EPA'S FIRST
SAMPLING RESULTS ARE IN!

On September 23, 1997, at a noon and a 7:00 pm evening meeting, representatives from Region IX EPA and ATSDR met with community members at the South Mountain Community Center at 212 East Alta Vista to provide information about the results of the first round of sampling. The EPA also issued a report summary called Fact Sheet #3 at the same time.

This Fact Sheet #3 is your best reference available to you about what EPA has done so far and plans to do in the next round of sampling which will start in November 1997.

To get on EPA's mailing list and to ask for your copy of Quality Printed Circuits Fact Sheet #3, you may call 1-800-231-3075. If you get a voicemail recording, be sure to speak loudly and slowly enough, spelling your name and stating your address and telephone number clearly. Be sure to ask for QPC Fact Sheet #3.

EPA has also left information about its investigation at the South Mountain Community Center at 212 East Alta Vista, 262-4093. You may also request to be on the mailing list and get this report by writing to Nancy Riveland-Har, QPC Remedial Project Manager, U.S. EPA Region IX, SFD-3, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. To contact Dan Strausbaugh at ATSDR, you may call him at 415-744-1774 or toll-free at 1-800-447-4784, then dial 329-1839. Leave a message and your call will be returned.

DO YOU SMELL STRANGE CHEMICAL ODORS OR SEE SMOKE?

A number of people have come to Concerned Residents of South Phoenix meetings (held the first Thursday of each month, at noon, at the South Mountain Community Center) and complained of smelling strong, offensive chemical odors that are coming from the area of the industrial park that begins at 32nd Street. They tell us that the odors are worse at night and on weekends.

If you smell a chemical odor or see smoke and you can't tell what it is, you should call and report this to Maricopa County Environmental Services Department's Hot-Line for Citizen Complaints at 506-6616. The Hot-Line takes complaints 24 hours per day, but you will rarely get a person when you call. Be sure to leave a message about what and where the odor or smoke problem is, your name and phone number so that the staff can reach you to get details, and speak clearly into the phone.

When they do call you back, you will want to get the particular complaint number assigned to your complaint and write it down. The Maricopa County Environmental Services Department doesn't have the budget to be and see everywhere all at once, so anytime you can help them by reporting odors and smoke just helps them help you. This agency does not have a night-time staff, so some industries take advantage of that by pumping smoke and pollution into our air at night. Ever notice how smoky it is in the early morning BEFORE rush hour traffic? Now you know where some of it comes from.

Many people have also complained at Concerned Residents of South Phoenix meetings about dirt on the paved roads in South Phoenix. It is against the air pollution regulations for trucks at industrial facilities to track dirt and debris out onto the paved roads. This dirt and debris get run over and spread by vehicle traffic and become fine dust particles that add to our air pollution problems, which are severe. This dust poses a health hazard because it gets into the deeper recesses of our lungs and will obstruct our lungs and breathing. If you see dirt being tracked out onto the roads, be sure to call 506-6616 and complain. The Maricopa County Environmental Services Department will send an inspector who will explain the regulations to the place where the dirt is being tracked out. If the place continues to violate, be sure to call in again to 506-6616.

GET INVOLVED IN LOCAL PLANNING AND ZONING DECISIONS

The South Mountain Village Planning Committee meets the second Tuesday of the month at the South Mountain Community Center, 212 East Alta Vista, normally starting at 7 pm, but the November meeting will start at 6 pm because there are so many items on the agenda. The South Mountain Village Planning Committee is made up of volunteers who do not get paid for their time. Village planning committees review zoning actions and make the first recommendations about what types of land uses should be allowed. This village level planning process is important to you because it provides access to you about land use decisions. Why is this important? If you thought that City Hall got the message when QPC burned down that industry and residential areas and schools don't mix, think again! The new plan for South Phoenix, according to the zoning and planning map currently available, is to move in the heaviest industrial users in the vacant land across the street from where QPC burned down.

It is an environmental justice issue and consideration when there is a concentration of industries in a minority area. Many people have expressed concerns in this community about how come we always get industry in South Phoenix and other parts of Phoenix get the movie theaters, bowling alleys, shops, malls, etc. Kathy Flemons is the administrative assistant to the South Mountain Village Planning Committee, and she can be reached at 262-8727. She can be contacted for agenda items and for more information.

WHAT OR WHO IS TOSC?

TOSC stands for Technical Outreach Services to Communities. TOSC is a nation-wide program funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to certain universities in America to provide certain services to communities that have issues or problems related to chemical contamination when the chemical contamination is there but not at high enough levels to declare the area a Superfund Site. There is a large number of Superfund Sites in America, most of which have not yet been cleaned up. An example of a Superfund Site is the Motorola 52nd Street Superfund Site, which extends from the Motorola facility at 52nd Street to the west for several miles. Another example is the Indian Bend Wash Superfund Site in Scottsdale.

CERCLA is also called the Superfund law. When there is a Superfund Site, there is assistance from the EPA in the form of a CERCLA Technical Assistance Grant to the community to hire a technical consultant to help them understand about the contamination and to help the community participate in decisions about the cleanup of the chemicals.

The TOSC Program is designed to fill a need and provide a service for these communities that are not "dirty enough" to be a Superfund Site. Some communities get help from TOSC in understanding ways to clean up the toxic contamination, understanding symptoms induced by toxic chemical exposure, and understanding toxic chemical contamination and dangers it may pose. TOSC will also review technical papers of the EPA or other agencies and comment on them or point out errors so that these errors can be corrected.

TOSC does not charge the community for these services. TOSC provides the services of some of the nation's best professors and university resources to contaminated communities.

TOSC was first funded in 1995, and the Concerned Residents of South Phoenix and Don't Waste Arizona discovered TOSC in April 1996. When TOSC was asked for help by CRSP and DWA, they immediately became involved. TOSC in the West is based at Oregon State University (OSU). Three professors from OSU came to Phoenix in December 1996 to tour the affected community with the EPA and meet with members of CRSP and DWA. The TOSC Team were Anna Harding, Public Health Professor at OSU, who spoke at the December 19, 1996 EPA meeting at South Mountain High School. Janet Gillaspie of Environmental Strategies, Inc. and Ken Williamson, the Director of TOSC/OSU also toured the affected community in December 1996. Ken Williamson also attended the September 23, 1997, meeting where the first sampling results conducted by EPA were discussed.

TOSC has sent information about the contaminants found and data about treating the effects. Copies of this can be provided by fax or copies may be purchased from Don't Waste Arizona, Inc. For example, some of the materials provided by TOSC talked about treatment of Hydrofluoric Acid or Hydrogen Fluoride burns. Fluorides in high levels have been found in the affected community. Fluorides are neutralized by calcium and magnesium. Epsom salts found at the local drug store are magnesium salts. Soaking a skin burn from Hydrofluoric Acid in magnesium salts is a recognized medical treatment.