Document b56mezBpG9v3aD35QLjQYBw4o

A Modest Proposal... CLEIUL riivv' nj 4J : cs F03 PRESIDZMT! (See page 10) In January of 1979 the citizens of Galveston voted overwhelmingly to stop inflationary taxation. It is time for these same citizens to once again rally and stop an in flationary rate increase request by Houston and lighting Power Co. The utility company has aoplied tor a 20% rate increase--a full 13% over President Carter's anti-inflation guide'ines. We feel this rute increase re quest is unnecessary and infla tionary. The utitiiy employs a double standard. Why is it they can pass through fuel cost increases but will not pass through to the consumer decreases in costs? Did anyone see a decrease on their tight bill because HL&F's Galves ton property taxes ware lowered by $61,000 due to the revaluation cf property? No. All we get was a 20% rate increase request. This money grab can be stopped. The light company must go before our City Council for permission to increase utility rates. We urge you to remind your elected officials of the mandate you gave them on January 20, 1979. In plain terms, we are tired of runaway costs im posed on the public by unelected bureauracies. The Light Company's 20% rate increase is beyond the bounds of reason. Let's hepe cur elected officials are more reason able and realize that. ASV 0006761 r 1 ffoatMITGS O' > W'/ '/ V and the gamblers who made Gal veston "Sin C\ty.''A/an Waldman of a native son to the Island he left behind. Bill Schadwell s CHEMICALS at the Texas City Wye waste pit may be fatal. Lee Hochberg p. 7 Whatever happened to gas lines? p. lOClements for President? p. 15 Around Town: Skate.City! p. 56 Visitor's Guide: What to do. p. 58 The Historical Strand! *J "Hot Tubs" Make Warm Friends Leisure Ideas of Galveston Introduces The Hot Tub AndyRuffipo Stan Harper 763-1811 765-9100 Joe Murphy Pete Fredriksen Steven Long Publisher/Editor In Between Advertising Director Susan Permenter Assi. Advertising Director Bill Marahella Mainland Bureau Lee Hochberg trror Kxeculionr In Between Magazine is published every other Thursday hv Galveston Counrv Monthly Puhlishimt Company, 23! 1 The Strand. Galveston. Te\as775^0 (7)3) 763.2020. V \ t r RSV 0006762 Chemical wastepits emit vinyl chloride. Liv*r:ig Nest Door to Cancer by Lee Hochberg l At least six hundred residents of La Marque were exposed to possibly deadly amounts of vinyl chloride between 1973 and 1978. The Texas Air Control Board (TACB) knows that any of the people may be developing liver cancer as a result, and so does the Galveston County Health District. The only people who don't know are the six hundred residents them selves. These people are in the dark about their exposure to vinyl chloride because the TACB thought that it would be best not to tell them about it. The TACB officials reasoned that not dis closing the problem would avoid unnecessary panic. According to the TACB, vinyl chloride in the La Marque area may or may not cause cancer and they felt nothing could be gained by disclosing the problem. But these same TACB officials are admitting that they would never take the risk of living where Lhose 600 unknowingly did. The threat to health is that real. . In concern are 600 people who between 1973 and 1978 lived in the Sunflower Mobile Home Park, a trailer camp which backed up upon ihe so-called Petro-Processors Waste Pits near the Texas City Wye. The seven open waste pits in that area are between 12 and 25 feet deepaod contain nearly 100.000 barrels of highly toxic industrial wastes. In July of 1978, the Texas Air Control Board discovered that carcino genic vinyl chloride levels downwind from the pits at the trailer camp were three limes Ihe acceptable health level. The TACB warned in an inter-office report that "people in the nearby residential areas are being exposed to concentrations in excess of a recommended health standard.'* But to this date, those people have not been warned and the TACB has no intention to change that. "The damage was already done," says TACB Regional Supervisor Lioyd Stewart. "We need to concentrate on the present and the future, not the past. We didn't have the need or the time to tell everyone." Emissions of carcinogenic vinyl chloride continue today, and are only one of three significant health dangers originating from the Petro-Processor Pits. As vinyl chloride slides downwind through, the La Marque air, the underground water table is being permeated by some extremely toxic metallic and organic contaminants that, according to Tom Kearns of the Texas Water Right* Commission, could enter the Galveston Bay marine food chain and eventually cause coiiiinucd p. 9^ 30 IN BETWEEN RSV 0006763 ossibly nay be tfeaJth them- rv ,e in the "Dosed ended ? not .'ntion :ready rrvisor :ie on past, o tell :oride three from loride -trque oeing tallic "rg to jghts