MDEQ whitewashed PFOA, protects polluter profits

Pascagoula Mississippi Press, Becky Gillette
Published October 25, 2006

To the Editor: DuPont First Chemical was delighted with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality presentation to the Pascagoula City Council recently where MDEQ gave a whitewash of PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid). Once again MDEQ acted to protect the profits of polluters rather than protect the public from pollution. Jackson County is in the top five percent most polluted counties in the nation, and also has one of the highest cancer rates. Now DuPont and MDEQ want to give us more pollution in the form of a chemical that an EPA advisory group says is a likely carcinogen. PFOA is in a class of chemicals the Environmental Working Group says may "supplant DDT, PCBs, dioxin and other chemicals as the most notorious, global chemical contaminants ever produced." DuPont paid the largest administrative fine in the history of EPA ($16.5 million) for its PFOA coverup, and is liable hundreds of millions in lawsuit settlements for contaminating communities elsewhere with PFOA. DuPont claims it is spending $20 million on the project to truck a PFOA-contaminated product from New Jersey to Pascagoula just to remove the PFOA, and then truck the product back to New Jersey. We are to believe they are doing all that for a product that has no health effects? Here is the latest EPA statement on this: "Animal test data for PFOS and PFOA have shown liver, developmental, and reproductive toxicity at very low exposure levels . these chemicals are expected to persist and have the potential to bioaccumulate and be hazardous to human health and the environment. Based on recent information, EPA can no longer conclude that these polymers will not present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment." DuPont claims only two pounds per year will be released in the wastewater. But there are no permit limits. DuPont claims it will destroy 1,000 pounds of PFOA per year in a new chemical process. But that process has not been adequately described, and--this is critical--DuPont will not even monitor air emissions for PFOA. Don't monitor; don't know. That seems to be their strategy when they recently got a fine for $65,000 from MDEQ for violations such as failure to monitor as required by their air permit. They claimed they weren't in violation of permit limits, but how do you know if you don't monitor? PFOA is already found in the blood of 95 percent of American, and is found in the blood of some children at the same levels that cause toxic effects in lab animals. PFOA is even found in polar bears, so it is pretty clear it has to be spreading by air. And yet DuPont isn't even going to monitor air emissions from its process to see if the PFOA is actually being destroyed, or instead it or something worse is being released into our air? Even one third of DuPont shareholders have voted to eliminate PFOA. Instead, DuPont is playing a shell game, moving the PFOA to Mississippi where it will not even have to monitor air emissions or have any permit limits on air or water emissions. Please attend a public meeting on this issue Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Civic Center at the Fairgrounds in Pascagoula. Sincerely, Becky Gillette