Document RjVQ7MVE04w1Z8mnn5j8dRQOn

7', - .*///,/. ^4 7L Ct CERTIFIED TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS IN THE MATTER OF Pages I-iS Exhibits Excerpt of CALENDAR, September Tl, 1981 A video-taped transcription. " JACK HYNES EXPOSES MAJOR HEALTH THREAT IN NEU BEDFORD lITtiMMl Stoat Beaton, MMSMfmntto KIN HONS 0022S3 eir-ru-3144 I MS. JACOBSON: Jack Hynes reveals a major health threat in New Bedford. MR, GOYETTE: It is the most serious problem in the world and there is a high health impact, economic impact. It la one huge ball rolled into one. * ** MS. JACOBSON: Food, we buy it in stores and restaurants, wa pay our money and we assume that it i is safe to eat, but is it? Right here in Massachusetts a potentially deadly game of passing the buck has allowed chemically poisoned food into the City of New Bedford. Calendar Correspondent Jack Hynes discovered that lobster contaminated with the toxic chemical PCB is being fished out of New Bedford Harbor. Most of Bedford lobster is sold in New Bedford area, but some is shipped as far away as Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, and the question is,are Government officials playing roulette with the public health? MR. GOYETTE: Do you know that this area is closed to lobster fishing? ANNOUNCER: New Bedford Harbor,poisoned with the toxic chemical PCB,closed to lobster fishing by the Department of Public Health since 1979. No-one bsnp&en auocialM\ HONS 002254 Is supposed to lobster In this area, but no one enforces the law, so they do. MR. GOYETTE: Is that your color, black and orange? (Inaudible) out of you. ANNOUNCER: State Representative Sparky Goyette wants to stop the illegal fishing. He confronts a lobsterman fishing the poisoned waters. , MR. GOYETTE: I an going to put out a report in writing so you know where to fish. ANNOUNCER: Recreational lobsterroen called "Ten Potters" and commercial lobstermen, too, regularly fish these fertile waters. The lobster they catch here are often contaminated with high 14 levels of PCB's. Certain eel and flounder are also 15 contaminated. That is because the floor of Nev 1 Bedford Harbor is coated with up to 110 tons of the 17 toxic chemical. 18 PCB's are suspected of causing cancer. 19 MR. GOYETTE: PCB's are highly toxic and 30 we have tons of them and that is the reason why New 31 Bedford is unique. Small InTarea, but pollution 33 tremendously high. 33 ANNOUNCER: This lobsterman is not 34 concerned about PCB's or fishing bans or Sparky HONS 002255 4 1 Goyette. He will continue to_pull his pots from 2 these polluted waters and no one will stop him from 3 doing it. Tha question is why? 4 MR. GOYETTE: There is no reason any 3 lobster pots being there at all. All you need is 6 enforcement. 7 MR. HYNES: New Bedford is all about the 8 ocean and fish and lobsters and men who make their 9 living from the sea. In fact, this small city has the 10 largest fishing fleet along the entire east coast. 11 It also has, according to some experts, the largest 12 pollution problem in the entire world and this is a 13 story about what is not being done about it. 14 MR. GOYETTE: It is the most serious 15 problem in the world and has a high health impact, 16 economic impact. It is one huge ball rolled into 17 one. 18 ANNOUNCER: The number one pollution 19 problem in the world and the State of Massachusetts 20 can't even enforce a simple fishing ban. 21 Representative Roger "Sparky" Goyette is Chair 22 man of the state Hazardous Waste Consaission. 23 MR. GOYETTE: It is now a law or enforce 24 ment by constitutional powers,the Department of HONS 0022 56 BEND&EN- 1 Public Health establishes a closure and if we are 2 not going to enforce the laws of the Commonwealth, 3 then how could people sleep at night knowing it is 4 any issue. It could be a drinking water problem, 5 it could be any contamination in the Commonwealth. 6 ANNOUNCER: Last year between 75 and 100 7 million dollars worth of fish came through New 8 Bedford Harbor. Almost all of it was caught in the 9 rich fishing region called George's Bank and Grand 10 Bank. There is no PCB problem with that fish, but 11 lobster, eel and bottom dwelling flounder are another 12 story altogether.They * re found in large numbers in 13 areas that are heavily polluted with PCB's. 14 Lobster pots dot the contaminated area because IS many lobstermen go where the lobsters are even if it 14 means breaking the law. And many of those who obey 17 the law often find themselves at a disadvantage. It MR. GOYETTE: And I feel for the honest I 19 lobstermen who refuses to break the law, but he is 20 losing money; others are making it. 21 ANNOUNCER; It is hard enough to make it 22 in this