Supervisors, resident address EPA stance on groundwater concerns

Mary Krewson Abington Journal Correspondent

Based on the letters that have been exchanged over the past few weeks regarding a site located in Glenburn Township, a meeting proposed for Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. between federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and township supervisors may prove interesting.

Termed a “stakeholders’ meeting,” the proposed event is closed to the public. And, EPA’s On-Scene Coordinator Neeraj (Raj) Sharma’s Nov. 23 letter to township solicitor Malcolm MacGregor made no mention of a holding the public meeting slated for fall 2009.

Precision National Plating Services, Inc., formerly located at 198 Ackerly Road, according to published reports, released hexavalent chromium into nearby ground and water sources for decades while it manufactured toxic materials used in plating, dyes, pigments, leather tanning and wood preserving.

According to an EPA web site, hexavalent chromium “dissolves easily in water and can trickle deeply into ground water” and may cause cancer.

The round of letters started when Glenburn township resident and supervisor-elect David Jennings wrote Precision’s attorney, Kevin Quinn of Scranton, in August stating that he and his wife would like to build a home on property he owns next to the former Precision site.

Jennings wrote that in developing he had two alternatives: to drill a deep well and pray the contamination site did not migrate into his well and contaminate the deep aquifer or to have a public water line extended to his property at Precision’s expense.

Jennings’ letter drew a sharp response from Quinn.

In a letter dated Sept. 4, Quinn stated to Jennings, “I have discussed with Precision your email request of Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009 and have been instructed to advise you that Precision is unwilling to bear the expense of extending the public water line to service the property you now own that is located immediately adjacent to the former lagoon on the Precision site.”

Quinn also stated, “Precision has asked me to relay the fact that you and your wife will be held legally accountable if you cause or undertake any action on your property, including but not limited to construction of a well, that in any way, shape or form exacerbates or otherwise alters the current environmental state of the Precision site or surrounding properties.”

Following Quinn’s letter was a letter to Jennings dated Oct. 7 from Sharma.

In that letter to Jennings, Sharma stated, “First, EPA would be concerned about any deep excavation on your property, as you have described, that you may be planning. EPA has sampling results down to 18 inches on or near the property that do not show chromium contamination; however EPA has no information about soil deeper than that.”

He continued, “Also, EPA would be concerned about likely chromium contamination in shallow groundwater which may infiltrate into a deeper excavation such as the one you are planning.

“Any attempt to de-water the excavation could exacerbate a release of hazardous substances into the environment and you may be liable for the release of hazardous substances into the environment. ”

The supervisors were not pleased with Sharma’s letter to Jennings and directed their solicitor to tell him. MacGregor wrote, “Frankly, Raj, the Supervisors were not pleased with the tone of the letter inasmuch as it does not even address the long outstanding inquiry of Mr. Jennings for EPA to compel Precision National Plating to pay for his waterline hookup.

“Rather, the correspondence focuses more on the potential liability of Mr. Jennings for simply seeking to lawfully develop his property. Absent from the letter is any reference whatsoever to the culpability if Precision National Plating for creating this situation and why they should not be made to pay for water hookups for Mr. Jennings and others under the Administrative Order.”

MacGregor also stated that “we would hope that EPA would take the position that if a resident landowner who had nothing to do with contaminating the groundwater inadvertently caused some expansion of the contamination, that EPA would aggressively go after Precision National Plating, the offending polluter, rather than the landowner.”

MacGregor continued, “The supervisors feel strongly that they do not want there to be a perception in the community or within EPA that residents like Mr. Jennings, who have difficult and persistent questions out of concern for the safety of their family or community, are treated any differently than other residents affected by Precision National Plating’s hexavalent chromium contamination of the adjacent area.”

Jennings agrees.

He said he is also concerned about other residents in Glenburn Township, such as those who live along Old State Road if the contamination should migrate there. Jennings added that under the court mandated Administrative Order, Precision has a responsibility to extend a public water line to any properties that are found to be contaminated.