Potential Health Hazards threaten fishermen as well as electricians

Published: Nov 17, 2004
Modified: Nov 17, 2004 6:07 AM
Ward site deemed health hazard





Charlie Young grabs a stunned red horse fish from Crabtree Creek. Young collected fish Tuesday to test for PCB contamination as part of an EPA investigation of Ward Transformer Co.

Staff Photos by Chuck Liddy
By WADE RAWLINS, Staff Writer


An EPA investigation of the Ward Transformer site has led a federal agency to declare it a public health hazard and warn that contamination from the site could increase the risk of cancer.

People who eat tainted fish from water downstream from the plant, and plant employees exposed to its chemical-soaked soil, could have an increased risk of cancer and other health problems, said scientists with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, who reviewed the EPA's findings.

"We have notified Ward Transformer about the situation so they can notify their employees," Luis Flores, an EPA project manager who is overseeing the investigation, said Tuesday. Ward employs about 50 people, he said.

Robert E. Ward III, president of Ward Transformer Co., could not be reached for comment.

During a yearlong study, investigators found elevated levels of toxic chemicals on the 11-acre Ward site, which is in an industrial area near Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Some soil at the site contains polychlorinated biphenyls, an oily, toxic chemical known as PCBs, at levels more than 50 times the acceptable standards set for industry. EPA is installing monitors to determine whether the chemicals have contaminated groundwater.

Elevated levels of PCBs also turned up in fish in Lake Crabtree and in creeks that flow into the lake.

"The fish is the biggest issue," said Jill Dyken, an environmental health scientist with the federal health agency. "People are eating the fish in Lake Crabtree or have until recently."

State health officials have posted signs in English and Spanish advising people not to eat catfish and carp from Lake Crabtree and to limit consumption of other fish from the lake to once a month. They also have advised people not to eat any fish from Little Brier Creek downstream of Brier Creek Parkway, Brier Creek and Brier Creek Reservoir.

Environmental investigators Tuesday continued tracking the waterborne pollution farther downstream, collecting fish from Crabtree Creek, which drains Lake Crabtree and flows through Umstead State Park.

Aquatic ecologists Charlie Young and Bob Wagner, of Weston Solutions Inc., a contractor hired by EPA, waded through Crabtree Creek, waving a broom-handled electrical probe in the muddy water to stun fish and scoop them up in dip nets.

"Usually, if you see us fishing, you want to pack up your rod and go somewhere else," Young said.

If the tissue of the fish reveals contamination, state health officials could extend the warning on fish consumption farther downstream. The tissue testing typically takes several months.

Priority for cleanup

Ward Transformer Sales & Service, which reconditions electrical transformers, used processes from 1964 to 1979 that allowed toxic chemicals including PCBs to pollute the land and wash into adjacent streams. The company is linked to one of the state's most infamous pollution cases.

Because of the widespread contamination, the site is on EPA's national priority list for cleanup.

PCBs were added to oil in transformers and other electrical equipment to retard fires until their manufacture was stopped in the United States in 1977 and banned in 1979. They build up in the bodies of animals and can cause health hazards such as skin irritation, liver damage and cancer. Contaminated sediments can move up the food chain into fish and accumulate in the tissue of fish.

Flores said EPA may decide next year on the full extent of the cleanup. No cost estimates have been developed because the full extent of the contamination is not yet known.


Staff writer Wade Rawlins can be reached at 829-4528 or wrawlins@newsobserver.com.

© Copyright 2004, The News & Observer Publishing Company,

IBEW Members install new traffic systems in Ohio

(Note: Wagner Smith is a signatory contractor with Locals 82, 648, 212 and 71 in Southwest Ohio Mike Wood)

Dayton Trafc Signals Getting an Upgrade ; Fiber Optic Cables Replacing Copper Wire Network

DAYTON -- For the past few months pedestrians in the downtown central business district have been stepping around bright, orange Wagner Smith Co. trucks that have been popping up at every intersection.

The electrical contractor is installing fiber optic cable that will form the basis of the city's new system of traffic lights and crossing signals -- the first upgrade in more than 50 years.

"The old, copper wire system was well beyond its useful life," said Joe Brzozowski, traffic operations engineer for the city of Dayton. "It was installed in the mid-1950s, just before we went to oneway streets in the early '60s."

Wagner Smith will end up feeding about five or six miles of cable underground, working through 60 intersections in the downtown district. They are also putting up new poles, traffic and crosswalk signals.

The fiber optic cable, which converts an electric signal on one end to light pulses that can trans- mit digital information, has several advantages over the old copper wire.

It will allow each of the signals to communicate with a central computer that can, among other things, tell when a malfunction occurs and automatically notify a technician.

"The old system could not detect if a signal went to green in both directions," Brzozowski said.

"This one automatically puts it in a flashing red mode."

The system will also allow city engineers more easily time the lights through intersections, cutting down on smog-producing idling at red lights.

Fiber optic cable carries a little more up front costs than copper, but it is expected to reduce maintenance costs, according to Julia Wilkie of Wagner Smith.

The $1.6 million project is being paid for by a grant from the Federal Highway Administration for areas, like Dayton, that are in nonattainment of federal ozone standards.

"It is a state of the art system," Brzozowski said.

"It has some fail-safe built in that the '50s-era equipment did not."

The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission is currently studying the feasibility of converting some downtown streets from one way back to two-way traffic.

"The new system will have ample capacity for two-way streets," Brzozowski said.

Wagner Smith is the largest installer of traffic signal systems in southwest Ohio and performs maintenance for more than 125 government entities.

Work in Dayton is expected to be completed by the end of May.

Contact Dale Dempsey at (937) 225-2270.
Story from REDNOVA NEWS:
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=103720

Published: 2004/11/16 21:00:19 CST

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