ATSDR in Partnership With Delaware
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is the lead
public health agency responsible for implementing the health-related provisions
of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of
1980 (CERCLA). ATSDR is an Atlanta-based federal agency with more than 400
employees and a budget for 2004 of approximately $73 million. ATSDR assesses the
presence and nature of health hazards at specific Superfund sites, helps to
prevent or reduce furtherexposure and illnesses resulting from those hazards,
and expands the knowledge base about the health effects of exposure to hazardous
substances.
ATSDR works closely with state agencies to carry out its mission to serve the
public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and
providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and disease
related to toxic substances. ATSDR provides funding and technical assistance to
states and other partners through cooperative agreements and grants to identify
and evaluate environmental health threats to communities. These resources enable
state and local health departments and other grantees to further investigate
environmental health concerns and to educate communities. In addition to direct
funds and services, ATSDR provides technical and administrative guidance for
state-conducted site activities.
ATSDR Site-Specific Activities
Public Health Assessment-Related Activities
One of ATSDR's important mandates is to conduct public health
assessments of all National Priorities List (NPL) sites and of other
sites where a significant threat to public health might exist. A public
health assessment is a written, comprehensive evaluation of available
data and information about the release of hazardous substances into the
environment in a specific geographic area. Such releases are assessed for past,
current, or future impact on public health. ATSDR, in collaboration with public
health and environmental officials from Delaware, has conducted
25 public health assessments in the state, including the following
recent examples.
Dover Air Force Base—Dover Air Force Base
(DAFB) is an active U.S. Air Force (USAF) base near Dover.
In addition to the main base, DAFB includes two annexes: the Eagle Meadows
Housing Annex 1 mile southeast of the base in Lebanon and the Port Mahon
Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricant Annex near Little Creek. ATSDR prepared a
public health assessment to evaluate potential health hazards from past,
current, and future exposures to contaminants originating from the base.
Over the years, materials used in industrial or general base support
operations spilled or were released to the soil or the underlying
groundwater during accidents and from waste management practices. These
materials came primarily from aircraft and vehicle maintenance and repair
activities; they included waste fuel, oils, solvents, pesticides, plating
wastes, and paint. The primary contaminants of concern are volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) and fuel-related compounds in groundwater. The
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
(DNREC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
and the USAF have been investigating and remediating known sources of
environmental contamination on the base.
ATSDR identified five exposure situations for evaluation. Three of these
(contaminants in off-base drinking supply wells, possible vapors in DAFB
homes above an on-base VOC plume, and current use of a former landfill) are
associated with industrial releases from the base, and two potential
environmental exposure situations (lead in housing and arsenic in the
drinking water) are not. ATSDR evaluated possible hazards associated with
these five exposure situations and concluded that they are not of health
concern.
In a final public health assessment released in December 2003, ATSDR
recommended that children be kept away from chipped paint surfaces in base
housing to prevent exposure to lead-based paint and that residents contact
the Family Maintenance Office with concerns about severely chipped surfaces.
ATSDR concurred with DAFB's and Delaware's lead exposure assessment and
screening programs. Parents who are concerned about their children's
exposure to lead should discuss this with their children's health care
providers.
Although VOC-contaminated groundwater is under one housing area on-base,
concentrations are expected to decrease as a result of DAFB's ongoing
remedial efforts. If monitoring indicates that VOCs in groundwater are not
decreasing, ATSDR recommends that DAFB consider indoor air sampling in
buildings above the plume.
Standard Chlorine/Metachem Products—ATSDR conducted a public
health assessment of the Metachem Products site in New Castle
in response to public health concerns expressed by a representative of a
citizens' group in the area. A spokesperson for the group, "Stop Metachem
Products LLC," expressed concerns about whether people in the area were
being exposed to chemicals from the Metachem Products plant. A previous
public health assessment of the site, when the plant and property were owned
by Standard Chlorine of Delaware, was issued in March 1989. Metachem
purchased the facility from Standard Chlorine in 1998.
