Wednesday, October 13, 1999
Groups unite to demand chemical firm concessions
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Critics of a St. Bernard chemical company Tuesday moved from low-key discussions to public demands for greater pollution control.
They want Cincinnati Specialties at 501 Murray Road to reduce smog-forming air emissions, cut discharges into sewers, and to cover chlorine tankers to reduce casualties if disaster strikes.
“We feel that we deserve that kind of safety,” said Mike Rick of the North Avondale Neighborhood Association (NANA).
If compliance with their demands means going beyond what the laws require, so be it, said Rachael Belz of Walnut Hills, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action in Cincinnati.
Their demands for greater, faster cleanup came at a Winton Place press conference called by the Campaign for Safer Neighborhoods, Ohio Citizen Action, Environmental Community Organization (ECO), NANA, Sierra Club and others.
Sierra Club's Marilyn Wall, of Glendale, said “peculiar, obnoxious emissions” assault the company's neighbors almost daily.
“God knows what other kinds of chemicals that we don't smell,” added Gerry Kraus of NANA.
NANA's Mr. Rick shared her suspicion that “there's a lot more than just odors” emanating from Cincinnati Specialties.
Ms. Belz said their complaints are based on personal experience and Cincinnati Specialties' reports to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ohio EPA and Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD). They detail tons of toxic chemicals released into the air and sewers under regulatory permits.
Ms. Belz confirmed that she and others have been discussing these issues with Cincinnati Specialties President James McKenna for 18 months. She gave him a copy of Tuesday's detailed complaint and demands last week.
“Just because we're talking doesn't mean we're going to get what we need,” Ms. Belz said in an interview. She also said that some of the demands reflect changes that Mr. McKenna is considering and she hoped Tuesday's effort would nudge him in those directions.
Mr. McKenna was out of town but provided a written response.
Many of the more than 13,500 letters generated by Ohio Citizen Action “clearly show citizens are being misled,” he wrote. “It is further disappointing that they have chosen to resurrect past events, some of which date back more than 10 or 20 years, since operations at our site have changed considerably.”
He said Cincinnati Specialties is reducing its emissions, routinely operates “well within our permit limitations,” is working to improve pollution controls and is looking into new ways to minimize chlorine spills.
Even when that is true, Ms. Belz and others said, it is not good enough:
• Government air monitoring is so inadequate that no one knows whether unpleasant odors are accompanied by undetected fumes from toxic chemicals.
• No one knows how much methanol escaping from Cincinnati Specialties' voluntary methanol-recovery system actually reaches MSD treatment because combined storm-and-sanitary sewers divert heavy flows into the Mill Creek.
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