Former City Manager Comments on PCB

Former City of Fayetteville manager George Shuff, of Minden, said that a refusal by federal, state and county agencies to dredge Arbuckle Creek has led to floodwaters carrying PCBs onto residents’ properties from a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund site.

EPA crews began a cleanup effort, evacuating about 200 yards of contaminated soil in 1991. They tore down part of the Shaffer building and declared it a Superfund site by 1992. They placed a cap over one part of the site, sealing it.

Richardson said the EPA has not investigated community reports that thousands of gallons of oil were dumped into nearby mines at Minden.

Shuff’s property along Arbuckle Creek was identified in a recent EPA report as a contaminated site. He said politics and PCBs are killing Minden.

Shuff learned of the contamination on Sunday when Headwaters Defense, a local environmental rights group, published the EPA report at a community meeting.

Shuff said minor flooding has happened in Minden during hard rains since 2001, when a major flood cleanup was mitigated by the Federal Emergency Mangement Agency (FEMA).

“We got flooded back in 2001,” he said. “Our understanding was, there was money set aside to dredge out this creek and to widen it out so the creek water would stay in the creek and not flood into people’s property.”

More residents said they had heard rumors in 2001 that money had been allotted to dredge the creek, but they were unclear on the agency which had allotted the funding.

After the 2001 flood, the West Virginia Conservation Agency completed a statewide flood plan. Experts recommended dredging creeks to mitigate future state flooding.

WVDEP, the West Virginia Division of Highways and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were participating agencies to the report.

When the creek hadn’t been dredged by 2002, Shuff’s fianceé, Sharon Nunn of nearby Rock Lick, went from agency to agency — the Fayette County Commission, DOH, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, WVDEP and WVDNR— and to state Gov. Bob Wise, requesting the dredging of Arbuckle Creek and Rock Lick Creek.

When each agency denied responsibility, documents show that Nunn and other citizens turned to federal lawmakers for relief against flooding.

Around 155 residents of Minden and nearby Rock Lick and a few other towns signed a petition in 2003 asking lawmakers to dredge the creek. The petition was sent to the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and Congressman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va. Documents show that Byrd’s office researched the matter and deemed it a possible interest for FEMA.

“Everybody signed it (the petition), but nothing was ever done,” Shuff said.

Since then, residents say, minor flooding is the norm in Minden during a hard rain.

Shuff pointed out that rain also brings overflow from Oak Hill into Arbuckle Creek, causing the Oak Hill PSD sewer treatment plant to overflow into Arbuckle, along with PCB from Shaffer’s.

“A lot of it is politics,” said Shuff. “I don’t know what can be done about that.

“It’s too bad the creek was never cleaned out or dredged,” he added. “If they had (dredged), the creek would stay in its bank and PCBs wouldn’t be on people’s property.”

Shuff said he’d like to leave Minden but will not be able to leave the contaminated property at the present time.

“If somebody would buy my house, I’d be glad to sell it to him,” he said. “Because of the PCB scare, nobody wants to buy a house here. Nobody wants to rent here.

“That PCB stuff just ruins the sale value of these homes down here. Nobody wants to live with PCBs in their backyard.”

Roy Seneca, a spokesman for EPA-Philadelphia, said Wednesday that the EPA does not have the authority to buy contaminated properties.

Shuff, who had assisted in one cleanup effort at the Shaffer’s site, lives approximately two miles from that site. The latest EPA samples showed that his property is contaminated by PCB at nearly double the level that is considered actionable by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP). The contamination does not meet an actionable level from EPA.

Seneca said Thursday that EPA could not yet verify the results of the Arbuckle Creek study.

Minden residents have said that additional sites in Minden and other places in the county may be contaminated by PCB.

Frank Ward, a former Shaffer’s employee, told The Register-Herald in June that workers sprayed the roads with PCB to keep down dust, improperly disposed of it at the former Fayette County Landfill site at Concho near ACE Resort and sold and gave the PCB oil to residents to burn. Ward said at least one Shaffer’s worker had handled PCB oil with bare hands and that workers at Shaffer’s did not have protective gear for handling PCB.

EPA agents had returned to the region in May to test for PCB contamination, after Minden residents Susie Jenkins, Darrell Thomas, Ward and others began to report a higher rate of cancer in their community. Jenkins, who currently lives in Concho on property her late father once owned, has been diagnosed with multiple cancers, she said.

After Jenkins’ investigation into neighbors’ cancer cases, she joined Headwaters Defense, a local environmental rights group founded by Brandon Richardson, she said.

Headwaters Defense members had also directed EPA agents to a site at 3279 Court St. near Fayetteville, a property that is listed as being in the Plateau District and zoned rural residential, on June 6 after hearing local reports that a “tanker” of PCB oil was stored there.

EPA tests showed lower levels of PCB contamination on the lot, along with a “suspected underground storage tank,” according to a July 25 EPA report.

The Court Street property is currently owned by Imri Szilagyi, the founder of Appalachian Whitewaters.

On Friday, the Fayette County Commission appointed Charleston attorney Mike Callaghan as special assistant prosecuting attorney to assist Fayette Prosecuting Attorney Larry Harrah in finding the parties responsible for dumping PCB on the Fayetteville lot and created a special Environmental Public Health and Protection Division (EPHPD).

Richardson of Headwaters Defense characterized Callaghan’s appointment and the EPHPD as being insulting to Minden residents.

Source: The Register-Herald