Published: August 27, 2008 10:42 pm         

Clean up timetable unclear

TERRE HAUTE — More than a dozen landowners from around Jordan Creek in Prairieton met with Pfizer spokesmen and government officials Wednesday evening, and all agreed the June 7 flooding left a sticky situation.

How and when it will be cleaned up, they said, is a murkier topic.

Affected landowers were invited to the Vigo County Public Library on South Seventh Street Wednesday evening to voice their concerns and ask questions.

“We are determined to work with the state and federal agencies and affected landowners as quickly as possible,” said Rick Chambers, a spokesman for Pfizer.

But as Chambers and others told the landowners, the process of developing the plan must be followed by its acceptance, and some participation from the affected property owners will be required as contractors will require access to their grounds.

“Before the snow flies” was one term used frequently during the meeting, and Chambers reiterated it as one of their goals to have contractors at work on the area yet this construction season.

According to David Rader, director of environmental health and safety for Pfizer’s Vigo County plant, a retention pond containing areas with as much as 330 parts per million of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), had nearly been closed under a federal- and state-approved remediation plan.

But the flooding which struck the Wabash Valley early in June caused a breach of the dam and allowed chemical solids to flow into nearby Jordan Creek.

Several audience members asked why they were not notified sooner of the spill.

Children played in Jordan Creek for days afterward and some still are, they said, adding that many of the neighbors were involved in flood relief efforts in that area, wading in what they did not know to be waters contaminated with PCBs.

Michael Anderson, a Senior Risk Assessor for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, addressed various questions of acceptable levels of PCBs in the water, noting that it’s difficult to tell just how high they were or still are in different spots of the creek.

Most studies detailing “acceptable” and “dangerous” levels of PCBs are referenced in terms of 30-year continuous exposure, he said, explaining that what is considered a dangerous level if encountered daily over 30 years is different than wading through the waters once.

PCBs settle into the “muck” and residue, said George Ritchotte, an Environmental Manager of Industrial Waste for IDEM, explaining that the molecules do not “jump around” in the water, but are rather carried and buried in the mud itself.

The big question of the night was when and how whatever hazardous material in the mud might be removed. No definitive date could be given, officials said.

Rader said a tentative plan should be created as soon as next week, but that plan will have to be accepted by federal, state and local agencies before it can be taken individually to the affected property owners.

Those owners will then have to agree to allow contractors access to their properties to begin the clean-up work up and down the banks of Jordan Creek.

At best, they said they hope to have work underway this fall.

Tad Foster, one of the affected landowners, said after the meeting that officials answered his questions “as far as they can for now.”

Foster, who serves as Dean of the College of Technology at Indiana State University, said he thought the meeting went well, noting that no one lost their tempers and Pfizer officials answered questions as fairly as they could.

Tracy Bonewell said her mother’s home was one affected by the flood. Bonewell said, “My questions were answered, but without a solution.”

Bonewell said more research is needed, and she herself still questions what caused the breach in the dam, noting, “I don’t think it was just the rain that caused the flood.”

Amy Hartsock, an IDEM spokeswoman, said the agency will continue to maintain contact with the landowners, saying the purpose of Wednesday’s meeting was to give them a chance for face-to-face answers.

“And it looks like they’re taking full advantage of it, and that’s great. That’s what we wanted,” Hartsock said.

Brian Boyce can be reached at (812) 231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.