business without worrying about PCB's. That 23 is polychlorinated biphenyls described as benzine 24 rings surrounded by chlorine. There are over 200 BENQ&EN HONS 002257 1 different kinds of this man-made chemical which was used in manufacturing application until the mid 1970'a. It is thought by some scientists that the more chlorine in the molecule the more toxic the PCB. But how dangerous is it if you regularly eat seafood contaminated by PCB's? Plenty according to Dr. Phillip Gidley (phonetics), an expert in pollution control and management. DR. GIDLEY: What bothers me is I know down the road thirty to forty years in this city we will probably have twenty-five to twenty-seven extra cases of cancer and one to two extra cases of cancer deaths if we proceed to eat this shellfish and lobster at this rate. 15 MR. HYNES; These little items are the 15 source of New Bedford's problems. They are discarded 17 electrical capacitors filled with a toxic chemical, 18 PCB. Up intil 1975 they were made by two companies . 19 here in Naw Bedford which dumped their toxic wastes 20 into the river and harbor. Now, six years later, thes> 21 capacitors still dot the shoreline contaminating the 22 nearby water. 23 ANNOUNCER: Cornell-Dubtear sits on the 74 edge of New Bedford's outer harbor. For over thirty mocIsImN MONS 002258 / years it discharged PCB waste into the nearby water. Upstream on the Acushnet River another company, Aerovox, dumped its PCB waste into the river which feeds the harbor. Another company uses PCB's today and when they dumped the waste it was not known to be dangerous and it was not illegal. Today, supposedly, they know better. But hundreds, perhaps thousands, or electrical capacitors still lay rotting in the mud behind the Aerovox plant. Nothing has been done to clean them up. MR. McCAVITT: What shows on the surface probably represents only the tip of the iceberg. There are probably tons and tons of these capacitors in here and they do have PCB's in them. ANNOUNCER: Larry McCavitt is a regional director for Coastal Zoning Management. He has been trying to get this dumpsite cleaned up ever since he discovered that It was contaminated with PCB's. MR. McCAVITT: We have indicated to people at the Department of Environmental Quality Engineering well over a month and a half ago that this problem existed and, to my knowledge, no action has been taken by them on this matter. ANNOUNCER: Why hot? Why wouldn't they HONS 002259 1 Jump right in on it? 2 HR. McCAVITT: That is a good question, 3 that ia a question you might want to ask the people 4 at DEQE directly. I, myself, have not been able to S get a satisfactory answer out-of people at DEQE. 6 MR. HYNES: We didn't have any better 7 luck than Larry McCavitt. The closest we got to S DEQE was the outside of their building in downtown 9 I Boston. After three weeks of phone calls we gave up 10 trying to get an answer from the Department of 11 Environmental Quality Engineering, but we did ask 12 Clifford Tuttle, President of Aerovox Corporation. 13 He reminded us that the Company changed ownership in 14 1978 and the present owners were not involved in the * IS manufacturing of FCB capacitors or the dumping of 16 PCB waste. They don't believe that, they Inherited the! 17 PCB problem behind their plant. IS MR. TUTTLE: As 1 understand it, and I 19 have never seen those capacitors, they were put out 20 there in 1950--in '60. We don't feel any 21 responsibility. I reported their existence to EPA 22 in 1974 and sugested that they probably should be 23 cleaned up. They haven't taken action on it. We 24 feel that if we did, we would be admitting a HONS Q02Z60 responsibility that we don't really own. ANNOUNCER: So no one. apparently, takes responsibility for the mess behind Aerovox and potentially deadly PCB's continue to leach into the nearby river. They also enter the harbor through this sewage treatment plant, because pipes leading into and out of the plant are coated with PCB's. The theory is that lobster and some fish ingest PCB's . Lobstermen in illegal areas catch the PCS filled lobster and sell it at market and when you or 1 sit down to a lobster dinner we don't know whether or not we are eating contaminated food. That is why the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a fishing ban. It covers three regions of the Acushnet River and New Bedford Harbor. Area 1 in red is the most heavily contaminated. The PCB's came exclusively from the Aerovox plant. No fishing is allowed here. A massive hurricane dike at the base | of the harbor has contained much of the PCB's within Area 1. ' Area 2 in orange is heavily contaminated with j I | J PCB's from Comell-Dubieer and outflow from Area 1 through the dike opening. This region is closed to all lobster, cel and bottom dwelling flounder. BEND&EN ukIiImX HONS 002261 * 1 It is one of the richest lobster areas in the Spring 2 end the Fall. 3 Area 3 in the yellow is closed only to 4 lobstering and tests are now being conducted to see 5 whether the lobster here remain contaminated. But 6 no one questions Area 2, it's heavily contaminated. 