[CPEO-BIF] Ithaca (NY) editorial on TCE and vapor intrusion

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

TCE pollution: Small steps in right direction

Editorial
Ithaca Journal (NY)
May 24, 2006

Sometimes progress can be measured in great seismic lurches. Other times 
it creeps along at a glacial pace, passing milestones without much 
notice. In both cases, there are reasons to pause and cheer.

The ongoing crisis over trichloroethylene pollution in the city's South 
Hill neighborhood has seen both types of progress. For a long time, 
local environmental watchdog Walter Hang was a man alone raising the 
alarm that the industrial solvent and likely carcinogen known better as 
TCE, once used at the former Morse Chain site, leaked into the ground 
and was seeping into the homes of area residents. A state bureaucracy 
slow to answer Hang's questions drew a sharp rebuke from former Assembly 
member and sitting U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, the issue became a regular 
player on The Journal's front page, then everything shifted along the 
public fault line. The debate moved from if there was a problem; to how 
much, how far and how to help the families affected.

Since then progress has come in small, steady steps.

Emerson Power Transmission, which bought Morse chain after the TCE days, 
began testing and attempted cleanup. Testing expanded, as did 
remediation efforts, and Emerson expanded the testing area, and earlier 
this year voluntarily lowered the threshold at which it offers indoor 
pollution mitigation systems to homeowners.

The state shook from its seeming slumber as well. The departments of 
Health and Environmental Conservation and state legislators have grown 
more active. Several hearings were held in the area, and lawmakers 
wisely linked TCE problems here with the chemical's widespread toxic 
legacy throughout the state.

...

For the entire editorial, see
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060524/OPINION01/605240305/1014
--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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