy that the EPA is doing some monitoring, but he is furious that it has not stopped a pipe from its continuing discharge of what Parshley says are contaminants into the creek. "The justification is it's been discharging for 30 years so we can let it continue," Parshley said. "There is a flaw in this reasoning." Another annoyance to Parshley is the delayed public meeting. The Glynn Environmental Coalition will conduct its own public meeting Thursday. "There has been insufficient information for the people," Parshley said. In the meantime, area homeowners react in their own ways to living near a Superfund site. Mary Lou Winn of Old Jesup Road has lived next to Burnett Creek for 30 years. She says her health is safe as long as she never eats fish from the creek. What she does not understand is why the area is still contaminated. "They've taken long enough. It should have been finished years ago," Ms. Winn said. Other homeowners say they know too little about the situation to comment. But in the past year, Buskey a federal employee, has become an activist. He has taken it upon himself to knock on his neighbors' doors and attend any meeting relating to the Escambia site. Also, Buskey's family, unlike some neighbors, no longer uses its well. "But for years we drank that water, we showered in it," he said |
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