In 2005, our organization became actively involved in addressing PCB contamination caused by the Ward Transformer site when the former Upper Neuse Riverkeeper joined a PCB Taskforce convened to study EPA’s proposals for the cleanup and to assemble recommendations that would support the health and well-being of local communities and the environment.
Background: In 1979 the Ward Transformer building/reconditioning facility (near the airport) was found to be leaking chemicals to the surrounding areas, including the Unnamed Tributary to Little Brier Creek, Little Brier Creek, Brier Creek Reservoir, Brier Creek and Crabtree Lake. Little was done to clean up the chemical pollution. It was not until 1994 that the first action was taken to address the contamination caused by 20+ years of facility operation, and even now, the work has only really begun.
The main chemicals of concern at the Ward Transformer site are polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. PCBs are combinations of 209 chlorinated compounds that were historically used in electrical equipment (like transformers) as coolants and lubricants. PCBs do not break down quickly, so concentrations increase along the food chain, resulting in human exposure to high amounts if contaminated organisms are consumed. Children and pregnant women are especially susceptible to the effects of PCBs, which include liver damage and cancer in adults and low birth weight and delayed motor skills in infants.
Record of Decision (ROD) In September of 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an official decision document on the cleanup of PCB chemical contamination at the Ward Transformer Site, located adjacent to the Raleigh airport and headwaters of Brier Creek. The official document is the Record of Decision (ROD) and requires the parties conducting the cleanup to take various actions. In this case, the contamination extends well beyond the boundaries of the immediate site. Our ongoing concerns surround how the planned cleanup would address the contamination in waters downstream of the initial source—including the Neuse River and its tributaries—and who will pay the ultimate price of the work that must be done to ensure a safe and healthy environment.
Due to the severity of PCB contamination at the site, the Ward transformer facility, along with the surrounding areas including the upper portion of Brier Creek, has been classified by the EPA as a Superfund Site. It will have more than 150,000 tons of contaminated soil/sediment removed to be safely disposed of off-site or to have the PCBs removed from it by low temperature thermal desorption (LTTD). However, the downstream contamination is being treated as a separate project that is still in the planning phase. Due to public concern, the recent EPA Record of Decision (ROD) includes more investigation and cleanup than in the original Proposed Plan, but the ROD does not address the concerns over PCBs in the reservoir or the lake. The ROD specifically does not address the chemical pollution in Crabtree Lake, thus the fish consumption advisories will remain in effect for the foreseeable future.
Under the current ROD, Brier Creek Reservoir, Lake Crabtree, and Lower Crabtree Creek will have no soil/sediment removal, and will use a form of cleanup called Monitored Natural Recovery (MNR). MNR basically allows the community to sit back and wait as natural processes very slowly degrade the chemical contamination until it is no longer a problem. Dr. deFur has criticized the use of MNR because the practice has not been demonstrated to be effective and has the potential to leave contamination in place, continuing to threaten health and the environment.
February 26, 2009 NRF organized the first public information meeting to increase public awareness of the issues conerning PCB pollution in the Upper Neuse. Dr. Peter DeFur, president of Environmental Stewardship Concepts and an affiliate Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, was the quest speaker. The presentation was followed by a Q&A with a panel of local experts including Dr. Peter deFur, Dr. Fred Pfaender from the UNC School of Public Health, Drew Cade, Lake Crabtree County Park Manager. Click here for more information about the meeting or to lern about the Crabtree Committe.
Date: April 7, 2008 (Warning issued by the State Dept. of Public Health)
Warning issued on eating fish from parts of Neuse River and its tributaries in Wake County
RALEIGH – Because of PCB contamination, North Carolina public health officials are warning people in Wake County to eat no more than one meal a month of carp or catfish from parts of the Neuse River, Walnut Creek and Rocky Branch, and no more than one meal a week of all other fish caught in Walnut Creek and Rocky Branch.
The advisories cover the Neuse River from just below Crabtree Creek to Auburn-Knightdale Road, as well as Walnut Creek and Rocky Branch just upstream of the Neuse. Laboratory tests on fish from those waterways show high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These advisories are an extension of advisories previously issued for this area, beginning in 2003, due to high levels of PCBs. Those advisories warned people to not eat any fish from Brier Creek, Little Brier Creek and its tributaries and Brier Creek Reservoir; not eat any carp or catfish from Lake Crabtree and to limit consumption of other fish from that lake to one meal per month; and to limit consumption of carp, catfish and largemouth bass from Crabtree Creek to one meal per month. Those advisories are still in effect:
PCBs are pollutants that can cause health problems in people who eat the fish often. Eating fish contaminated with PCBs may increase people’s risk of developing cancer, infections and skin problems. Pregnant or nursing women who regularly eat those fish have an increased risk of having children with learning deficiencies.
