EPA finds more lead: Hobson City yards test positive, but discrepancies arise

By Charlotte Tubbs
Star Staff Writer
04-05-2004

HOBSON CITY — At least 17 Hobson City yards tested by the Environmental Protection Agency in December contain dangerous levels of lead and one contains dangerous levels of PCBs, according to results. The EPA tested the soil of 108 properties and sent the results to residents and property owners in mid-March. The agency tested more Hobson City lawns in February, but those results are not available yet, said Karen Buerki, on-scene coordinator for the EPA. But some results contradict findings of an earlier study performed by Tuskegee University Professor Nosa Egiebor and funded through the U.S. Department of Energy, leaving some residents frustrated and confused. Mary Jackson, who has lived in the same house on Martin Luther King Drive for 54 years, said researchers have taken four soil samples from her yard. The Tuskegee study found her lawn contained more than three times the maximum EPA-allowed level of arsenic, but the EPA study found levels of only one-tenth of the maximum level. "They can make a test come out just about the way they want to," she said. The EPA study also found her yard contained less than half the maximum level allowed for lead. The Tuskegee study did not test Jackson’s lawn for lead. Jackson stopped planting turnips and the rest of her garden soon after her husband died of cancer in 1962. One of her daughters died of cancer two years ago. "I had been knowing for years there was something wrong," Jackson said. "I know of five people in their 50s who died in the last four years of cancer." The level of lead in her yard isn’t considered dangerous or high enough to prompt a cleanup, but she wonders if the soil poses a danger to her great-grandchildren, who play around her house when they visit. Buerki said she needs to compare the methodology used in the Tuskegee study to that used by the EPA to understand why the studies reported different results. But so far, Egiebor has not provided that information to her. Each of the 17 yards found to have high levels of lead will be scheduled for cleanup. Workers will remove two feet of soil and replace it with clean soil. Properties where children under age 6 or pregnant women live will receive priority and could be cleaned up within a few weeks, Buerki said. Hobson City Mayor Robert Pyles said he plans to ask Egiebor and a representative from the EPA to meet with him and discuss the discrepancies in the studies. Pyles said he doesn’t understand how some yards contain high levels of lead, but others, downhill from the contaminated properties, do not have dangerous lead levels. "Every time it rains, the water comes down here, but there’s nothing here," he said. "That doesn’t make sense." Shirley Baker, chief operating officer of Community Against Pollution, said it’s possible for neighboring properties to have varying levels of lead. The lead contamination most likely stems from fill dirt residents got from foundries and used in their yards, she said. "The way the soil was filled in, it’s possible to have it in the front and not in the back," she said. Although Buerki hasn’t visited the property with a high level of PCBs, she explained how it’s possible that no other soil samples would show high levels of PCBs. The PCBs could have come from a power transformer or a drainage ditch, Buerki said. The EPA study found high levels of lead in Willie Atkinson’s yard on Draper Street. Atkinson, 84, spends most of her days outside, tending to her yard, which is bursting with pansies, tulips and azaleas. An EPA official told her to try and avoid contact with dirt in the yard. Her daughter, Willie Shortt, said she worries about her mother working in the contaminated dirt. "How are you going to avoid a yard?" Shortt said. "She’s the type that can’t sit still," she said. "I’ll just tell her to take the precautions. I’m not going to tell her to stop. That’s like asking her to die." So for now, Atkinson leaves her shoes outside and washes her clothes after a day of yard work. Jackson said she’s not concerned about the effects of the contaminants that may or may not be in her yard. "The damage is already done," she said. But she wants the EPA to determine where the contaminants came from and who is responsible. The EPA has been working over the past two years to determine the sources of Anniston’s lead contamination, but has yet to identify a source, Baker said. "We don’t think they have pushed the issue of who’s responsible for the lead," she said. Hobson City Councilman Freddie Striplin said he wants answers, too. "They need to be honest with us, and tell us what the sources are and how they got there and the long-term effects on the people living there," he said. "Every household down there can tell you a cancer story," he said. Efforts to reach Buerki for further comment were unsuccessful. Questions about testing should be directed to the EPA’s Anniston Community Relations Center at 236-2599.

About Charlotte Tubbs

Auburn graduate Charlotte McIntosh Tubbs is a native of Madison. She covers Oxford, Hobson City, Clay County and Randolph County.