eston :ause * RSV 0006764 r %i-.. serious human illness not unlike the mercury poisoning chat killed 67 persons and perman ently disabled 331 others six years ago in Japan. And if these hazards weren't enough, several unlabeled drums of highly toxic chem icals are spewn across the ground around the open pus, luring opportunistic chemical dealers to the valuable drums without know ledge of the deadly materials inside. But there is no doubt the vinyl chloride represents the biggest health hazard. The trailer- camp was closed in November of 1978 for tax reasons, according to owner Robert Nesmith of Houston, and not until In Between told him this week of TACB's discovery of excess vinyl chloride emissions was he informed of the health threat. "Wow," he mused. *'!t's a good thing we got out of there.I had"nhought about redeveloping the property, but it stirtks so bad there is no way I can lure people back. But nobody told me it was dangerous." Dr. Norman Treiff, Co-Director of the Division of Environmental Toxicology at the UTMB Department of Preventative Medicine and Community Health, would have told him. "In light of those facts, I suTe wouldn't live there." he said. "Vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen of the human liver, and also causes glial tumors in the brain and respiratory tumors in humans." Trieff specu lated that the vinyl chloride levels at the trailer ho/ncs introduced a `'definite possibi lity" of liver cancer in perhaps one or two residents, especially any resident who drank moderately to heavily or made common use of the sedative drug phenobarbitol. Trieff also wondered if the chemical had caused any mutagenic birth defects in babies born to Sunflower Motor Homes residents; if father or mother was exposed to the carcino gen at the time of conception, the child might have suffered such effects. Trieff cautioned that no assurance exists that any La Marque trailerowncr was affected by high vinyl chloride emissions. The cancer takes several years to develop and without word from the TACB, affected individuals have little reason to be suspicious. But Trieff called the TACB silence about vinyl chloride emission.-, "unethical, immoral, and maybe illegal." But TACB official Stewart maintained that no value would have come from informing the trader park residents. "Fear would have breathed rear and we would have found ourr.e!ves in a runaway situation." he said. "If we had gone door-to-door, people would have said, "Oh, my God. is it dangerous? and we wouldn't have known what to say." Onlv in California has an air safely standard for vinyl chloride been established, though its masurium of 10 parts per billion is widely accepted across the United States. TACB's Siewiui called the California standard "an educated -;ucss" and pooh-poohed the TACB laboratory reading ol 30 parts per billion cunimuc'J nest pae - R.SV View i I three tit the trails didn't w: out," he the trade so that sc .As for have lire plied tha area, atv "A trail* people, a in the T be expos* chloride, accompli "But the entire The t*. chloride guez ant rhe own to remo' rene tar Southern Co. (So styrene t of Dom Houston were co worried children, the La % 0006765  or two drank immon . Tricff cau' rs bo... nts; if arcino: child exists ffected cancer .-ithout iduals .. But vinvl il, and ?d that Tminc i have founJ said, would erotts? sav " tndard hough widclv \CBs i "ar TAC million p*c (three times the California lirmt) found in the trailer park as inconclusive. "We just didn't want to make people panic and move out," he said. "A month later, we heard the trailer park was closing for other reasons, so that solved all our problems." As for the problems of those who might have already contracted cancer. Stewart im plied that such was the risk of living in the area, and the residents already knew that. "A trailer park tends to attract transient people, anyway, and if they are going to live in the Texas City area, they're going to be exposed to things even worse than vinyl chloride. I don't see what we would have accomplished by going door-to-door." "But we were very uncomfortable about the entire situation. I admit." The TACB first became aware of the vinvl chloride dancer in February. 