By Reid Forgrave
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Melissa Matlock worries about the health of her children, Keen, 4 months, Savannah, 3, and Kelcey, 7 (not shown). They live next to the Sardinia Concrete plant (background) east of Amelia. The Cincinnati Enquirer/GLENN HARTONG

MOUNT HOLLY - In the Apple Creek Mobile Home Park, tucked between a thatch of forest and a ready-mix concrete plant, neighbors fear fine bits of dust swirling in their air are hurting their health, and local and state environmental agencies are investigating.

Melissa Matlock, who lives next door to the Sardinia Concrete plant, keeps a dozen bottles of Tylenol in her house to ease her constant headaches. Her fiance began having difficulty breathing after he moved in.

She fears most for her children.

Matlock's two youngest children, 4-month-old son Keen and 3-year-old daughter Savannah, started wheezing as infants. Along with daughter Kelcey, 7, Matlock's three children visit the doctor weekly for congestion, sore throats, coughs and chronic sneezing, and soon will visit a palynologist, who studies the effects of spores and pollen, in search of a cause for their chronic illnesses.

"This whole neighborhood is just infested with concrete dust," Matlock said, holding up an air-conditioning filter filled with dust. "I've lived here since 1998, and it wasn't until recently that I put it together. Whoa - all this concrete dust, my kids are sick all the time - maybe there's a connection here."

The problem appears to stem not from the concrete operation itself but from trucks kicking up dust on the plant's roadways, said Brad Miller, air quality section supervisor for the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services, responsible for Hamilton and three other counties.

The southwest district office of the Ohio EPA is looking into complaints that water contaminated with cement dust seeps into the mobile home park when it rains.

Charlie Stone, a representative of Sardinia Concrete, would not comment.

Jan Carr, a regional vice president for the manufactured home park's parent company, Sun Communities, said the concrete company agreed to water down its parking lot area to reduce dust.

"Since last Thursday (when we first learned of this,) this has become a large concern for the community itself," Carr said. "We are awaiting the report from the Department of Environmental Services, since we feel we must rely on their expertise in this matter."

Many residents of the more than 200 manufactured homes here dust their homes daily.

"It's like a sandstorm out here," said Holly Grant, whose two sons are plagued with chronic congestion and respiratory sickness. "There's nothing really to keep the dust out of here. I won't even bring my kids outside to play anymore."

Willie Acres, 53, who has lived in the community 12 years, says his wife, Joann, 49, suffers colds, pneumonia and breathing problems.

"If we could afford to get another trailer or an apartment or something, we'd move today," he said.

E-mail rforgrave@enquirer.com