7 People should not eat lobster from there, but they t do because no one enforces the ban. 9 MR. GOYETTE; Why wasn't the closure 10 carried out? You have never had a closure of there, 11 never, especially Area 3. And the violations are in 12 Area 2 that upsets me greatly and it should upset 13 everybody. 14 ANNOUNCER: In 1960 the Army Corps 15 of Engineers built this massive hurricane dike to 16 hold up against the fury of Atlantic storms. They 17 took precautions to make sure that the City of New It Bedford was protected against potential disaster. In 19 1979 the Massachusetts Department of Public Health j at issued a fishing ban to protect the citizens of New 21 Bedford from a different kind of potential disaster, 22 that is deadly chemical pollution. But unlike the 23 dike, the fishing ban is not protecting the community. 24 The ban is being ignored because it isn't being * BSM&EN HONS 002262 TT enforced. The potential for disaster here is very real. VOICE: We cannot tell you for certain how many people are going to get *ick, how many children are going to be affected, how many unborn children are going to be affected, but we know there it a significant probability that this could happen. ' ANNOUNCER: John Ferrington, chemical oceanographer and research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, one of the leading experts on PCB pollution in New Bedford. HR. FERRINGTON: Certainly, the scientists and regulators involved would feel terrible if they thought that there.were some malformed children out there because they hadn't proceeded to do their duty in this particular case, despite economic^ hardships on some segment* of the population. MR. MARKEY: Z am concerned that FCB's exist there, but I don't think it is a real health problem like it has been made out in some quarters. ANNOUNCER: This is New Bedford Mayor John Markey. He doesn't believe that coimnercial lobstermen are fishing closed areas end he doesn't HONS 002263 chink it Is his problem. MR. MARKEY: 1 certainly am not going to hire six people to go down there and stop the fishing. If the State imposed it let them enforce it. I just don't believe that there is anybody out there'fishing, certainly commercially. There might be some . youngsters that go out in a Whaler or something, but I don't believe that there is anybody out there consnercially fishing, I just don't believe-//^* VOICE; Now there are people that are fishing inside of them areas right now and a lot of them I don't blame them for fishing in there. Why, they have fished there all their life. They don't know where to fish, to go lobstering, other places and there is no enforcement of the law and the bans are supposed to be closed, it is supposed to be closed in them areas. But what good it tha closure if they have no enforcement? ANNOUNCER: Chuck Connor has been a commercial lobsterman for fiftean years. Like many lobstermen, he obeys the ban and doesn't fish in contaminated ereas, but he says is costs him thousands of dollars a year to steam out past Araa 3 and if he has to do it averyone should. HONS 002264 BSND&EN . ... MR. CONNOR: The ben is no good whatsoever, because there Is no enforcement of It. And if they enforce a ban then that Is another situation, then everybody has to stay out, and that Is the only proper way to do it. I rather see it open all the way inside again, but if it is not going to be open for ate it is not going to be open for anybody, as far as 1 am concerned. ANNOUNCER: So while some people pay the price for obeying the law others flaunt it without penalty. The Department of Public Health issued the fishing ban, but they have no power to enforce it. They put up signs announcing the ban, most of them were vandalized .and they informed other State agencies. Joe Apopka (phohetlcs) is Assistant CoBsoissloner of Public Health. MR. APOPKA: No, we don't consider this a voluntary ban, this is a regulation of the Commonwealth. However, again, we do not have the power to enforce it and that is the reason that we ask Mr. Coates to enforce it for us. ANNOUNCER: Mr. Coates is Phil Coates, Director of the Division of Marine Fisheries. If HONS 002265 14 enforcing chit ben is hot potato Phil Coaces knows how co pass it along vlch Che best of them. MR. COATES: No, we