[greenyes] Alert 393: Giant pile of poison to be left on banks of Delaware River as a gift to future generations

[Alan Muller <amuller@no.address>]

Green Delaware Alert #393
   (please post/forward)

Public hearings on DuPont's Edge Moor dioxin factory:
March 1 and 2, 2005.

DuPont admits dioxin-laced wastes were used to treat Wilmington drinking 
water...

Giant pile of poison to be left on banks of Delaware River as a gift to 
future generations

Community Meeting planned for March 16, 2005


March 2, 2005  This Alert tries to summarize, very briefly, much 
information collected over a period of years.  Recently, folk from Green 
Delaware and Common Cause have spent many hours reviewing files.  Please 
try to plow through this summary and take action.

One of the great scandals of Delaware is the Edge Moor plant of E.I. duPont 
de Nemours & Company.  In the 1950s this plant became the world's first 
plant to manufacture titanium dioxide (a white pigment) by what DuPont 
calls the "chloride-illmanite" process.

This plant is the largest reported source in the United States of dioxin, a 
family of chemical compounds of unequaled toxicity.  Dioxins cause cancer, 
birth defects, and other health problems in parts per trillion concentrations.

In fact, the DuPont plant reports releasing more than one-half of all the 
dioxins reported released in the entire United States.  Amounts have been 
increasing.   (DuPont claims to have plans to reduce dioxin output but has 
refused to provide any details to Green Delaware.)  Reported releases in 
recent years have been as much as 169 pounds.  This is about 770 thousand 
times the minimum "reportable quantity" of 0.1 grams.

The dioxin output of Edge Moor is a story generally blacked out by 
Delaware's media, probably under pressure from DuPont.  Green Delaware has 
reported on it at least three times:

Alert 104--DuPont and Dioxin, Monday, July 2, 2001
http//www.greendel.org/item.xhtml?name=alert_0104

DUPONT DOSES DELAWARE WITH DIOXIN, MOST TOXIC KNOWN CHEMICAL, Thursday, May 
23, 2002 http//www.greendel.org/item.xhtml?name=release_dioxin1

Alert 242--52% of total US dioxin emissions are from Delaware--Up from 38% 
in 2000, Wednesday, July 2, 2003 
http//www.greendel.org/item.xhtml?name=alert_0242

DuPont presumably began belching dioxin when the "chloride" process started 
up around 1956.  But, DuPont doesn't admit to knowing about the dioxin 
releases until the 1990s, and only then as a result of investigations by 
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Before 1997 the wastes were handled without any special precautions, and 
sometimes promoted as valuable products to be sold.  They were used as road 
base, landfill cover, for treating drinking water and wastewater and for 
other purposes.

Beginning in 1997 and continuing until 2001 wastes (containing much but not 
all of Edge Moor's dioxin) were piled up in an unpermitted dump on the West 
bank of the Delaware River next to Shellpot Creek.  DuPont has reluctantly 
admitted to Green Delaware that "Although the mass is
not relevant, the mass of dioxins in the iron-rich pile on a totals basis 
is estimated to be between 294 and 363 pounds..."

DuPont's Edge Moor wastes also contain radioactive uranium and thorium, 
arsenic, lead, hexachlorobenzene, PCBs and many other poisonous and 
cancer-causing chemicals.  In fact, DNREC and DuPont claim that the dioxin 
is not really a problem because it is below the state action levels. (This 
is similar to the arsenic levels scandal we reported on in Alert 392, 
"Toxic backyards for Delaware kids?," 
<http:///>http://www.greendel.org/item.xhtml<http:///>?name=alert_0392)

Now, these wastes are being sent to a garbage dump near Bishopville, South 
Carolina, in impoverished, rural Lee County.  Green Delaware has been told 
by the landfill manager and South Carolina officials that they don't know 
there is dioxin in the DuPont wastes from Delaware. (Why are the wastes 
going to South Carolina rather than to the Delaware Solid Waste Authority 
garbage dump right next to DuPont?  Interesting question.....)

Why are these wastes not being handled as the "hazardous wastes" they so 
obviously are?  Minner administration officials claim the wastes are exempt 
due to a loophole called the "Bevill Amendment."  But, at the same time, 
they claim the SAME wastes in the big pile are not exempt and therefore are 
too expensive to get rid of.  Therefore this pile of five hundred thousand 
tons of dangerous wastes should be left on the bank of the Delaware River, 
next to Shellpot Creek, as a gift to the community and to future generations.

A hearing was held on March 1, 2005, about a Coastal Zone Act permit for 
Edge Moor to make a different flavor of product.  The Minner administration 
likes the idea and intends to give the permit without any real 
consideration of what DuPont is already doing to the area and to the 
Delaware River.

Informed people at the hearing expressed a different opinion.  Former 
DuPont chemist and engineer Glenn R. Evers worked at the plant for many 
years.  He testified that the dioxin put out by Edge Moor is the "Darth 
Vader of toxins," causing all sorts of cancers and other health 
problems.  He said, and DuPont officials confirmed, that Edge Moor waste 
ferric chloride waste containing dioxins is sold for treating drinking 
water.  Wilmington uses this "product."

Alan Muller of Green Delaware said we were "very disappointed in DNREC's 
performance in this matter."  He said that DNREC has been giving out 
permits "like peanuts" and offered a bag of peanuts as a final 
exhibit.  Hearing officer Robert Haynes refused to accept the peanuts.

A hearing is scheduled for five o'clock p.m. on March 2nd at the Edge Moor 
Community Center.  (Why does the hearing begin at 5:00. dinner time?  Good 
question....)

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:

Contact Governor Ruth Ann Minner.  Ask (1) the giant waste pile not be left 
on the banks of the Delaware River, but handled properly , and (2) that 
DuPont's Edge Moor plant NOT receive a coastal zone permit to make 
different products until it starts making it's present products safely.

Governor's office:  1.800.929.9570, leeann.walling@no.address, FAX: 577.3118

Come to the March 2nd hearing.

Green Delaware and other organizations are planning a community meeting on 
March 16, 2005 (6:30 p.m.) to provide more information on DuPont's Edge 
Moor Plant and an opportunity to discuss what might be done about it.  Put 
this on your calendar!  More details will follow.

Green Delaware is a community based organization working on environment and 
public health issues.  We try to provide information you can use.  Please 
use it.  Do you want to continue receiving information from Green 
Delaware?  Please consider contributing or volunteering.  Reach us at 
302.834.3466, greendel@no.address, www.greendel.org, Box 69, Port Penn, DE, 
USA, 19731-0069