PCB CONTAMINATION Tanapag residents seek to widen scope of test

The Tanapag community will demand the testing of five additional areas in the village after health officials expressed concern on the preliminary results of the health evaluation conducted in connection with polychlorinated biphenyl contamination.

According to Juan Tenorio, representative of the Tanapag Action Group, the five areas were not among those in the list of hotspots where soil and water samples were taken last May by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9.

Mr. Tenorio did not elaborate the results of the laboratory findings since the Department of Public Health will have to analyze further the data gathered from each of the patients who were tested.

“We would like the public health officials to explain to the people the results of the testing and what these numbers mean to them because it is the people’s life that’s at stake here,” he added.

TAG leaders will ask the Environmental Chemical Corp., the contractor of the U.S. Army Corps and EPA Region 9, to widen the scope of their testing by the including five other areas.

“We have also learned that some soil in Cemetery 1 were taken and brought to different parts of the village,” he said. Cemetery 1 was ordered closed and the site was cleaned up by the Army Corps due to high PCB contamination.

As soon as the cleanup in Cemetery 2 is over, community leaders want the federal officials to begin remediation efforts in the village.
“When they do cleanup the village, we want them to follow federal standards unlike the way they did before. We want them to consider the safety of the residents and make it their priority,” Mr. Tenorio said.

Village leaders said relocation of some residents or even the entire village is a possibility which the federal officials must consider if the testing showed that there are many areas with high PCB contamination.

At present, excavation of soil in Cemetery 2 in Tanapag village is a priority of federal officials in time for All Soul’s Day. Treatment of PCB contaminated soil will begin in early part of 2001.

While PCBs were the primary focus of the data gathering conducted by EPA Region 9, a dumpsite which had been identified to contain military waste and old military above-ground fuel tanks were also tested.