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ik Jim iu:; me "6i ur st. LUim iruu tteiuttnd * umviu nMLDcttMiti vuvujje; ) ,SERIES MATTERS IN OCTOBER 1964 PROVIDING A FORUM FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS e The h "I /V (50ccpcc at the airport* rncc lAND OUTLYING AREAS/ THE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ST. LOUIS 104 PAGES AUGUST 10 16, 1994 NUMBER 827- Trendiey Avenue resident Ruth Chandler at the Lanson toxic-waste site DE ND STR How toxic chemicals, a soaring cancer rate and environmental racism moved in on Trendiey Avenue in East St. Louis. And why residents cant get them to leave. BY C.D. STELZER DStt 134844 STLCOPCB4034802 How toxic chemicals, a soaring cancer rate and environmental racism moved in on Trendley Avenue in East St. Louis. And why residents cant get them to leave. 18 TriE RIVERFRONT TIMES AUGUST ' S - 16, 199-t n earlv-morning thunderstorm has filled a ditch with rainwater alongside the abandoned Lanson Chemical Co. site on the southern edge of East St. Louis. The water backs up under Piggott Avenue ' and meanders behind Ruth Chandlers home. Since moving to Trendley Avenue in 1959, the 80-yearold Chandler has grown okra, collard greens and tomatoes in the vacant lot behind her house. The common ground has also yielded crops for others in the Alta Sita neighborhood. But for the past two growing seasons the field has remained fallow. There is good reason for this. The drainage ditch behind the Chandler residence is contaminated with highly toxic polychlori nated biphenyls (PCBs), according to an unpublished draft assessment by the Illinois Department of Public Health. Property records in Belleville show the landlord of the contaminated ditch and the sur rounding garden plots to be the trustees of St. Clair County. The local government has no plans to clean up the property and denies any legal liability. This story didn't just happen yesterday. It has literally been covered up for decades, while its poten tially cancerous consequences have continued leaking for years. There are those in the civil-rights community who argue that if this situation existed in an affluent suburb of St. Louis Counrv it would be dealt with more expediently. There are those in the business world who sav race has nothing to do with the problem. Then there are those who live and die on the 3100 block of Trendley Avenue. So the political debate escalates, and the institutionalized lethargy continues. Meanwhile, some have resorted to measures of desperation. GSW 134845 STLCOPCB4034803 I'ho'o by Mika 0*Filippo In a 1992 incident, which one state health official now calls an "act of civicminded vandalism," 6,000 gallons of haz ardous wasres were mysteriously released from a tank at the former Lanson Chemical Co. Prior to the spill, the state and federal Environmental Protection Agencies neglected to clean up the hazardous-waste site even though it was known to have been contaminated with PCBs in 1978. Illinois EPA (IEPA) soil tests have revealed dioxins and furans are also present at the site. In addition, the amount of diox in contamination has been underestimated, according to a scientific analysis of the IEPA data conducted for The Riverfront Times. Dioxin, furans and PCBs are all sus pected human carcinogens. IEPA records show many other hazardous substances were also dumped on the propertv and into the sewer system. Illegal waste disposal by the original owners first came under the scruriny of local authorities more than a quarter of a century ago. The latency period between exposure to a carcinogen and the onslaught of cancer is 20 to 30 years. Not surprising ly. the cancer rate on Trendlev Avenue has been increasing lately, and some survivors attribute the rise to their toxic neighbor. Clottee Pettis, who lives at 3141 Trendlev. is one of those who feel victim ized. "1 know people have cancer, but everybody in the neighborhood shouldn't have cancer," she says. Pettis, 60. moved to Trendle)r Avenue in 1962, the rear Lanson Chemical Co. began operating one block away. She underwent surgery for colon can cer in 1989. "What I'm concerned about is the damage that's done to us already," Pet tis says. The longtime resident expresses an even more enduring fear: "For all we know, our children could be affected for the rest of their lives." After decades of inaction, the 1992 spill created an emergency the U.S. EPA could no longer ignore. The federal agency has so far spent about S2.3 million to remediate the property. Meanwhile, none of the six "potentially responsible parties" in the case has been held liable for the cleanup by the government. The Lanson site is an anomaly because it is no longer anonvmous. The Rev. Buck