D.C. Asks Federal Agency To Study NE Area Illness

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http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/metro/dc/A17268-2001Aug15.html

D.C. Asks Federal Agency To Study NE Area Illness

Residents Release Survey, Complain of Delay in Action

Minnie Holder, 91, speaks with Hasty as he conducts a survey of

health problems suffered by residents. Activists believe these problems are

caused by the Pepco power plant and trash transfer station. (a Arias -

Post)

.. Panel Advises Against D.C. Village Trash Station (The Washington Post, May

9, 2001)

.. Promises 'Action' on Dumps (The Washington Post, Jan 30, 2000)

By Abhi Raghunathan

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 16, 2001; Page B01

The residents of River Terrace, convinced that they suffer from sickness

caused by pollution, got word yesterday that the District's Department of

Health had asked for a federal study of the neighborhood's problems.

The letter from the Health Department -- dated Tuesday, the day before River

Terrace residents released results of a summer-long, door-to-door survey of

diseases that could lead to death in the neighborhood -- asks the federal

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to conduct a study there.

The agency is considering the request.

The Health Department's action, though, provoked complaints from those who

organized the survey. Believing that the city had ignored earlier

complaints, they had hoped their efforts would result in the closing of a

Potomac Electric Power Co. generating plant that has a history of violations

and that many residents blame for their illness.

" What happened the last 10, 15 years? " said E. Gurley, 73, the leader

of the effort, about the city's response. " Why did they wait until the last

minute? "

The answer, a Health Department official said, is that residents had never

made a formal request.

As for the Benning Generating Station, said Potts, a Pepco vice

president for environment, the plant is not as much of a hazard as car fumes

because it runs only when there is great demand on the power grid or danger

of a blackout.

Experts said the other potential sources of pollution make it difficult to

pinpoint the cause of illnesses, which River Terrace residents said include

asthma, bronchitis and cancer. The survey they released yesterday showed a

much greater frequency of those diseases than in the District as a whole.

Even the boundaries that define River Terrace could be responsible for the

illnesses, the experts said. Made up of about 1,000 households scattered

across 18 blocks, the neighborhood is bordered by the polluted Anacostia

River on the west. Three roads often clogged with cars make up its other

borders: East Capitol Street to the south, Interstate 295 to the east and

Benning Road to the north. And there is a trash transfer station that for

two decades was the site of a city incinerator that burned garbage.

" Most of these diseases have multiple causes, and it's difficult to pin down

the cause of these diseases on one factor and one factor alone, " said

Balbus, an associate professor at the Washington University School of

Public Health and Health Services.

The plant started up in the early 1900s and burned coal until it switched to

oil in the 1970s.

It has a history of opacity violations -- spewing smoke. Such emissions,

experts and health officials said, may contain particles that can cause

health problems.

There were enough such emissions for the city and Pepco to enter into a

consent decree in 1996 that set out fines of $500 and later $1,000 a day.

Pepco has not paid, but Theodore J. Gordon, chief operating officer for the

health department, said his department was negotiating with Pepco over

violations and payments addressed in the consent decree and declined to

comment on incidents after 1996.

City and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency records show that there have

been a number of emission problems since 1996. Sternberg, a spokesman

for the EPA, said there had been about 100 violations in 1998 alone. An

inspection that year found major maintenance problems. Smoke that was

supposed to come out the top of the smokestacks was getting out near ground

level, inspectors said.

" Even a layman would agree that to have smoke intended to go up the stack

coming through the building and fumigating the neighborhood would mean

pretty gross negligence, " said Gillespie, one of the inspectors who

wrote the report, in a recent interview. He was chief of compliance and

enforcement for the city's air quality division at that time.

Potts said that Pepco shut down the plant to fix the leaks and that the

plant, with the exception of opacity violations, met other district and

federal guidelines. During the past few years, he said, Pepco has invested

money to reduce emissions. He added that because the plant is used little,

it does not require frequent maintenance.

From 1972 to 1994, smoke also billowed from the stacks of the power plant's

neighbor, the city incinerator.

Stricter standards spelled the end of burning garbage, Department of Public

Works officials said, and the facility was turned into a trash transfer

station.

The department is planning to renovate it to process more garbage and do so

more cleanly.

River Terrace residents resist any effort to bring more garbage to the area.

For Gurley, the survey results are proof that things are wrong and a way to

show that he tried to stop the pollution.

" When these kids playing basketball now grow up and they get asthma,

bronchitis, they're going to ask me, 'Mr. Gurley, what did you do?' " Gurley

said.

He said he could not answer " nothing. "

© 2001 The Washington Post Company