197S. Dom.ng-uez and Sapp Enterprises contracted with the owners of the waste pits. Motco, Inc., to rSTnove several thousand barrels of sty rene tars from-the pit, to be delivered to Southern Pacific in Houston. But JOC Oil Co. (Southern Pacific's original source of styrene tar extender and thus a competitor of Dominguez and Sapp) discovered that Houstonians near the Southern Paolic plant were complaining of headaches and were worried about the health of their voting children. Suspecting that the styTtmc tar from the La Marque pit was somehow contammat- ed, JOC blew the whistle to the TAC3, which measured extremely high vinyl chloride content in the Southern Pacific area. The TACB immediately ordered that if Southern Pacific were to continue the use of styrene from those pits that it take out a permit .for vinyl chloride and purchase equipment to lower emissions. Southern Pacific instead simpiy canceled the contract with Dominguez and Sapp for the contaminated styrene and returned to its original vendor. Then the TACB investigation shifted to La Marque, where officials recorded vinyl chloride readings of 30.000 parts per miHion in the pits, surging to 80,000 parts per million when the tar was heated. Local of ficials were appalled. "Now that carcinogen is just sitting there," laments La Marque Mayor Roargc Crowder. "If the TACB had left Southern Pacific alone, it might be out of this area now. The TACB eliminated a useful process." Where did the vinyl chloride come from in the first ptece? Nobody is really sure, nor do they know how much is in the seven pits. Tlie pits had oricinallv been excavated to provide soil for U. S. Highway 75 In 1959. Pctro-Processors began to use them as a reclamation center for recovery of recycl able materials from Monsanto's waste sivrcne tars. The recycling operation was abandoned (Body of text continued on page ^0) RSV 0006766 IN QETWCEN j'j PEQSCTS BACK TO SCHOOL CHECK LIST * BIB OVERALLS .c-**, *.. m OCEAN PACIFIC SHIRTS -bri'iWi /SHOES -Itiwtbn-tnMtJMti-MdlMIt jrJ SLAX-u^-ciM(kA*.kUU-iwu4rirto. T LEVI's CORDUROY JEAKS- 11CahnSnU MM STRAIGHT LEVI's, SHRINK-TO-FIT /g BELLS, BOOT JEANS DRESS SHIRTS -VHllMMa-Cmrab-DMMU* VSPORT SHIRTS- ttwt Ihm 9*jf mi Mm'i FOR THE GALS few D*ft A c*rit . CsMn KUia $bb**m - Pmt Uftla V ttdi GW MALI - Gtorit VmUmUt iauUto -10 1/ BLOUSES & SWEATERS & VELOURS V htriw-bHaAbMi WiiihBi*b|i VI*AUrtij Irnprmm Something New Every Day At. d'S-A fc. auviiMiu 30 IN BETWEEN I- alilBKTitf-4ML iMHfr" 1 Several 55 gallon drums are also resting on the bottom of the pits, their contents and origin unknown. in 1961 after inundation from Hurricane Carla, and from 1961 to 1968 the land was used as a dump ground for styrene tars, oily wastes, spent acids, and metallic catylysts as copper chloride, mercuric chloride, elemental lead and mercury. Apparently, vinyl chloride bottoms were included in the waste. Several 55 gallon drums arc also resting on the bottom of the pits, their con tents and origin unknown. And none of the industries or trucking companies which have dumped the wastes are admitting to having kept records of the materials (although environmentalists claim trucking companies always Hie bills of lad ing, and that industries keep track of wastes for future use in the reclamation- process). A Texas Water Rights Commission in vestigation has been halfhearted at best; a TWRC form letter asking all involved parties what materials are in the pits got little or no response last year and no subse quent effort has since been made. Whenever it came from, experts are ex pressing surprise at the continuing omounft of vinyl chloride that are still venting from the pits. "An air-conditioned car going 80 down Route 146 isn't going to have any problems." says Kearns. "But when I'm up there, 1 make sure I stay upwind, and I'm not kidding." He's fortunate to know ot a danger that 600 people didn't. "When I'm up there (at the site) I make sure I stay upwind, and I'm not kidding." Kearns is forced to make several trips annually to the site to investigate another major health threat--the seepage and over now of liquid contaminants in the pits into adjoining properties. *Thc pits are unlincd. A 1975 TWRC study showed that con tents of the pits were in "hydrological com munication with shallow ground water," continued nett page - and the natnv ing soil had interactioa 01 bottoms witfe "waste hat and has caua oil contaroin Those was elemental me lysts as coppe Kearns warn the contamiu tinues. some can be expo the Galvestoi ing series o that the watt Dr. James 1 photograph* the death o life in a pa bay. "The just a seepi said. "The p now the a: amm: next."1 No evidei ing water (> has yet beer closest pot: dence of | metallic CO I maintainini * water. l says Kearnt I The u&ut < procedure | owner of i available i i (the owner } in 1976. ' ! not yet b | court. So i i of funds, taminants: And war not a cliff RSV 0006767 'jins are ;ium of the and origin om Hurricane $ the land was - styrene tars, metallic catycuric chloride, 4 Apparently, ncluded in the urns are also pits, their con* a or trucking ied the wastes records of the entalisis claim le bills of ladTack of wastes ation- process), mission in* c*-ted at best; .11 involved i the pits got and no subse* ic. experts are ex* ntiing amounts i venting from i car going 80 . to have any v when I'm up wind, and I'm to Know ot a (at the site) nd, and I'm several trips tigate another 'age and over* n the pits into s are unlined. ed