Jones, a veteran civil-rights leader in the St. Louis metro area, counts 22 other haz ardous-waste sites in East St. Louis, a city that is 98.1 percent black. Federal and state officials consulted for this story aren't exactly sure how many there are. There is one certainty, however. "Not one site in East St. Louis is on the (U.S. EPA's) Superfund priority list," says Jones. "1 contend that if there was that kind of contamination in Clayton, they would pro vide the money to ciean it up." Jones' charge is part of the national debate over environmental racism, which pits groups such as the Committee for Racial Justice (CRj) of the United Church of Christ against the Center for the Study of American Business (CSAB). a conserva tive think tank at Washington University. The CSAB s malignin' toward the envi ronmental-justice movement redoubled earlier this year, after the Clinton adminis tration ordered all federal agencies to make sure their programs and policies didn't sub ject poor people and minorities to environ mental harm. At the same time, moves at the U.S. EPA, backed by pending federal legislation, have belatedly dusted off the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a means of con fronting unequal environmental protection. If the congressional bill stalls this year, it is expected to be reintroduced in the next session. The law would allow plaintiffs to sue government regulators for issuing per mits to companies that disproportionately pollute minority communities. Multina tional corporations that have long profited from their dirty work in these overlooked locales could find their bottom line affect ed. With stakes this high, the resulting bombast has only obfuscated the issue. But when viewed from the street, the human consequences of the bureaucratic inertia and corporate intransigence are less confusing. A month before the latest spill finally forced the U.S. EPA to take action. Chan dler had a cancerous lump removed from her left breast. There is mounting evidence that organochlorines. such as PCBs and dioxin, are responsible for increases in can cer. including the rise in breast cancer among women. Breast-cancer cases have been increasing more than 1 percent annu ally over the last 20 years. This year, an estimated 182.000 women will be added to the statistics. More than 46,000 will die from rhe disease. Of course, within the sci entific communin', the connection benveen environmental pollutants and any form of cancer is still a matter of controversy. On Trendlev Avenue, however, the correlation is not so difficult to see. Chan dler's next-door neighbor, for instance, contracted uterine cancer last year and is now in a nursing home in Belleville. Curtis Riley, the next homeowner in line, died of multiple forms of cancer in 1985. accord ing to St. Clair County and Eastside Health District Records. Or. Trendlev Avenue, these three individuals' homes artlocated closest to the Lanson site. In addi tion, a St. Clair Count)' death record shows that Herbert Nelson, who lived at 3125 Trendlev, died of bone and prostate cancer in 1980. Other alleged cases on the block are more difficult to confirm because the official causes of death were not directly attributed to cancer. But an informal survey conducted by Project HOPE, an advocacy' group headed by Jones, claims that there are more than two dozen other cancer cases in the last five to 10 years among 50 families in the Alta Sita neighborhood. The RFTs own tally suggests the possibility that at least five women on the 3100 block of Trendlev have had cancer in the recent past. The current scourge on Trendlev Avenue implies that more than toxic sub stances themselves may have been covered up in the past. Pat Costner, a scientist for the environmental group Greenpeace, questions the methodology used by the consulting firm that prepared the 1991 IEPA report. "It's just fiat-out wrong," says Costner. In her view, the dioxin concentra- eontinued on page 20 AMfUKT 10 - 16. 19Q- THE RIVERFRONT Ti.v.E? 19 DSW 134846 STLCOPCB4034804 field, where a small grass fire smolders. There are ocher movements, too, less discernible ones. Erosion, undetected migrations of soil caused by sun, wind and rain. Fluctuations in the water table, which is only 15 feet below the surface. Invisible hazardous organic vapors wafting through the air due to the summer heat. Far away from this place, there are motions, too, legal ones, which have ulti mately left their mark here: incorporations, annual reports, name changes and bank ruptcies. The beginning and end of this story are posted on the chain-link gate at the front entrance of the 5-acre site. Along with the perfunctory keep-out warning, there is a small hand-lettered