“It’s still never been corrected,” McCook Field resident Terry Martin told the Dayton Daily News. Martin was part of the class-action lawsuit. “I don’t think anybody figured out how they can really fix it.”
Approximately 530 properties are located in the affected areas, according to previous information from the class-action lawsuit against Behr Dayton Thermal Products LLC, Aramark Uniform & Career Apparal Inc and Old Carco LLC, formerly known as Chrysler LLC.
Attorneys representing Chrysler, Behr and Aramark in the lawsuit did not return messages seeking comment for this story.
Vapor plume
The Chrysler auto parts plant at 1600 Webster St. has operated since the 1930s. German manufacturer Behr GmbH & Co. bought the plant in 2002. German firm Mahle GmbH then took a majority ownership stake in the Behr Group in 2013.
Plaintiffs in or tied to Dayton’s McCook Field neighborhood said that Chrysler, Aramark and Behr released certain chemicals into the environment, contaminating groundwater.
Polluted groundwater from beneath the plant has migrated underground primarily toward the south and southwest residential, commercial and industrial areas of the neighborhood, according to the U.S. EPA.
Other facilities in the vicinity may have also contributed to the groundwater contamination, the U.S. EPA says. Site investigation, cleanup and cleanup planning are ongoing.
The main concern is a contamination of trichloroethylene (TCE) below the plant, in the area of Leo and Webster streets, according to the U.S. EPA.
TCE is a volatile organic compound used mostly in industrial and commercial processes, according to the U.S. EPA. Consumer uses include cleaning and furniture care products, arts and crafts spray coatings, and automotive care products like brake cleaners and other consumer products.
There’s a vapor plume of contamination about 14-20 feet below the ground’s surface, according to Jerry Bowling III, president of the McCook Field Neighborhood Association.
‘Superfund’ site
The U.S. EPA declared the area a Superfund site in 2009. The U.S. EPA first became involved in the site in 2006 when the Ohio EPA requested the federal agency to initiate a removal action to address vapor intrusion threats from groundwater contamination.
Vapor intrusion is the process by which vapor from underground ― in this case, in the groundwater ― make its way into indoor air of homes and businesses, where it can accumulate to dangerous levels, according to the U.S. EPA.
“EPA does not yet have enough data about the groundwater plume to determine if the plume is continuing to spread or if it is contained. That determination will be made after interim treatment measures are complete that are expected to treat most of the mass of groundwater contamination,” the U.S. EPA said in a statement to the Dayton Daily News.
Impacted residences and businesses in the area currently have vapor intrusion mitigation systems, which are installed to reduce health risks in buildings where chemical vapors from contaminated soil and groundwater may be inhaled, according to U.S. EPA.
“EPA does not have complete data on the potential for vapor intrusion for all homes and businesses in the area,” the U.S. EPA said.
“I have one of the mitigation systems in my basement,” said Jeff Gerrior, a McCook Field residents. “I’ve had it ever since it was available to the residents free of charge, so I’ve always thought that I was safe because of that, so I haven’t really given much thought to the dangers of the contamination to me.”
Gerrior said he has some health issues, but he doesn’t think they are related to the contamination.
The U.S. EPA has to evaluate data from samples taken inside and under homes and businesses to make a determination about vapor intrusion, the EPA said. Property owners in McCook Field can contact EPA’s community involvement coordinator (Adrian Palomeque) or project manager (Erik Hardin) if they want to have their homes or properties sampled for vapor intrusion at: palomeque.adrian@epa.gov or hardin.erik@epa.gov.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
The potential for dangerous contaminant vapors from the Behr Superfund site to accumulate in homes and business located in the McCook Field and Old North Dayton neighborhoods continues, the U.S. EPA says.
“These vapors could be adversely affecting the health of those living or working in the area,” the U.S. EPA’s website says about the location.
Cancer cluster study
Because of the demonstrated link between neighborhood homes and on-site chemicals, the Ohio Department of Health conducted a community cancer incidence assessment in the impacted neighborhood.
Total cancer rates were elevated in this neighborhood, but the spike in cancer cases was caused by high rates of lung cancer, according to the U.S. EPA, which said information from the cancer registry indicated that 90% of the reported cases were former or current smokers.
Cancers potentially linked to TCE exposures ― including kidney, liver and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma ― were not found to be significantly higher than the expected rate for the studied population, according to the U.S. EPA.
Martin, who has lived in McCook Field for more than 30 years, has had cancer twice, once with breast cancer and once with skin cancer. He has known others who have had health problems, but some of them were also coupled with poor health habits, like smoking or consuming alcohol.
“As we got older here, people did have diseases,” Martin said. There was no way to tell whether the contamination caused the health problems in the local neighborhood or not, he said.
Risk to new residents
Residents of McCook field have the lowest life expectancy in Montgomery County, says a recent report from Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services (ADAMHS), compiled by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio.
Many factors contribute to that, including that McCook Field’s industrial character and pollution concerns drive down housing costs in the neighborhood, attracting people with lower incomes who can’t find affordable housing elsewhere.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
McCook Field is also an area where more immigrants have been coming to live, Bowling said. The neighborhood association, county health department and other EPA contacts do continual canvassing and outreach to educate any new residents to the area about the risk for vapor intrusion, especially if the property does not already have a vapor intrusion mitigation system.
“We’d always encourage testing in that area,” said Montgomery County Health Commissioner Jennifer Wentzel. “It’s important to understand where the house is in relationship to the plume in that area. Breathing any kind of volatile organic compound can cause some health type concerns or issues like headache or lung irritation so understanding what those levels are in the home are important.”
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