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Toxic chemical levels exceed EPA rules at Whitehall quarry fill site, federal agency says

Morning Call - 6/8/2018

June 08--When Whitehall Township received word from the EPA about a violation for toxic chemicals at the Coplay Aggregates quarry fill site, township leaders were in the middle of a meeting with owners of the property.

Mayor Michael Harakal Jr. said his secretary handed him the notice as soon as he had stepped away from the meeting as it was winding down on Tuesday.

By the time he realized the violation notice pertained to Coplay Aggregates, the meeting was adjourned and company representatives left.

The violation, he said, was not mentioned during the meeting, which was intended to be the start of a new chapter of communication and transparency between the two parties.

"We know it's not a good thing when we talk about better communication only to find they've known about this and we weren't told of this," Harakal said.

According to a certified letter sent to Coplay Aggregates, 5101 Beekmantown Road, levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were detected in some of the material used at the property to fill the abandoned quarry. Under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, PCBs levels are not to exceed 2 parts per million. But the sample taken on March 12, levels of the chemical measured 6.75 parts per million.

The EPA violation notice is addressed to business owner Brian Hilliard and though there was no clear date for when the letter was sent, there is a stamp on the correspondence dated April 24. Efforts to reach management at Coplay Aggregates were unsuccessful Thursday and a media contact for the federal Environmental Protection Agency was unable to provide more information as of Thursday evening.

Whitehall Commissioner Joseph Marx Jr. said the he was livid when he learned of the violation. He said commissioners intend to meet with legal counsel following Monday's township meeting to find out whether they have any recourse in the matter.

"We're going to do everything we can to protect our citizens, our air, our water and our infrastructure," Marx said. "This is totally an unacceptable behavior. It's truly a shame Whitehall has to accept this type of trash from New York and New Jersey. And I don't have a lot of faith in our regulatory agencies because it took three months for us to be made aware of this."

The township and Coplay Aggregates have a history of clashes. Neighbors have complained about the debris, odor and traffic of dump trucks that constantly trundle into the quarry site.

Whitehall Commissioners have found they have limited jurisdiction in curbing these issues for residents or learning more about the source material trucked into the site. The township remains locked in a legal battle with the company over a state Department of Environmental Protection permit issued in 2015 that allowed them to use a wider range of fill material in the reclamation project.

The EPA violation notice the township learned about Tuesday came via email from Dean Ritter, chief of Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement with the DEP.

Ritter explains in the email that he' passing along the notice "due to Whitehall Township's standing request for copies of DEP inspection reports/enforcements." Though the matter was an EPA enforcement matter, Ritter said he felt it applied since it would be filed with the DEP enforcement file for Coplay Aggregates.

The letter indicates the contaminated soil at Coplay Aggregates came from a source in New York and the EPA was made aware after the DEP notified them of the shipment. The DEP referred inquiries about the violation to the EPA.

PCBs are a man-made organic compound commonly used in electronic equipment until their ban in 1979. The chemical does not easily break down in the environment and can cycle through air, water and soil for long periods of time. Build-up of PCBs can accumulate in leaves and enter the bodies of small organisms and fish. Humans can be exposed to the chemical by ingesting these organisms, according to the EPA.

Ted Simon, a scientist and toxicologist living near Atlanta, Ga., used to work for the EPA regarding waste management division working on risk and soil cleanup. Simon said the compound has been tied to cancer in animals, though their sensitivity is greater than in humans.

Large amounts of the chemical could cause potential health issues, he said, but the amount discovered in the sample at Coplay Aggregates is well below those levels.

"The EPA has levels that are very, very low because they use extremely conservative estimates for exposure levels," Simon said.

The EPA notice to Coplay Aggregates requests the company provide information on when and how often the they received materials from the source where the high PCB levels were detected. The company was also tasked with providing the total amount of the PCB-contaminated material found at the site and where its located as well as describe the intended future use of the contaminated material.

The notice requires this information within 30 days of the receipt as well as a written statement confirming that they will no longer accept materials with PCB levels higher than 2 parts per million.

It's not clear to what degree Coplay Aggregates has fulfilled these requests. The notice indicates that Coplay Aggregates has the right to submit the information confidentially if they so choose.

swojcik@mcall.com

610-778-2283

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