sign that reads: "Lan son Chemical, U.S. EPA." A plain, black mailbox is attached to the gate. The name it bears -- MARK E -- is missing one of its dimestore gold letters. James Markle, the current owner of the property, purchased the site in 1981. The New Athens, 111., businessman, who then operated Mid-America Alcohol Producers, Inc., was forced into bankruptcy in 1989. Before his insolvency, Markle also owned Wastetex, which is another known haz ardous-waste site in East St. Louis. Markle told the IEPA that, when he took over, there were more than 2,000 55- gallon drums at Lanson. He pumped an Th Rev. Buck Jones: "If there was that kind of contamination In Clayton, they would provide the money to clean it up." estimated 125,000 gallons of liquid waste into 14 tanks on the property, Markle says. In 1990, a scare inspection found some of the tanks still contained waste and were DEAD-END STREET were discharged prior to the landfilling that piped-in municipal-water system instead of leaking. occurred sometime during 1978." individual ground wells. But the investigation never progressed continuedfrom page 19 But there are no plans for any major to the cleanup stage. That's because in cions "were not calculated accurately due, excavations at the Lanson site, says Brad The U.S. EPA report gives the exact 1985 the Lanson site failed to score high in parrt to the use of erroneous toxicity Benning, the emergency-response coordi latitude of the Lanson site in the Northern enough on the Hazardous Rating System to equivalence factors." Consequently, the nator for the U.S. EPA in Chicago. The Hemisphere, but standing at the corner of be placed on the U.S. EPA's Superfrmd pri potential cancer risk has also been underes ^agency completed its emergency cleanup 31st Street and Piggott Avenue in midsum ority list. Instead, the state took over the timated, she says: "If they're growing their earlier this summer, he says. "Our job was mer is more of an equatorial experience. case. "It was part of a (program) under for food in the soil, that means that their expo to go in and get the most highly contami At noon, the cries of boxcar wheels in mer Gov. Thompson called `Build Illi sure is many times -- probably somewhere nated source material out. Once the the Alton and Southern Railroad yard are nois,"' says Ken Mensing of IEPA in on the order of a thousand times -- higher removal is done, there still may be residual among the few things that can be heard. In Collinsville. "But we didn't have any just from dermal contact and ingestion of contamination, either deeper in the ground the heat, visible movements appear slow money, so this project and others came to a soil." or possibly groundwater contamination," and deliberate: a woman stooping at work standstill." The Illinois Department of Public Benning says. The site is unlikely to receive in her yard; cattle egrets, a species origi The funding evaporated because in Health's long-awaited health assessment, more federal attention, says Benning, nally from Africa, drifting overhead; an 1990 the state Legislature failed to pass a which has been 18 months in the making, because the surrounding community has a emaciated dog tacking across the vacant bill that would have provided $18 million does not measure dioxin levels in the gar den plots next to the Lanson site, according ro Tom Long, the agency's senior toxicolo gist in Springfield. But the agency did dis CHEMICAL REACTIONScover one of its toxic cousins. "There is some low-level PCB contamination in a drainage ditch in that area," says Long. As Herman and Elliott Lanson didn't end their careers after In fourth position, with 736,470 shares, is none other than St. for the risk those PCBs pose, Long says: "I they sold Lanson Chemical Co. and eventually relinquished the Louis' own Boatmen's Bankshares, Inc. would hesitate to speculate in the absence management of the company. Instead, in 1978, they formed In the last 10 years, Boatmen's political-action committee of having a final copy (of the health assess another company, called Poly-Chem Resin Corp., and moved to doled out $161,415 to Missouri and Illinois congressional candi ment), but the fact that it is low-level Missouri Avenue in East St. Louis, about a mile away from their dates, according to the National Library on Money and Politics in would imply a low risk." old plant. Within a year, Poly-Chem changed its name to Washington, D.C. For instance, Rep. Jerry Costello, whose district Costner isn't quite so optimistic in her LanChem. Then in 1984, Akzo, a Dutch conglomerate, bought includes East St. Louis, received $7,500 from the bank since 1990. appraisal. "PCBs act just like dioxin does, LanChem. Akzo merged earlier