hope in Fla: Soot sleuths - 'Bucket Brigade' volunteers monitor industrial plant emissions

[Guest guest]

Wow! Imagine similar efforts throughout the nation! Such worthy projects

for kids.

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Dec 31, 2005

Soot sleuths

Volunteers monitor industrial plant emissions

CHRISTOPHER CURRY

STAR-BANNER

http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051231/NEWS/212310364/1001/New\

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[foto] Forest High School student Ollie Mclean, 16, holds a collection

board from northwest Ocala near the Royal Oak charcoal plant, top, and

another from southeast Ocala, bottom. PHOTOS BY DOUG ENGLE/STAR-BANNER

OCALA - For decades, residents in a northwest Ocala neighborhood feared

their concerns about pollution from nearby industrial sites too often fell

on deaf ears.

So they recently decided to track the pollution themselves with

old-fashioned observation skills and by using household items like paper

plates and bed sheets to mimic more expensive, sophisticated equipment to

gather evidence on the emissions and particles that the Royal Oak charcoal

plant and other industrial sites near their homes spouted into the air.

Late last month, they launched the Northwest Ocala Bucket Brigade, a local

link in a national chain of neighborhood organizations formed to monitor

pollution.

At the same time, a high school student from the other side of town

launched a grass-roots pollution monitoring campaign of her own in

northwest Ocala. For a biology class science project, Forest High School

sophomore Ollie McLean mounted pieces of white poster board coated with

Vaseline at five homes within a quarter mile of Royal Oak to catch

airborne particulates for one week. She also put similar monitoring

stations at five locations in her southeast Ocala neighborhood, at least

two miles from Royal Oak.

Ollie said the results were no surprise. Soot covered the boards from

northwest Ocala in black while those placed in the southeast area of the

city remained almost pristine white. She said the ratio of particulate

matter collected on the boards near Royal Oak to those in southeast Ocala

was 116 to 1.

The Royal Oak charcoal plant is seen making charcoal briquettes last month.

" This is just a young girl's project, but there is no doubt, " Ollie's

mother, Martie McLean said. " There's no denying it. "

Meanwhile, the local bucket brigade that the Neighborhood Citizens of

Northwest Ocala started with help from nonprofit environmental group

WildLaw continues to collect data. On pollution, residents detail the

smoke and other visible emissions from Royal Oak and other nearby sites

and the soot and other particulates raining down on their homes. The group

also is monitoring from the nearby Pine Oaks golf course and Lillian

Park.

The plan is to send the collected particulates for testing through the

National Bucket Brigade Coalition. Residents also are detailing any

respiratory or other ills they are experiencing.

Royal Oak has announced plans to close its Ocala plant at the end of

February, but Jeanne Zokovitch, an attorney with WildLaw, said that has

not affected the Northwest Ocala Bucket Brigade.

" This was all planned before Royal Oak announced its departure, " Zokovitch

said. " But announcing a departure and actually departing are two different

things. And sometimes emissions can get worse before a facility closes

because they feel they have nothing to lose, not that there is evidence

that is happening here.

Forest High School student Ollie McLean looks through a microscope at

particles collected during her project.

And Royal Oak has never been the only facility the community was concerned

about. "

Zokovitch said the idea is for residents to have hard evidence to back up

their decades of complaints about pollution in the area.

" It is community involvement, so everyone is on patrol, " said Ruth ,

president of the Neighborhood Citizens of Northwest Ocala. " I think it's

effective. This is our way of letting them know the whole community is

watching, to let them know they must stay in compliance until the close

Feb. 28. "

Zokovitch said a group of California residents launched the the first

bucket brigade, using a five-gallon bucket, a hose and a Teflon bag to

monitor pollution in their community. Anyone seeking information on the

Northwest

Ocala Bucket Brigade may e-mail Ruth at lreed904514@... or Jeanne

Zokovitch at wildlawaces@....

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Curry may be reached at chris.curry@... or 867-4115.

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