that con* ""logical com* id water,*' iinucd next - and the natural permeability of the undcrly* ing soil had been markedly increased after interaction of the styrene und vinyl chloride bottoms with the clay. The result is that "waste has permeated deep and laterally, and has caused a high content of metal and oil contamination in the ground water/' Those wastes include deadly amounts of elemental mercury and lead, and such catylysts as copper chloride and mercuric chloride. Kearns warned that if, over several years, the contamination of the ground water con* linues, some "very serious health effects'* can be expected as the contaminants enter the Galveston Bay food chain. And a frighten ing series of aerial photographs indicates that the water has, indeed, reached the bay. Dr. James Parker of La Marque strikingly photographed {through infrared photography) the death of the chlorophyl layer of plant life in a path leading from the pits to the bay. "The earth between those points is just a seeping mass of pollution," Parker said. "The plants are obviously absorbing it-- now the animals of the bay are next." "The earth Is just a seeping mass of pollution. The plants are obviously absorbing it--now the animals of the bay are next."* i "No evidence of contamination of the drink ing water (drawn from a lower water strata) has yet been uncovered; samples from the two closest potable water wells showed no evi dence of contamination from orcanic or metallic compounds. But the TWRC is not maintaining a constant monitor on the area water. "We just don't have the money." says Kearns. The usual avenue of funding a monitoring procedure is to require monies from the owner of the dangerous property. It is u.available in this case, because Motto luc. (the owner of the pits) declared bankruptcy in 1976. The assets of the company have i not yet been distributed from bankruptcy ! court. So the federal agencies, claiming lack | -of funds, have only watched as the conitaminants spread. And watching (hose contaminants spread is inoi a difficult task after a heavy raint.tll, . continued ncpap* . f Odds and Ends! Sale At Both Shops Now we want to pleasure you with our newest venture %<Ia & 2301 Strand Galveston, Texas located in the Wentletrap IN BETWEEN 3? RSV 0006766 r KIEMlGiCBmEES| r "I sure do worry about a hurricane but l fee! there's nothing I could do about it. The state agencies just aren't doing their job." RSV 0006769 The TACB in Austin last month committed some funds to assist in the cleanup-- $102,000 to be used not to cleanup the pollution, but to study it. request to Dominiqucz and Sapp for removal of the drums, the TWRC has taken no action. Officials at TACB and TWRC are admit tedly concerned about the pits, about cancer- causing vinyl chloride, about poisons in the ground water, about toxic chemicals in easy walking distance of Route 146. But all insist there is nothing they can do. A com plete cleanup of the pits would cost nearly five million dollars, Kearns said, and that kind of money is unavailable to them. The effort to divide up Motco's assets is bogged down in court and has been for over a year; TWRC has put a claim for some of that money, but Keams has no idea if or when that will come through. State Senator Babe Schwartz made an ef' fort to introduce a bill in this year's senate that would have diverted some state funds to the cleanup process, but that bill died in committee. Almost as an insult, the TACB in Austin last month committed some funds to assist in the cleanup--S102.000 to be used not to clean-up the pollution, but to study it. "That's all we can do for now, until we get some funds," Kearns said. And as pollution officials in Houston, Austin, and Washington lament from nine to five about their lack of funds and enforce ment failures, residents of La Marque and the bay area can do nothing but come home and wait. "These agencies just have to dean up their act," said Mayor Crowder. "They are simply not enforcing their laws. And when all is said and done, we don't have five million dollars to clean it up either. If they don't come up with the money, it will stay where it is." Unfortunately, the pollutants won't stay Where they are. The contaminants will con tinue to seep into the ground to the bay and, without action, make their way into the marine life of the region. The chemical drums may vanish into the trucks of van dals--if the vandals aren't seriously burned first. And while the vinyl chloride hovers 0ver the immediate area, its effects may be Raveling ali over La Marque or elsewhere, `fttide the bodies of the former trailer park 'esidents. Like TACB spokesman say., the damage is already done. ' l MEN'S AND BOY'S UNDERWEAR Includes all Hanes men's and boy's white all cotton briefs and tops - plus regular and gripper boxers. Qalvaz Mall IN BETWEEN 41 Rsv 0006770