this year with Nobel, a Swedish On the other side of the river, House majority leader Richard as far as its effects, except it isn't quite as company, to form one of the top-10 chemical titans in the world. Gephardt nabbed a total of $33,000. Last October, Gephardt potent," she says. Meanwhile, in East St. Louis, business goes on as usual. Akzo, accepted the single largest contribution on Boatmen's decennial bi An IEPA official with knowledge of the which is incorporated in the state of Missouri, still produces resins state list -- $9,000. early history of the case has told the RFT like its predecessors and legally releases some of the same hazardous The bank, however, reserves most of its generosity for its own that, prior to a waste lagoon being covered substances into the environment, according to the latest available officers. In 1992, Boatmen's paid top executive Craig B. Andrews over in 1978, any heavy rainfall would have toxic-release inventories submitted to the U.S. EPA. III an annual salary of more than $1.3 million, according to SEC washed contamination off the Lanson PCBs, however, are not among those substances, says Elliott filings. By comparison, the 1990 census indicates that the per-capi- property and into the adjacent field that Lanson, who now is general manager at the Akzo plant. Further ta income of an East St. Louis resident is $6,421. contained the neighborhood gardens. This more, the PCB explosion, which is responsible for much of the Elliott Lanson, the man named in the 1968 dumping of nox means contaminants buried 16 years ago contamination at the waste site that bears his name, occurred years ious chemicals into the East St. Louis sewers, now lives within a could still be leaching off the site or into after he and his father cut all ties to the facility, Lanson says. Dur stone's throw of Ladue and just blocks away from former President the groundwater below. ing his family's tenure, "There were no releases into the environ Bush's cousin, George Herbert Walker III. In 1987, Lanson esti The IEPA has detected volatile com ment at the Lanson Chemical Co.," says Lanson. "I was no longer mated his salary at $68,000 per year, plus a $9,400 bonus, accord pounds at the Lanson site at depths of 10 with the company when this happened." ing to divorce papers on file in St. Louis County. The legal docu to 12 feet below the surface. PCBs have The old Lanson Chemical is no comparison to Lanson's cur ments also show that Lanson has owned expensive sports cars -- a been found at 4 feet. A 1991 IEPA analysis rent employer. Akzo's institutional investors read like a who's who Porsche 911 and a vintage Corvette -- but was cited by his first of subsurface samples states: "Another pos of Wall Street, according to Security and Exchange Commission wife in 1984 for failure to pay for his own children's college educa sibility to explain the presence of volatile records filed March 31. Invcsco, a British investment company, tion. compounds in these borings is that they owns the largest block of Akzo stock, according to the SEC filing. -- C.D. Stelzer 20 THE RIVERFRONT TIMES AUGUST 10 r 16. 1994 0S* 134847 STLCOPCB4034805 report. The document goes on to say that "liquid wastes were discharged onto the land, and pooling was observed in various areas." Most impor tant, Mensing's writ ten account verifies that "rainfall had caused these pools to overflow off of the site." "It was not a pret ty picture," -says Mensing now. "There were hundreds of 55- gallon drums just out in the open, not cov ered, nor protected. A lot of them were in a wet, marshy area, which further com pounded the problem. Some were upright and some were on their sides. And 1 can tell you they didn't know what they had there. I remember them admitting they didn't know what was The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's Ken Menslng: "There were hundreds of 55-gallon drums just out In the open, not covered, not protected." good and what was bad. "At various times during the operation of this facility by the for hazardous-waste cleanups. The legisla various PRPs (potentially responsible par tion had been opposed by the Illinois ties), these materials did leave the site. Manufacturers Association, the state They were not contained and that's pretty Chamber of Commerce and the Chemical obvious. How much left the site and what Industries Council. It is reasonable to effect it had, that's the $64,000 question," assume not one lobbyist pushed the says Mensing. Trendley Avenue gardeners' agenda dur "In between the road in front of the ing that session, but it wasn't the first time building there's an open field," says the their interests were ignored. IEPA official. "It's been filled in to some Many harvests have been gathered extent. But it used to be a kind of depres from the field behind Chandler's home sion area. And that's where all the drums since Herman J. Lanson started his enter were.