Claymont residents speak out about dust study

This story ran in the Brandywine Community News on Aug. 3, 2007.

Claymont community members voiced opposition at a public meeting about the dust emissions study of Claymont Steel.

Representatives from the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Claymont Steel and Earth Tech, consultants on the project, held the meeting on August 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Claymont Community Center located at 3301 Green Street in Claymont.

They presented the implementation plan of the dust emissions study, completed by Earth Tech on March 1, and addressed comments from the community, gathered at a public meeting on March 6.

The study recommends a number of improvements at Claymont Steel to reduce the amount of steel dust deposited in residential neighborhoods around Claymont. It also calls for a system of air monitors to track dust emissions.

“The study was designed to identify sources of the dust around the facility and offer measures to reduce their impact,” explained Ali Mirzakhilli, administrator of the air quality management division of the department.

Some of the improvements proposed are paving roads around the factory, installing fume control and ventilation systems and planting trees.

Most of the citizens’ concerns were with the air-monitoring program. Four air monitors will be set up at strategic points around Claymont Steel.

Residents who have been wiping steel dust off their cars or scooping it out of their flower beds worried that the monitors will not solve their problem.

“Those four monitors aren’t going to show anything,” said Claymont resident George Borrero. “We need monitors to be spread out like salt and pepper across the landscape because the problem is everywhere.”

Mirzakhilli explained to the 30 residents at the meeting that the air monitors cannot be moved from their proposed locations for the results to be scientifically valid. One will be placed in the Lawn Croft Cemetery on Ridge Road in Linwood, Pa., one at 3416 Philadelphia Pike, one at 4 Colby Ave., and one in Wooshaven Kruse Park on Darley Road. These locations are upwind, downwind and crosswind of Claymont Steel, respectively.

The department will start a community air monitoring program to address citizens’ concerns about the locations of the four monitors.

A committee of 10 community members will monitor dust emissions and air quality at their homes using inexpensive monitoring techniques.

“This program will give the department the opportunity to measure dust at locations the community decides need monitored,” said Mirzakhilli.

Claymont Steel has provided $35,000 to fully fund the first year of the program. The committee, led by Community Ombudsman James Brunswick, will work with an environmental monitoring company to purchase testing equipment and send their samples to a laboratory.

They will use techniques like wipe testing, where dust is swept onto a sterile pad and sent for testing, to measure steel dust at their homes.

Brunswick plans to hold the committee’s first meeting sometime next week. He did not have a date for the meeting.

“I’m really convinced that the only way we’re going to solve this problem is through collaboration. Building monitoring teams of community members will help them see eye to eye with the department and Claymont Steel,” said Brunswick.

Some community members voiced concerns that the community monitoring program is not enough to solve the dust problem.

“Claymont Steel calls this a nuisance dust, but it kills people,” said Claymont resident Jerry McCoy. “They should shut the plant down until they solve this problem.”

Claymont Steel Chairman Jeff Bradley defended the improvements his company has made.
“Everything we have been asked to do we are doing. We are taking the complaints from the community seriously. We want it to be a clean community,” he said.

Residents argued with Bradley about the measures the company has taken to reduce dust emissions. They also worried about potential health effects of the steel dust, which, according to a 2005 report by CitiSteel USA Inc., include lung cancer, respiratory disease and skin irritation.

Despite their arguments, Mirzakhilli said that the plan recommended by the study will be carried out with few changes.

“We are ready to move ahead. We are not going to be able to make any drastic deviations from what the plan is now,” he said.

Once the plan has been finalized, the department will oversee the construction of each improvement by Claymont Steel. The air monitors and community monitoring will be used to track dust reductions as the improvements are completed.

Some residents left the meeting unsatisfied with the plan.

“We still haven’t accomplished anything,” said Claymont resident Dee Whildin, pointing out that no official timeline was established for the project. “It might not be in my lifetime that we see anything done.”

Mirzakhilli said more public meetings will be held to keep the community informed of Claymont Steel’s progress.