Submitted by Dawn Fortunato, Greenwich
On January 11, 2023, I attended the Western Middle School soil remediation meeting remotely via Zoom. Listening to the “expert panelists” failed to leave me with a warm, fuzzy feeling. I had hoped they would champion public health, and I was disappointed with what I heard. I submitted a question in the Zoom chat, but it was not addressed.
I’ve yet to locate the YouTube video that was promised would be available the next day. Today, Jan 17, it’s still not there. The most recent video is from Dec 15, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/@greenwichpublicschools6728/videos
Thank you Peter Quigley for not forgetting that back in 2016 Mike Finkbeiner and I tested the soil near the stream at the foot of the embankment under the field and found contamination. Specifically we tested both the perimeter of the field and some spots within the field. We tested both sides of the lower fence, at the very edge of the embankment. We used the same lab the Greenwich Health Dept uses and contamination was found.
Our initial soil testing took place just prior to a motion that was ultimately voted down by the New Lebanon Building Committee to relocate the town’s most vulnerable elementary school students to modulars on the WMS field while their new school was built.
The proposed remediation calls for planting grass seed in the area where the soil meets the stream. This area is ground zero; it is what netted elevated toxins over residential and commercial limits in my testing with Mr. Finkbeiner.
We took a teaspoon of soil from each area. As thanks for being environmental stewards, Mr. Finkbeiner was threatened with the loss of his license and both of us were threatened with arrest. But quickly they learned they could not arrest an elected official as I was on the RTM, assigned to the Land Use Committee, and as an alternate on Parks & Rec.
Notable myths I took away from Wednesday’s meeting: Mr. Wohlstrom from Langan said samples showed impacts in the soil had not migrated down to the groundwater, though they planned to conduct post-remediation groundwater monitoring.
But I fear PCBs will leak from underneath into the groundwater.
Like most who were unaware of the decades of incineration at Holly Hill, water continues flowing through the dump and Western Middle School. Yet, we are to believe the panel of experts that no PCBs or heavy metals were detected in groundwater sampling. This feels insulting to our intelligence based on the property’s past use and history. Think about it. Why is Byram Beach closed following just a ½ inch of rainfall?
Could the watercourses flowing through the dump be contributing factors? Are we not to believe in the science that PCBs are dense heavy man-made organic chemicals, probably carcinogenic, that sink into the silt when they are disturbed by rainfall?
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DEEP/water/tmdl/CTFinalTMDL/estuary2greenwichstamford
Is it at all odd Byram Beach has the highest and most frequent number of closings out of 66 beaches in the state of CT? Or that water samples last tested in 2019 still show the same problems and patterns? https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Departments-and-Agencies/DPH/dph/environmental_health/BEACH/2019-Season-BG-Annual-Report_FINAL.pdf
Again, the experts on Wednesday night said there were no toxins in the groundwater.
I recently read a letter penned to Mr. Wilcox from a Greenwich resident, who wrote, “From Wikipedia on a one-minute search: ‘In general, people are exposed to PCBs overwhelmingly through food, much less so by breathing contaminated air, and least by skin contact.'”
I don’t know what version of Wikipedia she has, but the one I have says, “The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) rendered PCBs as definite carcinogens in humans. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), PCBs cause cancer in animals and are probable human carcinogens.”
I felt no smarter after reading her letter, and sorrow for her misunderstanding and denial that PCBs pose hazards to our bodies, organs, and reproductive health. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp17.pdf
I’ve read plenty of obituaries of people from Chickahominy who died from cancer, and I’ve saved many of them. If you visit the CT Dept of Health website you will read the cancer rates in Greenwich are staggering, second only to Bridgeport.
Astonishingly, from 2008-2012 there were 2,014 people in Greenwich with cancer vs 2,994 in Bridgeport. Mind you, Greenwich had a population of 61k and Bridgeport 144k during this time frame. Today, that number has risen. According to data collected by the Connecticut Cancer registry, approximately 3,000 residents of Greenwich and the immediate surrounding area are diagnosed with cancer each year. By 2029, they anticipate a 15% growth in all cancer cases. For Greenwich alone, an 18% growth in cancer cases is expected. From past experiences of the denial of toxins in our parks and schools, and being met with the denial of elected town leadership predating Selectman Camillo, I will believe in the science over the words of those we are expected to entrust and safeguard the community’s health and safety any day!
When our testing was initially made public in 2016, I recall a woman chastising me in an email because her son couldn’t play football at that field after it was fenced off. Her concern was more about my inconveniencing her. Talk about shooting the messenger. And while many were inconvenienced by the testing, and we are sorry, we’re really Not Sorry for protecting your children. More laughably, Sharee Resnack employed by the CT Dept of Health stood before us at WMS during the discussion and controlled Q+A and said she felt safe having her child play on these fields, a week or less following the town tests made public revealing PCB’s in addition to toxic metals, WMS fields immediately closed off, It was at that time I was inclined to know if she still felt or would risk her child’s safety on those fields.
Should a child or adult be affected by these toxins, there may be one less player on that field, one less tenured teacher educating your child, one less parent to take care of their children, and one less taxpayer in this town.
This “Voluntary Remediation” should be about making what minuscule amount of green space remains on the west side of town a healthy and safe space where the community need not worry, rather than a cap that allows PCBs to drop out the bottom into the water.
I would recommend option 1, to remove all the fill. It would be a much more expensive fix, but it is the right thing to do, especially considering we waited year upon year for the town to get out of its denial. We like to kick the can down the road as long as possible until the facts are upon us.
This town is so hyper-focused on the wants rather than the needs, not to mention the appealing look of granite curbs, rather than the killers beneath our feet.
The point is Health and Safety should be paramount. Our local government should be stewards of the land, and both transparent and proactive because so many are at risk. Seven years? Greenwich can do better for its taxpayers!
My advice to parents, school staff, and the Greenwich community at large is to follow the soil remediation to fruition, and retest upon completion, as the law requires prescribes https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DEEP/site_clean_up/remediation_regulations/RSR-EUR-Training—General-Provisions-and-Soil.pdf and at your next annual physical, ask your Primary Care Provider to order up heavy metals and PCB screenings (one is performed by blood and the other urine).
It’s the only way to know if you or your loved ones are affected by lead, arsenic, chlordane, or PCBs.
When to my surprise, nine years ago my 1-year-old, now 10, was plagued with lead poisoning (See The Face of Lead Poisoning in Greenwich, Jan 22, 2015), which is gone from his blood but will never leave his bones, and an immediate family member who is in his ninth battle with cancer and is currently in chemotherapy after devoting 45 years to working for the town, starting his employment at that very incinerator. Many of my neighbors and surrounding neighborhoods have lost their lives to cancer that affected their reproductive organs. Through all of this, I’ve learned one thing for sure, there is no dollar figure substantial enough to take the place of someone’s health.
Our predecessors, to save taxpayers’ dollars, have not only gambled risk to the health of this community at large but also by the willful desecration of the land at the Cos Cob Power Plant, (another Voluntary Remediation, which is now a Brownfield) GHS, Hamilton Avenue School, Byram Shore, New Lebanon, Western Middle School, St. Marys Cemetery, and Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, (former home of Electrolux), and all undeveloped land during this era and continued to do so for years following enactment of environmental laws, https://tinyurl.com/yuxcaw7f
As a prior GPS student, I’ve done the homework for our immediate community and implore you to read so you may draw your own conclusion from the town’s own documentation and the health facts.
Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on YOU!