EPA acknowledges Barletta’s concerns about cancer in Pittston
http://citizensvoice.com/news/epa-acknowledges-barletta-s-concerns-about-pittston-1.1153049#axzz1NN3RonoJ
By Andrew Staub (Staff Writer)
Published: May 27, 2011
A day after U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta penned a terse letter urging further investigation into a rash of cancer cases in Pittston, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged it received the congressman’s request and said it will review the letter and consider an appropriate response.
As for any other comment, that will likely be reserved for another day, EPA spokesman Roy Seneca said Thursday, two days after dozens of Pittston residents gathered at a city middle school to discuss the cause of numerous cases of cancer on Mill and Carroll streets.
At that meeting, the EPA and the state Department of Health discounted the residents’ theory that the nearby Butler Mine Tunnel, once an illegal dumping ground for millions of gallons of oil waste and other chemicals, contributed to the rash of cancer.
On Wednesday, though, Barletta urged the EPA to further investigate whether any hazardous substance has contaminated the ground, air or water around the streets in question. He wrote that he was “deeply concerned that EPA seems to be ignoring the residents of the Carroll/Mill neighborhood, and the people of Pittston in general.”
“If there is a cancer cluster in this area, what is the cause of it? If the Butler Mine Tunnel is not the cause, is there an environmental cause? And if there is an environmental cause, can it be remediated?” Barletta wrote. “These are all very serious questions, and the EPA is the federal agency that should provide the answers.”
As of Thursday, the EPA kept its response to Barletta’s letter succinct and offered no timetable for further action.
“I really don’t have anything to say to that,” Seneca said of Barletta’s accusation the EPA is ignoring Pittston. “We received a letter, and we’re reviewing it. We’ll be responding appropriately.”
Barletta, R-Hazleton, wrote his letter to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, latching onto the frustration many residents expressed at Tuesday’s open house at Martin L. Mattei Middle School. They asked the EPA and the state Department of Health to focus their investigation of the cancer cases on Mill and Carroll streets, where some residents say between 60 to 80 people have cancer.
Dr. Stephen Ostroff, director of the state’s bureau of epidemiology, said analyzing the number of cancer diagnoses of such a small area would not provide adequate data to conclude a cancer cluster exists.
Mitch Cron, the EPA’s remedial project manager for the Butler Mine Tunnel Superfund Site, repeatedly told residents that they are not exposed to contaminants from the mine tunnel and that the water running through it is “generally very clean.”
When Cron told residents no further testing would be done in the affected area, one man walked out of the meeting and concluded the EPA had “wasted all of our time.”
astaub@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2052