Birmingham, Ala (WIAT) The federal EPA’S order to Walter Coke declaring North Birmingham neighborhoods a Superfund site is “very comprehensive and uncommon” according to EPA Region 4 spokesperson James Pinkney.
He said the agency’s RCRA division (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) has been involved in soil testing and supervising cleanup in Collegeville, Harriman Park and Fairmont) for months.
CBS42’s investigative series and documentary
Deadly Deception have covered RCRA efforts in the North Birmingham neighborhoods including escalating neighborhood demands for both information and action.
Months of meetings conducted by EPA, the Jefferson County Health Department and others have largely left neighbors muttering about inaction.
Federal officials have been hinting for weeks about “something big” happening in early January. It appears that someone released the Superfund letters before the EPA’s early January timetable to go public.
The order to Walter Coke putting it under the Superfund law “involves air and water” according to Pinkey. That’s a step up from previous clean up efforts that had focused on soil contamination.
Area residents have been complaining to CBS42 (and federal, state, county and local officials) for months that cleaning up contaminated soil wasn’t addressing how the toxic materials got there in the first place. Residents believe it’s blowing in from Walter Coke and, possibly, other similar facilities in the North Birmingham area.
Walter, for its part has spent the past 12 months painting itself as doing a voluntary cleanup (a notion disputed by several EPA officials) while asking that the feds cast their net wider in seeking the source of the pollution.
Walter Coke President Chuck Stewart put a positive spin on the Superfund action claiming “Walter Coke welcomes this step. In many ways, EPA’s decision reflects an acknowledgment of points that Walter Coke has been making for a long time.”
During our year long investigation Walter has minimized it's role in polluting the neighborhoods blaming everything from other industrial sources to vehicle exhaust and neighbors grilling outdoors.
EPA spokesman Pinkney says his agency “is conducting a search of potential responsible parties and will pursue entering into a settlement agreement with PRP’s that will include assessments and/or clean ups. Those notifications are expected in the coming months."
In a letter to Walter Coke’s Stewart, Jeffrey Pallas of EPA’s RCRA division informs Stewart that previous discussions with Walter Coke are now off the table and that the agency is proceeding with addressing “offsite contamination and drafting this new Superfund order.”
Local officials including Councilwoman Maxine Parker (whose district includes the affected area) as well as former federal judge U.W. Clemon are praising the federal action.
Clemon's lawfirm, White Arnold and Dowd has been hired by Birmingham to work on solutions to the problems outlined in the CBS42 series.
