Public Meeting Transcript Regarding
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•VVIRONMENTAL PROTECT;QN AGENCY f~ ? C-' 3 Jr* /? 4 PUBLIC MEETING REGARDING GENEVA INDUSTRIES 5 WASTE SITE CLEANUP, 6 FILMED SOUTH HOUSTON, TEXAS 7 OCT -7 1986 SYSTEM 2OO Thursday, a M«y 22, 1986 9 South Houston Community Hall 1007 Stata 10 South Houston, Texas M The hearing began at 7sOO p.m. 12 FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY; Mr. Carl tdJ und. Chief, Super fund Program Branch, Rec,i on 6 £F A 13 Mr. Den Wi11iams, Project Manager, Rsgion 6 EPA Ms. Patricia Curl, Hvdrologist and Project 14 Manager, Super fund Section, Texas Water i-——. sslon J5 SF'EAI ERS: 16 State- Txepresentati ve Al Edwards State Representative Ralph Wallace Councilman Franl Mancuso, Mayor pro tern, City of 1? Houston Mayor Al Thiel, City of South Houston 18 Congressman MiLe Andrews, 22nd District Mayor John Ray Harrison, City of Pasadena 19 CounciIman Johnny Tamayo, City of South Houston Joseph Stampfli, Indiana University Bruce Bundy, Indiana Public Interest Research 20 Group Dr. Jacl Matson, University of Houston 21 John F. Stevens, Episcopal Church of the Advent Christine Mayglothling, State House of 22 Representatives, Austin, Texas Anthony R. Collins, The Metropali tan Organization 23 ftnita R. Locher, Baha" i Faith of South Houston Prian Greeney 24 Thomas A. Dardas, Deto;: Industries Dt - Herbert C. Met ee, Department of Health and 26 Human Services. City of Houston 005143 Dr. G»org» Smith, Si»rr« Club G«argi* L. NAft^ai I 2 Sol it* Aon MAIL *r 6*r*Jd H. W*lfc,er 3 Joye» Tht*I»p*p», 61«nbroo* Civic SJ id* Hunt»r t 4 £d«*rd W. Utlliford, M«*clow Brook Clvtc Club J. A. s. Ad*m», Prof»*«ar, Ric* Univ»r«ity s Dr* M*rry H, WaUcr Nancy Funcierburk, H« on, Inc. Carman Oro*co 2C 6 Dcth Doug] 7 Hi I * F\ McQi nneac D. MarrdLl 8 Lynn W. Brasher F- , 9 10 Robert C*r^^, i_ULAC h SoGonralerc i ei y , he;:ican American Engineering Mi ch^f -; Cm n L err. *s. £ti «» 12 13 U 15 16 17 to 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 005144 i 2 ?i * B Efifie I i 3 OPENING REMARf £ B ': Mr. Carl Edlund Z B !i 1I A ('' PRESENTATION B B M». Patricia Curl 10 B 1 5 1 PRESENTATION B B8 Mr. Don Williams 20 B B 6 : •• 7 STATEMENTS B j Representative Al Edwards 33 B 1 Representative Ralph Wallace 34 B i 8 i Councilman Franfc Mancusa 52 " B1 Mavar Al Thiel 55 ' B 9 Congressman Mi I.e Andrews 57 H1^91BI Mayor John Ray Harrison 63 B i1 10 Councilman Johnny Tamayo 65 BBRS|i Joseph Stamplfi 66 B 1 Bruce &und / 71 B i 11 Dr. Jac* Matson 75 B i John f- . Stevens 7B B 12 i Christine Mayglothling 79 B •i !! Anthony R. Colling Q5 B 13 Am ta R. Locher 97 B i Brian Greenev 89 H l 14 Thomas A. Dardas 90 Kl i : Dr. Herbert C. Met ee 93 K ' : Dr. George Smith 103 B 15 Georgi a L. Haskel 1 105 B Solita Ann Waller 107 H 16 Gerald H. Walt er 1U B ! Joyce Thielepape 114 H 17 i SI Ida Hunter Read 116 ! H ; Edward W. killi^ord 117 H 18 J. A. S. Adams 118 Gf Dr. Harry M. Waller 121 §H Nancy F under bur k 125 Bi s» 1* 9*J Carmen Drosco 128 ml Beth Sellers 131 1 1 20 Douglas Wilson 133 §f 1 ! Mii;e P. McGinness 135 « j: 21 | D. Marrack 141 E i Lynn W. Brasher 146 K Ei 22 Joe P. Zepeda 156 ffi|1 Margaret Gon^ale^ 159 ml H 23 Robert Gar^a 161 H isHm Ralph Gan^aiez 163 mi i 24 Michael Chi Iders 165 S i i ii•SB 25 I itm | m1 1I ' ' 1 i HgHaiBHB|M^^^rfcaigwmBfcBmaBUJB|CM|i5B|iaM 9i 005145 Mft. EDLUND: May I have your attention, please. Thank you. I would lile to begin the public meeting pretty much on time, and that was scheduled for 7 o'clock. I want 5 to thank you all for coming out to this meeting and sharing 6 with us your interests, comments, and questions regarding the 7 Geneva Super fund site. 8 Now, unfortunately, the last public meeting that we 9 ihad on this site, we had about 58 people and we figured this 10 hall would hold you all. I understand that there are ;; public addre*s= systems on the outside of the building and )!i ij those foll.s oat there can listen in to the program as well. fi!l 13 |, Fjr^t of all, I would lile to introduce myself. My ij I name is Carl Edlur.d. I am with the Environmental Protection 15 •J Agency in Dallas, that is ERA Region 6. And I am in charge 16 ,, of the Super fund program. Our jurisdiction includes the i 7 :states of Ne*. Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and 18 t! Texas. I 19 ; Now, with us tonight I have -- Up here at the podium, I have Ms. Patricia Curl. She is with the Texas Water Commission, and she was the project officer for the 22 state working on the studies that we are going to be talking 23 j! about tonight. Also at the podium, or at the table, is Mr. Donald Williams. Don is with the ERA in Dallas, also, and he 25 was our p j&ct of ficer on these studies. 005146 t ii Now, there are a few other folks that I think 1 •hould recognise right at this juncture. We also have with us, from the Centers for Disease Control, Mr. Carl Htckham. Carl, will you stand up, please. He is over on the side !| i there. Thank you. He will be available in case questions i;' i regarding health arise. 7 ji i Also to help us - out• •,• I• •" believ• ' e we have Ms. Barbara ! 8 ., Greenfield. Is she back here yet"* She will be coming over, 9 i• I suppose, in a few minutes. She is an attorney with our 'i 10 ij office and may help us out if legal questions should pop up. M Final 1y, we have — we were going to have, and we 12 •will have, I suppose, in a little bit here, Father Jose from f 11 [ the- nearby church. He is serving mass right now. And he was 14 i! going to help us to serve as a translator for any of those I! 15 foils who "tave difficulty with English. Until he comes, and 16 :j she volunteered just a few seconds ago, Ms. Carmen Orosco. 17 Would you stand up, please, just to let people know where you 1 18 ji j * are" Volunteered to help us out in that capaci ty. 19 As you came in through the entrance hall, there 20 were several others of our staff. I will mention them 21 briefly. Mr . Roger Mecham, Barbara Getz, and Ellen Greeney— 22 they are our community relations and public affairs staff, 23 and the/ are avail able to tall with you all, too, if you have 24 questions of an informal nature. 25 Al1 right. The purpose of this meeting is to 005147 jjreceive comments and questions on the possible remedies for j! !i the Geneva Super-fund site. We will receive them here or in I. ..writing in the comment period that follows. Under Superfund, li the ERA is directed by statute and regulation to select a 5 remedy that meets some criteria. The prime criteria is that 6 the remedy protects public health and the environment. 7 Now, after satisfying that basic criteria, we also 8 ; take a lool at factors such as cost, the permanency of the if 9 i ; solution, the availability of the technology to be applied at 10 tjj | that time, and a number of other factors, timing, logistics, *1 safety, et ceter«. .1 12 |j Now, several remedies that we have studied 13 isati&fy the first criteria and, to varying degrees, the lii 14 iji 1 secondary cr i ter j a, and those are the things that we ar e 15 ! going to discuss here tonight. Now, what I —- the way I 16 Isj ; would life to conduct this meeting and perhaps I should 17 jj clarify first the nature of this meeting. ji i} ; This i £ a public meeting. It is not a rule making ij! hearing. We do have a court reporter, basically because we 20 want to make sure that we do get everyone's questions and 21 comments down. But this is not a formal public hearing. 22 We will try to answer questions to the best of our 23 ability tonight. We may not be able to answer them $uliy> >n 24 which case we will fallow this meeting up with a written 25 ry c<al 1 ed a responsi veness summary, that does answer 005148 1 '!j every question that is asked fully. 2 , Now, we would like to start off with a few short 3 < presentations to give you an idea about what the Superfund : 4 f! legislation is about and what we have done so far at the 5 ! Geneva site. After that, we will open it up for public d 6 ,| comment. Now* i f you want to speak, that is fins, and what I 7 I ask you to do is to fill out, if you haven' t done so already, i 3 •! a 1 i ttle card at the front of the entranceway.