don't have the enforcement hefe is rather interesting. Like .1 say, the people who would do any enforcing would be either food and drug inspectors or,theoretically,environmental affairs and they are not in our department. ANNOUNCER; If you had diffulty under standing that you might Just be getting some idea as to why nothing is being done to insure the public against eating PCB contaminated food. It is called passing the buck. MR. COATES; And I agree.there has been a lot of bureaucratic buck passing. VOICE; Quite frankly, I don't enforce what the State says. VOICE; We cannot enforce the ban and it is their responsibility to enforce it. VOICE; We don't enforce. I have regu latory authority and I rely on the divisional law enforcement for enforcement. HYNES; So far no sickness or disease has been linked to TCB pollutioiPIn New Bedford, but that doesn't mean that people aren't getting sick from HONS 002266 15 1 PCB* . In fact, here In New'-Bedford people could 2 be dying of cancer front PCB pollution and no one 3 would know. That is because no one has really 4 cudied the problem. But in a small sample of 5 twenty-one New Bedford residents there were some f disturbing findings. ____ _ 7 ANNOUNCER: Eight of the twenty-one t people tested had elevated PCB'levels in their 9 blood and the woman who had the highest level never 10 worked with PCB's, she just ate fish from the river 11 and harbor. 12 MR. PETLEY: Will I sometime later in 13 life come down with cancer? That is a basic point 14 that 1 am interested in. IS ANNOUNCER: Joseph Petley has a PCB 16 blood level almost two and a half times the 17 national average. He used to work as an engineer at 18 Aerovox. 19 MR. PETLEY: There is a great deal of 38 concern to everybody; it should be. But many people 21 are afraid to find out if they are going to have, if 23 they have cancer or they are going to have cancer. 23 They are afraid, very afraid of it. 24 VOICE: I have been tested for PCB's, I B5ND&EN uodststV HONS 002267 16 1 hv twenty-two pert* per million in my blood because 2 1 have been eating, 1 have grown up in this area. 1 3 have been eating fish from the Acushnet River all 4 my life, and lobster, too. How do I know that this 5 PCB isn't going to effect me in a few years from now. 4 1 am not getting any younger, you know. . 7 ANNOUNCER-. The problem, of course, is 8 this, it will take years to cleanup New Bedford 9 Harbor, Estimates run as high as $130,000,000 10 to eliminate PCB's from Area 1 alone and no one yet 11 knows where that money will come from. Suing the 12 two companies that dumped the PCB's will probably 13 bankrupt them, put people out of work, without }* coming up with anywhere close to the money needed for 15 the cleanup. So while the harbor remains polluted, 14 the only protection for the public is a two-year old 17 fishing ban that isn't enforced. As long as some 18 lobstermen continue to fish contaminated water the 19 public can't know whether the lobster it eats is 20 contaminated with PCB's or not. Now enforcing the 21 ban brings into question the quality of all lobster 22 sold in New Bedford. Enforcing the ban, of course, 23 would eliminate the problem. Until that happens, 24 though, some people find that the only solution is BEND&EN HONS 002268 17 imposing their own ban. VOICE: No, 1 wouldn't eat any lobster and I love seafood. I wouldn't eat any lobsters taken out of New Bedford because PCB's, once you Ingest It, It Is in your body forever. VOICE: 1 haven't eaten either lobster, shellfish, and recommend that no one does so. VOICE: 1 wouldn't eat lobsters from the New Bedford Harbor area until it has been proven to me beyond any doubt that they are safe from a public health standpoint. VOICE: If they make a law and they don't enforce it, the law is no good. NS. JACOBSON; The Department of Environmental Quality Engineering wrote us a letter after they got wind of our story. They said, among other things, that they have requested federal aid through the national super fund. They expect that the strategy will be finalized by the end of the year and the cleanup in New Bedford Harbor will proceed as soon as possible. In the meantime, of course, the public's only protection is a fishing ban that isn't enforced. HONS 002269 f 1 I, PATRICIA A, BUCKO, Registered 2 Professional Reporter in the Commonwealth of 3 Massachusetts do hereby certify that this is 4 a true and accurate transcript of the proceedings, 5 to the beat of my ability, reported from a f videotape. 7 Dated this 23rd day of September. S 1981, * 10 11 tu) /}. PATRICIA A. BUCKO, RPR, Notary Public. My Commission expires: 9-5-86. 12 13 14 IS 14 17 IS 10 20 n 33 23 24 bsnd&en MONS 002270