P.O. Box 123, Uniontown, Ohio 44685

          

 

MISSION STATEMENT:  TO OBTAIN THE TRUTH, JUSTICE AND A SAFE AND PERMANENT CLEANUP OF THE IEL TOXIC WASTE DUMP TO MITIGATE EXPOSURES TO PREVENT FURTHER ILLNESSES.

 

BACKGROUND OF OUR GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION: 

 

CCLT organized in August of 1983, after learning about North Canton's contamination on a national news program and the news report of contamination at Hartville's Monarch Telydyne Plant all in the same week.  Our neighborhood group was making crafts for sick children at Akron Children's Hospital, and these two pollution issues came up in conversation, with the question:  How safe was our water in Uniontown, located between these two places?  A neighbor responded that she had been on bottled water for some time, due to the dump right up the road that had Industrial Excess on a sign out in front. We were immediately concerned, because everyone was on private well water.  We made phone calls the next morning to Ohio EPA in Twinsburg and learned the indeed, the IEL was slated for investigations for toxic waste disposal.  Additional phone calls were made and we connected with old timers.  The citizens who waged the "Round One" battle told the story of how Uniontown residents had fought to stop the dumping when the site was in operation from 1966 - 1978.  They had collected 900 signatures on a petition (nearly 2/3s of the town at that time) wrote letters to the editor, and attended meetings at the township.  Some faced ridicule and harassment for standing up for their concerns.  These citizens courageously battled the dumping of up to 11,000 gallons per day being disposed of into this former sand & gravel pit with many swampy/ponded low areas in the surrounding the site.  Before there was even a Superfund Program or an Ohio EPA, these residents knew it was wrong and repeatedly questioned officials what impact the dump was having on  health and the environment.  When weary Round One residents "passed the baton" onto CCLT, they also passed onto our shoulders the burden of the knowledge of what eyewitnesses had seen, including tankers bearing the radioactive placard coming into the site nightly for two years. The weight of the responsibility grew over the years, as we learned of countless illnesses, including clusters of cancers, birth defects and unexplained illnesses and deaths.  While CCLT recognized that there was nothing it could do about the past exposures that had already occurred, we vowed to stop future impacts on the community - which we continue today, 40 years after IEL was opened in 1966.

 

GOALS: While 23 years may appear to be a long time to carry on a fight, if one reflects upon the extremely long half life of some of the toxins believed to be buried at IEL, especially certain radionuclides with the potential to harm citizens for literally thousands of years, it is just a blink of the eye in comparison.  Over the years, CCLT's main focus has been to obtain sound scientific testing.  Unfortunately, when compared with other sites around the country, Uniontown IEL has routinely received substandard testing.  As they always say, "If you don't look for it, you will not find it."  While long lists of chemicals were reported over the years collected from water, sediments and gases , EPA was very selective in where it would test, refusing always to perform core samples of the site and refused to test for radiation the entire remedial investigation that ran from 1985 - 1989, when EPA settled on a cap, pump & treat and expanded gas system.  (All these institutional controls have been taken away since the 1989 Record of Decision).  CCLT obtained technical advice from top experts - in and outside of the government - who have consistently substantiated our scientific testing concerns.  Given this significant support, we have been compelled to continue to seeking proper testing that has remained elusive all these years.  While protecting residents living in close proximity to the site has always been our first priority (there are approx. 30,000 people living within a 3 mile radius), there is increasing concern that IEL may impact the buried valley sole source aquifer system that goes into 13 counties that is used by 600,000 people.  Therefore, we are ever mindful of this bigger picture as well.

 

Given the federal court testimony by the former landfill owner himself, Charles Kittinger, that the government buried large containers of plutonium 238 at IEL and the depositions reference of nerve gas/chemical agents, CCLT's ultimate goal is to have the government agencies most capable of handling these kinds of dangerous materials - Dept. of Energy and Dept. of Defense  - take ownership of the site. We believe there are a combination of technologies that currently exist that could be used to stabilize the site and begin a true clean up process.  The continued flushing via rainfall of the site in a high water table in a glaciated area ,i.,e " dilution as the solution to the pollution,". IS NOT an acceptable solution to CCLT.  Billions of dollars are spent on recognized government facilities/sites.  The clean up of the Fernald site near Cincinnati was four billion alone!  Why is Uniontown being forced to settle for dilution, birdfeeders and trees?  Because all area residents depend on ground water - either through city wells or private - cleanup of the IEL should be just as worthy as these other sites.

 

PAST CCLT ACTIONS:

 

*  CCLT provided documentation to Ohio EPA that got the IEL listed high on Superfund in 1984, (after the Stark County Health Dept. Commissioner informed CCLT that, "The burden of proof is on the citizens - that we would NEVER get Superfund, never even get monitoring wells).

 

*  CCLT was the first citizens group in the country to obtain Emergency Response/Superfund dollars to address explosive gases at IEL totaling over a million and a half dollars for an active gas collection system to keep the border homes from blowing up, after high levels of methane gas were found migrating to adjacent properties.

 

*  Our efforts were credited as being responsible for the alternate water line being brought up from North Canton to the site meant for humanitarian purposes due to groundwater contamination of Vinyl Chloride.  CCLT worked closely with Stark County elected officials for over four years on this issue alone.  

 

*  CCLT got Region 5 US EPA to reinstate testing for toxic gases, which revealed 24 volatile organic chemicals accompanying the methane gas.  Experts reported 150 tons of  toxic gases are generated yearly at IEL - excluding methane.

 

*  The group fought and won evacuation and buyout/relocations of 13 families whose homes surrounded the IEL's immediate border. 

 

*  CCLT became the first citizens' group in the nation to obtain the Technical Assistance Grants (TAGs) mandated by Congress in the 1980's to level the playing field for the review of technical documents generated by at the site.  We received two $50,000 grants and hired some of the country's top experts who were highly critical of the testing performed at IEL. and the clean up prescribed in 1989.

 

*  We has worked with a wide variety of elected officials and agencies over the decades, including the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, which sent CCLT members to national Round Table meetings in D.C. and Atlanta, with citizens around the country.  ATSDR also had the CCLT president speak to doctors at a health meeting in San Antonio, Texas.  CCLT met with two former US EPA Administrators, William Reilly and Carol Browner, Senators John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum, former Governor Celeste and Attorney General.  We also met with a top Office of Technical Assessment offical who wrote a report for Congress on cleanups.  We have networked with various local, state and national citizens organizations.  The Project on Government Oversight - a D.C. based organization

that investigates and exposes government corruption, and the American Friends Service Committee of N.E. Ohio have supported CCLT's efforts for over 10 years in seeking the truth and justice for our community.

 

*  CCLT was awarded approx. 3 years ago a $50,000 grant from the Citizens Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund.  This Fund was established following a court settlement award following an action by environmental attorneys against the Dept. of Energy.  The national board handling this fund determined that there was enough evidence of man-made radiation at IEL , i.e, Plutonium and tritium, to warrant making this award to CCLT.  This grant enabled us to continue to obtain top experts' advice and review of  the IEL radiation data.