The Case of the Missing Carcinogens

An environmental study done two decades ago found much greater contamination by toxins, heavy metals and known carcinogens at the site Washington College wants for a riverside campus than is being reported today.

This study also estimated the clean-up to cost far in excess of the $1.6 million that the College said it expects it to be. ATEC Associates estimated it would take up to $4 million (in 1987 dollars) to rid the soil of high concentrations of contaminates.

And it pointed out that its estimate did not include “the enormous cost potential” for taking care of any groundwater contamination. It did find toxic chemicals in the groundwater at the old Crop Production Services site.

The study was commissioned at a time when John Wayne, a Washington College alumnus, had an option to purchase the site for a development.

Among the contaminants it found in significant amounts were cyanide, toluene,  toxaphene, aldrin, dieldrin, heptachlor, DDD, naphthalene, benzene, ethylbenzene, phenanthrene, benzo-(b)-fluoranthene, benzo-(a)-pyrene, benzo-(a)-anthracene, chrysene, fluoranthene and methylene chloride.

Wayne, who quickly dropped his plans for the site on learning of so much contamination, today expresses his alarm that Washington College is plunging into a situation he thinks it may not understand.

“Why is the college in such a hurry?” he asks. “They are buying a huge potential liability which will tie up money and time with the possible result of even greater loss of those valuable commodities.”

Wayne contends, “This clean-up is the job description of land speculators and developers, not colleges. Any normal business person would say, ‘Clean it up and I’ll buy it.’ That’s what I did.”

Wayne says his understanding of what the scientists reported in the first study was that the major concern at the site is the ground water, which has been seeping into the river. He says, “Trying to extract migrating toxins could cost many times the expense of the ground cleanup.”

What was found at the site in the 1980s has been talked about around Chestertown ever since. Wayne provided the findings of the APEC report after being contacted by The Chestertown Spy.

Washington College, at a public hearing in Town Hall on Monday night, said it was planning to go to settlement on its purchase of the property from RK Water LLC on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The college said it was taking ownership quickly because it had to hold title in order to apply for some $400,000 in Brownfields Cleanup funds from the EPA.

The college has its own environmental site assessment, completed last March by Earth Data Inc.  This survey determined the site is contaminated with toxaphene (a pesticide) two metals (arsenic and chromium) and five semi-volatile organic compounds associated with creosote.

This report states: “Soil contaminants . . .appear to be concentrated in the 12 inches of soil closest to the surface.” And, “MTBE was the only contaminant detected in groundwater above MDE cleanup standards.”

Questions Washington College might ask its own chemistry professors and environmental experts: What happened to the elements found in the first survey and not the second? Are they substances that are likely to disappear? If so, where did they go? Could the tidal action of the river passing by the site, over the intervening 22 years, have leached away so much of a century’s worth of pollution?

In the first study, ATEC Associates pointed out that the site had been used for fertilizer and chemical mixing and storage for as far back as 1870. It noted that groundwater at the site was typically encountered from only 3.5 feet to 5.5 feet below the surface.

“The groundwater here exists as an unconfined aquifer,” ATEC reported.

It also stated, “The chemical compounds indicated from the analytical results magnify the toxic risk potential of this property. These compounds could significantly impact the ecologic balance of an estuarine environment . . .”

ATEC noted that one of the chemicals it found, toxaphene, “has a low solubility in water (so) direct sorption into sediments and particulates will occur.” And it said four persistent pesticides it discovered, aldrin, dieldrin, DDD and heptachlor, are easily transported through soil, water and air and are bio-accumulated.

“Aldrin and dieldrin are potential carcinogens and can create severe aquatic environmental changes,” said ATEC. “They are acutely toxic to aquatic vertebrates and invertebrates. Because of its high lipid affinity, dieldrin is retained in plant waxes, animal fats and other organic matter.

“This results in progressive accumulation of the insecticide in the food chain, which could result in a lethal concentration in a consumable organism.”

Washington College’s plan for the site includes a dormitory, classrooms, a boathouse with recreation facilities for students and town folk — and a new headquarters for its Center for the Study of Environment and Society.