I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this morning. I have been a teacher at Southside High School in Elmira, NY, for over 16 years. I was at the school when it opened in 1979, then went to another school for 6 years and resumed in 1986 and have been there since. My son attended Southside for 4 years, graduating in 1997, and as a former Mayor of Elmira and currently a city councilman representing, a south side district, many of any constituents have a direct connection with the school.
I believe there is a story to tell about Southside which may be of some help to your investigation. For the last year the school and its grounds have been undergoing tests for hazardous wastes because of its location on part of an eighty-three-acre former industrial site and the fact that there appears to be an inordinate number of cancer cases among the student body. (I have a timeline for use of the property for you).
A logical question is why now? Why after 20 years of use are these questions being raised? The fact is people have wondered about this site since the school was built. It has been stated publicly by NYSDOH and environmental officials that with today's standards the school would not be built on this site, but 20 years ago these standards and the sensitivity we have today were not present. Yet at least privately many have been troubled by the fact that part of the old plant remains standing and in use, right next door to the school and by reports of illness, specifically cancer over the years. (I have a letter from a retired teacher to that effect).
It all came together last year. Scott Technologies, Inc., of Mayfield, Ohio, who are the current owners of the property adjacent to Southside High School undertook a voluntary cleanup which took 4 months and cost $900,000. According to newspaper reports, "Tons of contaminated soil, storage tanks and equipment containing an alphabet soup of hazardous wastes were removed...that included removal of 2,000 cubic feet of contaminated soil, abandoned fuel and chemical storage tanks and electrical equipment containing polychlorinated biphenyls commonly known as PCB's". Other chemicals found and removed include, "arsenic, lead, zinc, cadmium and the solvents toluene, ethybenzine and xylenes" (Star Gazette, 4/23/00). The site was given a clean hill of health by the state as the work was done under the supervision of the NYSDEC. It should be pointed out that contaminated soil "did contain hazardous waste some in levels 1,000 times higher than allowed by the conservation department. (Star Gazette, 4/23/00) I have a copy of the Citizen Participation Plan for Remediation of the American LaFrance Facility prepared for Scott Technologies).
Also last year NYSDEC completed an investigation of petroleum contamination initially found in the vicinity of Miller Pond. The investigation began after a sheen in Miller Pond was reported to DEC in 1995. The contamination is believed to have resulted from the activity of industries that previously occupied the area. The source of contamination was found to be under the gym at Southside High School. DEC used a technique called bioremediation to address the fuel oil contamination. (DED Fact Sheet, April 2000).
Finally, at a meeting of students in the school auditorium last year, organized to promote participation in the Relay for Life it was reported that six Southside students had cancer. That made thirteen cases since 1997. I was stunned. I had known of some cases and two of my son's classmates were survivors, but six in one year was an eye-opener.
I wrestled for a bit with my responsibility as an employee, a parent, and as a councilman and decided that questions needed to be asked. I called together an ad hoc committee to meet at my home. Tim and Margaret Tobin, whose son currently is a junior at Southside and is a cancer survivor, Andy and Julie Patros whose son graduated with mine and is a cancer survivor, Mike and Luann Smith, whose daughter graduated with mine and Mike is the Emergency Management Director for Chemung County and a former Southport Town Board Member, and Councilman Dan Royle who has had two sons graduate from Southside and has another planning to go there. We agreed to draft a letter to the Elmira City School Board, on City Council stationery raising a number of issues, dated April 8 (I have a copy of that letter and another letter from our group).
We did not release our letter to the press, but it found its way there. The Elmira Star Gazette began what I believe to be one of its best journalistic endeavors investigating and reporting of the cancer issue at Southside. Margaret Costello, who did much of the reporting is a Southside graduate.
I must say that the school board which had shown no curiosity about this issue previously responded positively to our letter. Tom Kump, Director of the Chemung County Health Department and a school board member met with us and the process of investigation got underway.
On April 14, Kris Smith of NYSDOH was quoted "We get a myriad of calls of this nature. We respond to all of them. But in order to prioritize it we need to review the facts to determine if its an unusual type of cancer, the same type of cancer, the time frame, and are there any logical explanations for what is occurring (Star Gazette, 4/14/00).
On April 30, it was reported that "state environmental experts would begin testing the soil at Southside . . . for chemicals and contaminants similar to those found on the adjacent industrial site". One of the environmental engineers stated that the conservation department never had any reason to believe there was metal contamination at the school (Star Gazette, 4/30/00) HELLO.
On May 2, after a preliminary investigation state health officials said that Southside High School was not a health hazard to students. Headlines read "High School Found Safe". (Star Gazette, 5/2/00).
These responses indicate that situations like ours face a mix of competing concerns which the state must react to based on time, resources, and bureaucratic inclination. This is tough to digest for those directly impacted and quite frankly raises the question about how thorough the state will be when they do investigate. What I believe we learned is that the more pressure that can be put on the state the better the investigation will be. But to be effective in applying pressure the local community has to know what questions to ask and to whom they should be directed.
At this point our committee recognized that we needed assistance, so that the issues would be qualitatively addressed. Our Mayor, Stephen Hughes (Southside graduate) and our City Manager recommended that we approach Craig Slater, an environmental attorney from Buffalo, who had done some work for Elmira, and has been involved with Love Canal. Courageously, the City Council authorized expenditure of $15,000 for Craig's services in the interest of protecting the public. In 1997, the City applied for and received a $200,000 Brownfields Demonstration Pilot Grant. The City has asked, and EPA Region is considering, a reallocation of a portion of the Brownfields award to reimburse City of Southside related assessment costs." With the advice of Craig Slater we also hired Barron and Associates/and Golder Associates as consultants to do a Phase I analysis. Craig, and our committee would serve as a third party separate from the interests of the school district and the state, we would represent the community. Craig's expertise positioned the public to be able to ask the right questions, challenge methodology used by the state and I think energized the school district to more aggressively seek answers.
I have for you Mr. Slater's response and comments on the investigation which has taken place at Southside. I believe his response should provide you with some insight about the nature of this investigation. For instance, he raises questions about the methodology of site investigation (they did no phase one, the City did), and he questions comparison values which appear to be "derived from generic residential exposure scenarios, and not site-specific exposure scenarios".
The Elmira School District also acted responsibly in my opinion. Once our new Superintendent, Laura Sherwood came on board, she met with Tim Tobin and myself for some historical perspective. The district hired a special attorney Rick Kennedy from Hodgson Russ Andrews Woods and Goodyear. She formed a reputable advisory committee, including Tim Tobin, Julie Patros, and Craig Slater as co-chair with the school attorney. In addition, the district hired their own consultants Brian C. Sendfelder, CHMM from Golder Associates and Dr. Rosalind Schoof from Gradient Corporation to analyze information. Also the school district voted to close the athletic fields until more could be learned. All committee meetings were open to the public and press Mr. Tobin will discuss the work of the committee.
WHAT ARE THE LESSONS WE HAVE LEARNED:
1. We have learned thus far that while the site raises serious questions it is difficult to make a direct link between what is in the soil and cancer.
2. We have resolved that the air and water quality in the building is safe and we have identified "hot spots" on the school grounds.
3. I believe we have demonstrated that a community can work together to search for the truth if the process is open and conducted professionally. We may disagree on the conclusions and unanswered questions remain, but a great deal of time and money has been spent to examine the problem.
4. The ability to access expert help serving the community interest was extremely important to the credibility of what was done. It made both the state and the school district assume more accountability.
5. The school district has undertaken an extensive survey of alumni to research health issues, particularly cancer, which have not surfaced and might shed more light on what has been investigated so far.