By Matt Leingang
and Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hooven residents Kelly Greer (left), 33 and her cousin Alysha Johnson, 25, along with their families are suffering from ailments they attribute to the 1980s Gulf Oil refinery spill. The Cincinnati Enquirer/JEFF SWINGER

WHITEWATER TWP. - Residents in the Hooven neighborhood of Whitewater Township want to know if an old oil refinery that leaked 5 million gallons of gasoline byproducts in the mid-1980s is harming their health.

A report by the Ohio Department of Health is expected soon, possibly this month.

The oil refinery, owned by Gulf Oil Co. from 1931 to 1985, sits on the Great Miami River, about 20 miles west of downtown Cincinnati. Chevron purchased it in 1985 and stopped operations a year later.

Chevron has dismantled most of the abandoned buildings but continues a clean-up program there, recovering about 3.6 million gallons of fuel from groundwater beneath the refinery, according to the company. The cleanup, which is being monitored by state and federal environmental agencies, is expected to take at least another five years.

The goal is to return the land to the community for future use.

But some residents - about 300 people live in the neighborhood - say they are worried about still-remaining contaminants in the ground and in the air. Some live within a quarter-mile of the old plant. Uncertainty about what lies beneath prompted township officials to postpone a sewer extension to the neighborhood this spring.

"We just don't know whether we're safe, and that's the worst part," said Alysha Johnson, a 25-year-old mother of four who has lived in Hooven her entire life.

Residents say ailments plague the neighborhood, including ulcers, allergies, kidney and liver problems and developmental delays in children.

Doctors took out Johnson's inflamed gall bladder when she was 19. She now has chronic abdominal pain from a yet-to-be-diagnosed problem with her liver, which overproduces enzymes, she said.

Her 6-year-old daughter was born with a third kidney, which was removed when she was born. And her oldest daughter, who is 8, has signs of early puberty and will soon start taking a drug to curb her production of hormones.

One source of concern for residents is that many homes in Hooven were built in the early 1900s and don't have concrete foundations, giving rise to fears that hydrocarbon vapors are seeping into residents' basements.

A Chevron study in 2000 concluded that the risk to these homes was insignificant under federal guidelines. However, the basements were not tested directly. The company measured vapor levels at selected sites in the neighborhood.

Residents of Hooven use water from Cleves, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is testing the water in the Cleves well.

Anecdotal evidence about health problems in Hooven caught the attention of the state in December, when the Hamilton County Health Department requested help.

But the state's much-anticipated report may not give residents the answers they seek.

Kristopher Weiss, a spokesman for the Ohio health department, declined to discuss specific aspects of the upcoming report, saying only that the state will schedule a public meeting to release the results.

Health officials in Hamilton County said they've been told that the state is reviewing previous studies to make sure that existing data is scientifically sound.

It's a first step that the state always takes before deciding whether more action is needed, said Hamilton County Health Commissioner Tim Ingram.

The most recent study on the refinery is the 2000 report by Chevron, which concluded that there is "no complete exposure pathway" to the community.

That means there is no significant route of entry to a person's body, either by eating or drinking contaminated material, breathing it or absorbing it through the skin, said Randy Jewett, Chevron's project manager for the site.

"We're very concerned about the health of these residents, and we want to make sure that we do a proper evaluation, regardless if there is or isn't an exposed pathway," Ingram said.

No one wants to jump to conclusions, but residents say a possible link between the oil leak and their health issues must be explored.

"It's really scary living out here right now," said Kelly Greer, a mother of two teen-agers. "I just pray to God that the reports come back and all this ends up being nothing."

E-mail mleingang@enquirer.com and rforgrave@enquirer.com