-That's where a lot of this liquid dis prise in 1962. The Lanson Chemical Co. charge of one sort or another would go, made aikyd resins and emulsion polymers and materials were actually being washed used in the production of paint and floor into ditches and moving offsite." wax. Solvents used in this work included Morris Industries soon hightailed it off xylene, benzene and naphtha. Tests done site, too. The company went bankrupt in at the site show these substances and oth 1978, and Delta Oil Products Corp. of ers in the soil. The additional contami Wisconsin acquired the property. James nants include PCBs, dioxins, furans, Marlde, the current owner, has told the toluene, 1-2 dichloroethene and tetra- IEPA that Delta may have stored or han chioroethene. dled PCB-laden capacitor oils at the site. In 1968, the East St. Louis sewer com There are also references in the IEPA missioner cited Lanson and his son Elliott report that mention the 1978 explosion of for dumping noxious chemicals into the a pressure reactor vessel used to synthesize municipal sewer system, according to an polymers. The reactor contained PCBs, old newspaper account. according to the state report. When the The following year, Purex Corp. fire department responded, they dispersed bought the company and it became one of the toxic liquid further by hosing down its divisions. Herman J. Lanson stayed on. the area. After the disaster, the property to head that operation. Then, in 1974, went through two more quick ownership Purex sold the plant to Morris Industries, changes, according to the IEPA file. In Inc., a paint manufacturer. The new 1981, Markle's Mid-America Alcohol owner promptly named Elliott Lanson as Producers, Inc., purchased the property. general manager (see sidebar).The elder The contaminated property adjacent Lanson, now 81, disclaims any responsi to the Lanson site has long been held in bility for the contamination of the site. limbo by the trustees of St. Clair County. After Morris Paint bought the facility, The trusteeship is a legal entity that is "We agreed to be with the company for a independent of the county government short time," says Lanson. "The Morris and has been set up to manage untaxed Paint Co. did some things that we property as required by state law. Other thought were very unusual and not very taxing bodies such as school districts, ethical, and we left," says Lanson. municipalities or townships are also joint By 1977, neighbors had begun com owners of such unclaimed land. plaining about noxious odors and spills at "What that management means is not the plant. When Mensing of IEPA dean and cut grass and paint; it means try inspected the site, he found nearly 600 to sell the property," says John Baricevic, barrels "were strewn haphazardly all over the chairman of the St. Clair County the property," according to an IEPA continued on page 22 DAN SCHADE For All Your Insurance Needs AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE AUTO HOME BUSINESS HEALTH LIFE 227-8550 If you want to experience the thrill of solo flight, powered parachutes might be your dream come true. Learn to Fly in One Afternoon! They are safe, easy to fly, and inexpensive to own. For free information or to enroll in an introductory class call: Easy Flight (314) 647-7B92 Powered parachute training & sales The 30th Annual Moonlight Ramble^ August 21,1994 12:00 am Starting at SOLDIER'S MEMORIAL PLAZA, 13th and Chestnut. Downtown St. Louis. $5 Pre-Registration $10 Night of Ride 15 mile and 8 mile routes. No rides may begin after 1:30 am. The ride ends at 4 am. Includes continental breakfast served from 1-4 am Proceeds from this event benefit the programs and services of Hostelling International. American Youth HOSTELLING ur INTERNATIONAL Moste,s- Budget SOUTHTOWN SPONSORED BY: frGnnIltt 3o ttfnUinCfk/ v Wines & Spirits Sale Great Prices Everyday On Wines & Spirits Mount den Chardonnay $7.49 Duboeuf Beoujolais Sartori Pinot Grigio $5.99 Jadot Beoujolais | Raymond Napa Chardonnay $9.99 Krug Pinot Noir Wild Horse Chardonnay $12.99 la Vielle Ferme Red Johnnie Walker Red 750ml $13.99 Tonqueray Gin Anchor Steam 8eers-6pk $5.99 Sierra Nevada-6pk $5.99 $6.99 $5.99 $4.99 $11.99 $5.99 Forget the cooking | It's hot so let Chef Jeff arly(formerly of Faust's) cook your lunch or jj dinner. UJe noui have a large selection of GOURM6T take out foods ot great prices. UJe fly in oil our cheeses and pates and UJe CRTCR. Wine Classes Classes focusing on red mine. UJe open nine expensive mines and