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NEWS BRIEFS
EPA concerned again about once-notorious Ky. site
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Federal environmental officials are raising new concerns about conditions at a Bullitt County site that raised national awareness of industrial negligence 30 years ago.
Years ago, photographs of the Valley of the Drums site, just south of the Jefferson-Bullitt county line, helped persuade Congress to enact a toxic dump cleanup program.
More recently, about four dozen rusted metal drums were found by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspectors on land just outside the part of the dump that was capped and fenced in the 1980s, including a portion of Jefferson Memorial Forest, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported Sunday.
Inspectors also identified slabs of what appears to be hardened paint sludge.
Officials are downplaying any threat to public health. But samples of sediment in a nearby Salt River tributary have tested positive for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, the newspaper reported. Once used as coolants and lubricants, PCBs are now banned because of cancer links and other health problems.
The EPA auditors also determined that Kentucky Division of Waste Management officials, who are responsible for maintaining the site, failed in some of their responsibilities, such as keeping a network of groundwater monitoring wells operating and taking groundwater samples.
The newest findings resulted from the latest five-year review at the site, an audit conducted by a Virginia consulting firm for the EPA.
Its report was made available to the Louisville newspaper after a Freedom of Information Act request.
The report has triggered a flurry of activity surrounding the dump site — from a new legal effort to determine its current owner to a new assessment of health risks that could result in a full-blown cleanup, potentially involving the excavation and removal of contaminated soil.
Or, as Tim Hubbard, assistant director of the Kentucky waste division, said, “It may be very limited. We don’t know. We are going to have to take this one step at a time.”
But Hubbard said there’s no cause for alarm.
“The condition of the site ... we consider it to be in good shape,” he said. “The items noted during the last five-year review are being addressed.”
He noted, too, that surface water testing shows toxic chemicals are bound up in sludge and sediment, and not flushing off the site during rain.
Femi Akindele, who oversees the site for the EPA’s Atlanta office, also downplayed any public health concerns. He said the most important findings of the audit are that the site’s cap is intact, and that “contaminants are still being controlled.”
Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, said he’s not surprised by the auditors’ findings.
Kentucky’s environmental cabinet “is trying to meet their many mandates but is simply overwhelmed with numerous obligations under air, waste and water laws,” FitzGerald said, and has suffered significant budget cuts and loss of “many of the most seasoned agency staff in recent years.”
“Clearly, areas such as this, where public exposure is possible need to be prioritized,” he said.
Bullitt County officials said last week they were not aware anything might be awry at the property.
Jason Cissell, spokesman for Louisville Metro Parks, which manages the Jefferson Memorial Forest, said his office wasn’t familiar with the new audit but has been aware of old drums on its property near the Superfund site since the late 1990s. State officials have counted 40 drums there.
“We have remained in contact with state and federal officials to pursue full remediation,” Cissell said, adding that the drums are in a remote part of the park away from recreational trails.
