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   Vol.65/No.16            April 23, 2001 
 
 
Pennsylvania march demands action on gas spill
 
BY BETH FINEAS
HAZLETON, Pennsylvania--More than 150 residents here marched through their neighborhood March 26, protesting government inaction in dealing with a 10-year-old fuel spill that continues to send cancer-causing vapors into homes in the Laurel Gardens area. Organized by the Group Against Gas, the marchers carried signs reading "No more testing--Buy out Now!," "EPA--Playing God With Our Lives," "Prisoner of Washington," and "EPA are Liars."

March organizers explained the evening event would have been a candlelight march, except for a 1996 Environmenal Protection Agency (EPA) document that warned against open flames in the gas spill area. So the spirited marchers carried flashlights, chanting "Too little, too late," and "EPA go home!"

Since the early 1990s a plume of gasoline and fuel oil has been spreading through the soil and an underground mine tunnel beneath at least 400 homes in the affected area. The EPA estimates at least 50,000 gallons of fuel leaked from underground storage tanks at Tranguch Tire Service, Inc. and three other gas stations. The spill has been releasing toxic fumes containing benzene, toluene, MTBE, and ethylbenzene into homes in the neighborhood.

In 1999 resident John Salata died of leukemia, a cancer that benzene can cause. Marchers stopped in front of Salata's former residence to hear remarks from Robert Stevens, Hazleton city councilman and a leader of Group Against Gas. "Ci [Salata] would want us to do what we're doing," Stevens said referring to the fight for a government buyout and relocation of residents in the affected area. "We have to make the state and federal government aware that they can't put a value on lives," he said.

While residents have been calling for a state or federal buyout, the Environmental Protection Agency has been stalling. In a document released March 14, Stephen Jarvela, EPA chief on-scene coordinator, said that many of the 400 homes in the area aren't affected by the spill. "The benzene levels that have been found in the homes are low enough for residents to continue living in them while remediation takes place.... EPA's position is that the site can be cleaned up," the document states.

But neighborhood resident Pat Tomsho explained that the air samples taken by EPA vary day to day depending on weather and other conditions. "In some cases benzene levels have been higher after the installation of sewer vent traps in 224 homes within the spill area," Tomsho said. Meanwhile the underground plume continues to move, endangering an ever larger area.

Following the march, more than 250 people crowded into the Crusade Baptist Church for the regular meeting of Group Against Gas. One item on the agenda was a letter from local oncologist Dr. Paul Roda to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Roda wrote, "Last year alone, our practice diagnosed four patients with MDS [myelodysplasia] who live in this neighborhood. This month alone, we diagnosed an additional two patients with this hematologic malignancy.

"Benzene has long been recognized as a marrow toxin with a significant risk of MDS and leukemia in those exposed to this agent," Roda stated. "Even if the contamination could be removed tomorrow (and cleanup is likely to take years), inhabitants of this region will remain at risk for MDS for another two decades."

Residents at the meeting vowed to continue the fight for the buyout and relocation, as well as cleanup of the gas spill. As one woman put it, "It's not about money, it's our lives and health and our children's future."  
 
 
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