eat light hors d'oeuvres. Cost is $25.00 per class.Dotss are Sept.6th,l 3th. 20th 6:30-9PM. Annual in store wine tasting Sept. 16th --60 wines Big Bend (Between Clayton Rd & Hi. 40) 781-2345 DSW 134848 AUGUST 10 - 16, 1994 THE RIVERFRONT TIMES 21 STLCOPCB4034806 DEAD-END STREET continuedfrom page 21 Board. St. Clair County has no legal liabili ty to clean up the property, the board chairman says. "Illinois law does not oblig ate us to do anything with the property. Our job is simply to resell it," says Baricevic. The county has no buyers in line ar this point. Although the concept originated in the late 1970s, the environmental-justice movement did not become a national issue until after the release of a 1987 study spon sored by the Commission on Racial Justice (CRJ) of the United Church of Christ. Using zip codes and EPA data, the CRJ researchers concluded that twice as many non-whites lived in the vicinity of waste facilities. In communities where there was more than one site, the number of minority members was estimated to be three times higher, according to the CRJ study. In April, the Center for the Study of American Business (CSAB) at Washington University issued a rebuttal to the CRJ study and other environmental-justice research. Christopher Boerner, a co-author of the paper, defines the CSAB as a "freemarket public-policy group." The efforts to discredit the environ mental-justice movement follow the afore mentioned Clinton administration decision in February, which ordered federal agencies to stop policies or programs that subject the poor or minorities to unfair environ mental hazards. In addition, the U.S. EPA recently started inquiries in two Southern states using Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination in Washington University's Center for the Study of American Business' Christopher Boemer and Thomas Lambert federally financed programs. Concurrently, Sen. Paul Welistone, a Democrat from Minnesota, introduced the Public Health Equity Act of 1994, which would grant plaintiffs legal means to challenge discrimi natory siting policies, which disproportion ately affect minority communities. The proposed law would raise the hack les of any red-blooded deregulation advo cate and strike terror into the anemic hearts of the corporate phantoms they are sworn to protect. Boerner wouldn't reveal any names of the CSAB's contributors. He would only say that "financing for the cen ter comes from a multitude of sources: Back to School BLOWOUT SALE The Finest Collection of Futon Furniture Anywhere! || A1Q/ APP Every Futon Sofa, KVbw9 /O W1 Mattress & Cover | At 'I lie Futon Company we have over 10 \ear<. experience making & selling Futon Furniture. With stores through-out Texas, Florida & the Midwest Everything you need for backtoschool we're die only place to buy Tyou arc looking for _ Quality, Service & Value. ......... "... . Hu9 . & setec'^,on Btook is oW Futon sofa-beds were mode Portable, affordableT with students in mind extremely comfortable. 7921 Clayton Rd - 4 blocks East of Brentwood - ph 862-8655 Free delivery with 2 student A ID! 22 THE RIVERFRONT TIMES AUGUST 10 - 16; 1994 DSW 134849 STLCOPCB4034807 foundations, corporate and individual." When asked about this year's budget, he was equally evasive; "I'm sorry, we don't give that information." The information the CSAB does pro vide is in sequential order. In Policy Study 121, for instance, Boerner and co-author Thomas Lambert define pollution as an "external cost," or "negative externality," of conducting business. They criticize the CRJ study and others for being both flawed and improperly analyzed. The authors point to recent university research -- sponsored by a major wasre-disposai com pany -- that purportedly debunks the CRJ's findings. The industry-promoted survey used census tracts and therefore is more accurate in pinpointing racial charac teristics, according to the CSAB report. The CSAB authors also conclude that waste is an inevitable byproduct of industry and there is no proof that living near a pol lution source endangers health, but, if it does, those affected should be adequately compensated for their inconvenience. Boerner and Lambert chide the environ mental-justice advocates for being unrealis tic supporters of a policy they call BANANA; "build absolutely nothing any where near anything." Charles Lee, the research director of the United Church of Christ's Committee on Racial Justice, disagrees with the CSAB's position. "Residential patterns, redlining, the inevitable concentrations of people of color to end up in the most undesirable or polluted and otherwise unhealthy areas are a result of the `market system,'" says Lee. "To trivialize what is being said, as