Group says Berkeley foundry is spewing toxic metals into air
Traces can cause cancer, neurological disorders
Doug Oakley East Bay Daily News , August 29, 2007 |
Pacific Steel Casting is showering West Berkeley's skies with toxic metal traces that can cause cancer and neurological problems, according to a group of activists who have been monitoring air around the plant since May.
Global Community Monitor, a nonprofit environmental justice group based in San Francisco, started monitoring the air with a $25,000 grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.
The group released preliminary data Tuesday from 12 air monitoring sites around Pacific Steel Casting, which has been making steel parts such as fire hydrants, truck parts and bridge pieces in Berkeley since 1934. It found levels of manganese and nickel much higher than those deemed safe by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
(Photo: Doug Oakley / Daily News. Denny Larson, director of Global Community Monitor, speaks at a press conference in Berkeley on Monday to announce preliminary data on air pollution around Pacific Steel Casting, a steel foundry near Interstate 80 in Berkeley. At left is one of the devices the group uses to monitor the air.)
The group plans to continue monitoring through December, said director Denny Larson.
"We knew there was a long list of complaints from the plant, but we didn't know if people were being exposed to toxic levels of pollution, and now we have the data," said Peter Guerrero, a consultant working with Larson. "The state of California and the city should look at an industrial relocation plan for them. Just because they have been here for decades doesn't excuse their behavior."
Larson and Guerrero called on Pacific Steel to shut down the plant or install additional pollution-control devices. The plant installed a $4 million filtration device in October 2006 at one of its three buildings and is looking at updating two others. Global Community Monitor also wants to put its own monitoring devices right on Pacific Steel's smokestacks to get more accurate air readings.
Pacific Steel spokeswoman Elizabeth Jewel said closing the plant and moving out of Berkeley is a "completely unrealistic" option.
"That would be a huge loss for the city of Berkeley," Jewel said. "Where would they like us to go?"
Jewel said she can't comment on Global Community Monitor's proposal to install monitoring devices on the plant's smokestacks because Pacific Steel hasn't heard about it yet.
The group said it found concentrations of manganese, which can cause neurological problems similar to Parkinson's disease, and nickel, which can cause cancer, in the air at five sites near the plant.
Those levels were found in the air as far as six blocks from the plant at Second and Gilman streets.
Larson said the group tested the air for metal traces Pacific Steel has admitted it releases in its steel-making process. In a report to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Pacific Steel said it released 529 pounds of manganese and 19 pounds of nickel into the air during a one-year period in 2005 and 2006.
(Photo: L A Wood, Community activist who volunteers in an air monitoring program that thracks air pollution near Pacific Steel in Berkeley, talks at a press conference Monday after prelimilary data was released. In background is one of the rooftop monitors devices on topof a house in the rear. Doug Oakley)
Jewel said the data released Monday by the Global Community Monitor lacks what counts most - science.
"This is a group of concerned citizens who are not scientists, with no scientific training, who are coming to conclusions that can't be supported," Jewel said. "They don't follow any standard scientific methodology. They don't publish their methodology or how they came to those numbers, there's no peer review and there's no way to say definitively that the source is Pacific Steel."
Karen Schkolnick, spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which provided the grant money for the air monitoring, said the district and Global Community Monitor agreed on a scientific protocol before the grant was awarded. However, the air district can't say whether the data released Monday is reliable because the group has not provided a "report that would document how they would handle quality assurance.
"Until then, it's premature to judge the data because we don't know what we're looking at," Schkolnick said. "It was our expectation we would receive that information when we received the data. We can't verify their data until we know what their process is."
Schkolnick said the district grant was awarded so the air could be temporarily monitored until a permanent air monitoring system is installed. She said that monitor will go live in about a month, but added that she can't reveal its location.
Schkolnick said the air district received 533 complaints about Pacific Steel in 2005 and 900 complaints in 2006.
Linda Maio, the Berkeley city council member whose district includes the plant, said she had not seen the report by the environmentalists but isn't surprised by Pacific Steel's reaction.
"It's always easy to say off the cuff that the science isn't good," Maio said.
Although she wants the plant to clean up its act, Maio said she doesn't want to shut it down.
"My first priority is protecting the public from harmful emissions," Maio said. "At the same time we can't just knee-jerk and shut them down. We are trying not to jeopardize the 500 or 600 families that rely on the jobs from this plant."
BERKELEY: Report Shows High Levels of Toxic Metals in Air Near Steel Plant
Bay City News August 29, 2007 |
BERKELEY (BCN)
Air samples taken near a Berkeley steel plant show that levels of toxic metals in the area are hundreds of times higher than the World Health Organization deems safe, according to preliminary results of a study released today.
The air tests taken near Pacific Steel Casting Co. show high levels of nickel and manganese, according to independent health expert Mark Cherniak, who analyzed the data compiled by Berkeley Community Monitoring Team, a group of residents trained to carry out scientific testing.
"In general, the test results are inconclusive and misleading," Pacific Steel Casting spokeswoman Elisabeth Jewel said in a prepared statement.
Berkeley Community Monitoring Team's test doesn't discriminate among the other potential sources of emissions in the West Berkeley area including train tracks, Interstate Highway 80 and other nearby facilities, according to Pacific Steel Casting.
Furthermore, the health-based standards identified in the report represent concentrations associated with long-term exposures, which are not an appropriate comparison to short-term sample durations like the 24-hour samples collected by the monitoring team, according to the company.
The study started May 20 and is expected to continue through at least December, said Denny Larson, executive director of Global Community Monitor, a nonprofit organization that trains industrial communities to keep their neighborhoods clean by doing things like this test by Berkeley Community Monitoring Team.
So far, 24 air samples have been taken. The Berkeley Community Monitoring Team plans to take another 100 samples. To meet Environmental Protection Agency criteria, all sampling is done on rooftops, Larson said.
"This is the first time that this type of detailed monitoring has ever been done," he said.
The grant for the study was provided Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Chairman Mark Ross said.
The preliminary results of the study haven't been vetted so it is not possible to comment on them officially, Ross said.
"We have been in litigation with Pacific Steel and the public has been at odds with the firm for years," Ross said.
High levels of airborne manganese reportedly can affect motor skills such as holding one's hand steady, maintaining balance and performing fast hand movements, according to the Global Community Monitor. Additionally, high levels of exposure may also cause sexual dysfunction and respiratory problems.
Workers at nickel-processing plants and refineries have experienced reduced lung function and chronic bronchitis.
"The smells, the odors, the burning of the eyes - it is something that doesn't just leave you when you leave the area but it stays with you for hours," said L A Wood, a Berkeley Community Monitoring Team member said. "There is always going to be some severe problems with emissions. It is inherent with the industry."
Pacific Steel officials say they are working on ways to improve air quality and it is analyzing its manufacturing process to try to reduce emissions while maintaining the quality of its products.
"It's an ongoing process," Jewel said today.
The company plans to install a baghouse this week, which is like a filter in a vacuum cleaner that picks up metals as air goes through it.
"It filters out the very metals which the Global Community Monitor report talks about," Jewel said.
Pacific Steel also has installed a new carbon filter on one of the plants, which has made significant reductions in odors and emissions, she said.
In addition, the company is using a new binder, or adhesive-like material, which keeps sand molds together when they cast metal. The binder that holds the sand together has been a focal point for emissions. It is still being tested, but company officials say so far the results have been good.
Pacific Steel Casting, located at 1333 Second St., was founded in 1934 to make steel castings for the U.S. military. Employing more than 600 workers, it is the fourth largest surviving steel foundry in the U.S.
