Berkeley Group Concerned Over Air Conditions From Steel Plant VIDEO
Steel Plant Calls Study Inconclusive
Amy Hollyfield



Aug. 28, 2007 (KGO) - A community group has revealed air sample results taken downwind of a Berkeley steel plant. They say the plant is putting neighbor's health in jeopardy but do bay area air quality officials agree.

There are questions about how these volunteers took their samples and if the level of contaminants they found are accurate. The volunteers say you can argue the methodology all you want, but the fact that any contaminants were found, raises enough concern for them about peoples health in the community.

A team of Berkeley residents took a Minivol portable air sampler and placed it on rooftops in West Berkeley. They've been doing this since April-each time leaving it there for 24 hours.

"We found not so surprisingly high metal emissions particulates that of manganese and nickel," said L A Wood of the Berkeley Air Monitoring Team.

There were days when the levels were below federal and state standards. But the average value of emissions found exceed regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization. The average amounts are within California standards.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District calls the results preliminary. The district gave the grant for this study, but says the monitoring team has yet to turn a report detailing how the samples were taken, so the district cannot verify the result yet.

The Pacific Steel Company also has problems with this report. They call the test results inconclusive and misleading.

There are numerous numbers of industries around here that may emit and do emit and so there's no way, unless you do source testing right at the source that you can determine what the actual source is.
But a professor of environmental engineering at UC Berkeley looked at the results and says the reported levels warrant a closer look at the steel company.

"To have a steel operation located immediately upwind from a densely populated urban area isn't the best arrangement and yet there are jobs at this site and there's en economic benefit from having the facility there for the city of Berkeley " said Bill Nazaroff, UC Berkeley professor.
Copyright 2007, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.