they are trying to do, is a disservice to ultimately finding solutions that lead to the reduction of pollution. "The term BANANA arose a couple of years ago when their (business) efforts began to focus around the fear of impend ing policy and regulatory changes that (would) make the siting processes more stringent and take into account racial dis crimination in society. The whole point of what they're trying to address is a view on the part of the environmental-justice com munity that, irrespective of any racial or socioeconomic status, one should not be burdened with the effects of hazardouswaste or environmental contamination -- that that is a right among all people in soci ety." Boerner of the CSAB repeated another insidious argument in a recent telephone interview. "All the studies that environ mental-justice advocates appeal to look at current socioeconomic and demographic data," says Boerner. "You can't simply say that because a facility is in a community which is largely poor or black now, that was necessarily true when the facility was sited. For instance, there are facilities on the East Side that were sited.at the turn of the century, when East St. Louis was large ly a working-class and, in many areas, a pri marily white community,'' says Boerner. Boerner's historical analogy, however, shows flaws of its own. By 1910, blacks already represented 10 percent of East St. Louis' population, which then stood at 59,000, according to the book Race Riot in East St. Louis, July 2, 1917 by Elliott Rudwick. Spurred by rapid industrial growth, blacks continued to migrate north over the next decades searching for work. The emancipation of African-Americans follow ing the Civil War encouraged Northern industrialists to freely exploit the former slave labor force as a means of breaking union-organizing efforts. By 1926, Monsanto Chemical had founded its own town just south of the East St. Louis city limits. Since 1967, it has been called Sauget, after its longtime mayor. But for more than 40 years prior to that, it was known as Monsanto, 111. When the St. Louis chemical company decided to divest itself of some of its East Side real estate in 1927, its sales pitch included a booklet meant to entice other major pol luters to the borders of East St. Louis. Here is an excerpr: "Colored workers are available here in large numbers, and according to reporrs, are more intelligent and of a better class than those farther south, being especially useful for different kinds of rough or dis agreeable work." That was 67 years ago. Chandler has lived in East St. Louis all her life. In 1916, when she was 2 years old, the Aita Sira Improvement and Protec tive Association decreed she couldn't live in the neighborhood where she now resides. The notice appeared on the front page of the East St. Louis Daily Journal: "Be it resolved, that this district be limited and restricted for the residence of white people only." The next summer, at least 39 blacks and eight whites were murdered in East St. Louis in a race riot. Forty-two years went by before Chan dler moved to Trendley Avenue. She arrived three years before the Lanson Chemical Co. By 1960, the black popula tion in East St. Louis was approaching 50 percent. Chandler didn't have time for measuring socioeconomic factors or calcu lating demographics. She paid little heed to the chemical company that began operating behind her house, and neither did her neighbors. She was busy raising her family, going to church, paying her taxes and con tinuing to work as a federal employee until 1976. ' It has now been 34 years since she moved into the neighborhood that once excluded her. Reference librarians may not know what Alta Sita means, but Chandler says it's a Romance-language derivative for "high ground." If it is indeed high ground, the incline is imperceptible and relative to American Borroms, rhe broad floodplain that stretches for miles on the east side of the Mississippi. It is a Saturday afternoon, and the 80- year-old matron has just returned from playing sacred music at a funeral. There is a silver tea sen-ice in the dining room, where the elegant wallpaper is starting to peel. She wears a pink-chiffon dress. On top of rhe television is a framed print of A. Philip Randolph, who founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters-in 1925. Her 92- year-old husband, who is a former porter, has gone out to the kitchen, leaving her seated by a piano lined with snapshots of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Since learning of her cancer two years ago. Chandler has compiled a list of neighbors who have died. It is a long list. "I feel forsaken," she says. 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