Some residents of Claymont are hoping to breathe a little easier now that the community has begun a project to collect and test air pollution.
Residents, politicians and employees of local industries met with representatives of Global Community Monitor (GCM), a San Francisco-based environmental advocacy group that will be leading the project.
The main concern of the 15 people who attended the June 5 meeting is the steel dust that has been falling on homes and cars in Claymont since 2003.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) identified Claymont Steel as a source of the dust in 2005 and ordered the company to set up pollution monitors.
Claymont Steel has installed four air monitors that are collecting weekly samples, but the samples have not returned any usable results yet, said Brian Houghton, environmental engineer at Claymont Steel.
The company wants to be a good neighbor, Houghton said, which is why it provided $50,000 for residents for their own monitoring project with GCM, he said.
GCM will help residents collect the steel dust and send it to a laboratory for testing, said Ruth Breech, GCM program director.
Claymont resident Leroy Pfarner said testing the steel dust for heavy metals is important because the dust covers houses and cars in his neighborhood.
“My concern is to get it to stop. The dust is getting ridiculous,” he said. “You are afraid to hang your clothes on a line because they will turn yellow or gray or black, depending on what color the dust is that day.”
Claymont Steel is also working to reduce dust with projects like a new truck wash station, but residents must be patient, Houghton said.
Residents have been patient, said George Lossé, president of the Claymont Community Coalition, but they wanted their own study because they are suspicious of Claymont Steel.
“This way, we will have our own independent study and we will find out what pollution is out there and where it is coming from,” he said.
The project will give residents scientific data to back up their complaints and hopefully reduce pollution in Claymont, said Denny Larson, GCM executive director.
Three monitors will collect steel dust by pumping air through a filter. The monitors record a sample a day and can be moved to track where pollution is traveling, Breech said.
Residents will send the samples to a California lab to determine the concentration of heavy metals in each, said Breech.
Heavy metals can cause health problems if they accumulate in a person’s body, said Denny Larson, GCM executive director, and identifying potential health risks is a priority of the project. The study is expected to continue through February.
Officials at DNREC said the dust particles are not a health risk because they are too large to get stuck in a person’s lungs.
GCM representatives disagree.
Dangerous heavy metals can accumulate on a person’s skin or in the water a person drinks, Larson said.
Dee Whildin, who has been scraping steel dust off her car for almost five years, hopes the monitors unite residents in Claymont against pollution.
“People have to start caring, maybe not about themselves, but about the health of future generations that come along,” she said. “I just pray everyone wakes up.”
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For information about participating in Claymont’s pollution study, contact Dee Whildin at 798-0487 or peoplerfirst1@verizon.net.