The 1989 public health assessment concluded that the site was a potential
public health hazard to on-site employees and remedial workers through
direct contact with the soil. The public health assessment also concluded
that area residents who use nearby surface waters for fishing may be at
increased risk for possible adverse health effects through direct contact
with the water and through ingestion of fish that bioaccumulate site-related
contaminants.
In September 2003, ATSDR released an updated public health assessment
because people in the community raised new concerns and additional data are
now available. This updated public health assessment examines data about
fish contamination, two major spills at the site during the 1980s, and
potential public health issues associated with the manufacturing of
chlorobenzene products.
Contaminants have bioaccumulated in edible marine life in Red Lion Creek. In
2000-2001, an ecologic risk assessment was conducted for the Metachem site.
The assessment included analyzing samples of four types of fish collected
from the creek. ATSDR classified the ingestion pathway as no apparent health
hazard because a fish advisory issued by DNREC and the
Delaware Division of Public Health has been in effect for fish
caught in the Red Lion Creek since 1986. In addition, surface drinking-water
intakes on the creek and shallow wells near Metachem have been closed; all
drinking water wells within 1.5 miles of the site were recently sampled, and
no contamination was found; and fields near the site and crops grown in the
fields are unlikely to have been contaminated with chemicals from the site.
With regard to community concern about exposure from spills, ATSDR
classified current exposure to the site as no apparent public health hazard
for local residents because they are not exposed to the chemicals on the
site.
ATSDR does not know whether the site was a health hazard during the two
large spills in the 1980s and during the containment and removal activities
after the spills. Monitoring data do not exist to determine any possible
exposures.
From the limited data ATSDR reviewed, the nearby privately owned ball field
area does not appear to be contaminated with chemicals from the site;
therefore, use of the ball field should not be a public health hazard.
ATSDR agrees with EPA that restrictions should be placed on the property
deed to prevent future activities at the site that would disturb any capped
contaminated areas. ATSDR also agrees with EPA that measures are needed to
prevent the use of the Columbia aquifer near the site for drinking water. If
these measures are put in place and the site remediation is completed, the
Metachem site will not be a future public health hazard.
ATSDR recommended continued monitoring of air on the site and at its
perimeter until the chemical products and other wastes are removed from the
site and contaminated soil and sediment are excavated and treated. If air
monitoring at the fence lines indicates chemicals at levels of health
concern, on-site employees should be notified, and anyone using the nearby
ball field should be warned to evacuate the area.
During future off-site soil sampling, ATSDR recommends that samples be taken
in the ball field area to confirm that area is not contaminated with
site-related chemicals.
ATSDR should continue to work with EPA and DNREC to consult on and assist
with public health issues, as needed, during removal of the chemicals and
wastes, closure and decontamination of the facility, and remediation of the
site.
Since the public health assessment was published, contamination has been
found in the Potomac aquifer, which is accessed for drinking water. However,
this contamination was not detected in drinking water sources in the recent
sampling of private wells near the site. Therefore, the conclusions and
recommendations in the 2003 public health assessment remain the same, and
ATSDR is not planning to reassess the site at this time.
A health consultation is a written or oral response from
ATSDR to a specific request for information about health risks related to a
specific site, chemical release, or hazardous material. A health consultation is
a more limited response than a public health assessment is.
Eleven
health consultations have been conducted at
seven sites in
Delaware.
Resource Materials
ATSDR develops materials for public health professionals and medical care
providers to use to assess the public health impacts of chemical exposures.
These resources are available in print, on the ATSDR Web site, and on CD-ROM.
For example, medical management guidelines are available for acute chemical
exposures to more than 50 chemicals. These guidelines were designed to aid
emergency department physicians and other emergency health care professionals,
such as first responders, who manage acute exposures resulting from chemical
incidents. ATSDR's toxicological profiles comprehensively describe health
effects; pathways of human exposure; and the behavior of more than 250 hazardous
substances in air, soil, and water at hazardous waste sites. The toxicological
profiles primarily are used as a comprehensive resource by health professionals
at all levels. These profiles have been sent to requesters, including
representatives of federal, state, and local health and environmental
departments; academic institutions; private industries; and nonprofit
organizations in
Delaware. ATSDR also has developed extensive
resources for community members.
April 2004