PCBs were once widely used as coolants and lubricants in electrical transformers. Although PCBs have not been manufactured or used in the United States since 1977, they can still be found in many old transformers and sometimes in sites where transformers were manufactured or stored.
State environmental officials routinely monitor North Carolina water and fish for environmental contaminants. Public health officials issue fish consumption advisories based on those findings. Information on this and other fish consumption advisories is available on the Internet at:
People with questions regarding these fish advisories may contact the N.C. Divison of Public Health’s Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch at 919-707-5900.
What are PCBs? The manufacturing of Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was stopped in the U.S. in 1977 because of evidence they build up in the environment and can cause harmful health effects. Before 1977, PCBs were used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors, and other electrical equipment because they do not burn easily and are good insulators. Common household products manufactured before 1977 that may contain PCBs include fluorescent lighting fixtures and electrical devices and appliances, such as televisions and refrigerators.
PCBs are a mixture of up to 209 individual chemicals, combined to form oily liquids or solids that are colorless to light yellow, have no known smell or taste, and can exist as a vapor in the air. They do not break down readily and thus remain in the environment for long periods of time, traveling long distances in the air and sticking to organic particles and bottom sediments in water, as well as binding strongly to soil.
When manufacturing was stopped in the United States, the damage had already been done; PCBs had entered the air, water, and soil during their manufacturing, use, and disposal, from accidental spills and leaks during their transport, and from leaks or fires in products containing PCBs. Also, they were released into the environment from hazardous waste sites, illegal or improper disposal of industrial wastes and consumer products, such as the Ward Transformer Site in Raleigh, NC (scroll down for more information on the Ward Transformer Site), leaks from old electrical transformers, and burning of some wastes in incinerators.
How does this affect living organisms? One of the biggest detriments of PCBs has been to our water sources, where small organisms and fish are exposed through contact and ingestion. As PCBs accumulate in fish and other marine animals, levels of PCBs reach up to 1000 times higher than in the water. When other animals, including humans, consume these aquatic organisms, they will also be consuming traces of PCBs.
Warning Fish Advisory in Lake Crabtree & Brier Creek
AVISO DE PESCADO
Carp
Date Issued: 3/31/06 Location: Crabtree Creek, Wake County, just below Lake Crabtree to where it enters the Neuse River Pollutant: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Advisory: High levels of PCBs have been found in carp, catfish, and largemouth bass from these waters. Limit consumption of these fish from Crabtree Creek to no more than one meal per month.
Date Issued: 5/7/04 Location: Brier Creek, Wake County (downstream of Brier Creek Reservoir), Lake Crabtree, Wake County Pollutant: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Advisories: Brier Creek - High levels of PCBs have been found in the fish. Do not eat any fish from Brier Creek. Lake Crabtree - Do not eat carp or catfish from Lake Crabtree. Limit consumption of all other fish from Lake Crabtree to no more than one meal per month. When in doubt about the fish species, do not eat any of the fish.
Date Issued: 12/8/03 Location: Little Brier Creek, Wake County (downstream of Brier Creek Parkway), tributaries to Little Brier Creek, and Brier Creek Reservoir Pollutant: Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Advisory: High levels of PCBs have been found in the fish. Do not eat any fish from Little Brier Creek (downstream of Brier Creek Parkway), its tributaries, and Brier Creek Reservoir.
Catfish
Largemouth bass
The Ward Transformer Site & PCBs
History of the Ward Transformer Site: Located near the Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Mount Herman Road, the Ward Transformer Site encompassed an active transformer reconditioning facility constructed in 1964. Transformers are electrical devices that transfer energy from one circuit to another by magnetic coupling, and Ward was responsible for building, repairing, and storing them. However, during their operation of the site numerous companies, including Progress Energy, arranged for the disposal of hazardous substances, transformers, switchgear, and other types of electrical equipment containing hazardous substances onto the site.
Along with the disposal of hazardous substances from other companies, Ward's method of handling PCB-laced oil from transformers was beginning to raise questions. Eventually, as a result of Ward Transformer’s involvement in the release of used oil containing PCBs along roadsides in North Carolina, the EPA and the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) began an investigation of the site in 1978. They found PCB contamination in the soil at the Ward Transformer site, in the water and sediment of the storm water lagoon, and in the water and sediments along the surface water pathway draining the facility. On April 30, 2003, the Ward Transformer Site was officially added to the The National Priorities List (NPL), a list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial action financed under the federal Superfund program.
However, contamination is more widespread than initially suspected-100,000 tons of PCB contaminated soil is in need of treatment, as well as countless gallons of water that has been polluted downstream from the Site and contaminated fish in Lake Crabtree, Crabtree Creek, Brier Creek and Brier Creek Reservoir. In the fall of 2005, the estimated cost of cleanup for the site itself was $5.2 million. This estimate, which did not include the cost of water cleanup, was expected to increase.
