Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Jessica Miller, who lives in Cabot.
After decades of requests to do so, the Department of Environmental Conservation/Agency of Natural Resources, on February of this year, performed an independent sampling of Agri-Mark’s Cabot plant’s effluent and Endyne Laboratories performed the tests. And because the sample was collected from the plant’s truck fill area, the effluent was, most likely, that which is land applied onto fields throughout Vermont, and not the waste that is piped into storage lagoons and sprayed onto fields at the Cabot site; although that should be tested, as well.
In 2009, a former Cabot employee sent to John Akielaszek, indirect discharge permit chief at the Agency of Natural Resources, a suggestion, “To have some random testing done by an outside concern, as it looks like most of the testing and sampling that takes place is done on a set schedule and that the permittee would have knowledge as to when it would occur.” This person was obviously aware of the possibility of diluting the effluent with fresh water prior to any sample collection or delaying running cleaning chemicals through the system until the collection is completed. Mr. Akielaszek claims this latest sampling was unannounced.
At first glance, this seven-page analysis of 224 separate chemicals (over twice the number claimed by Agri-Mark) appears fairly benign. But the less than detectable amounts of most of these chemicals doesn’t mean these chemicals aren’t there. The less than detectable amounts only mean that the laboratory’s instruments aren’t sensitive enough to detect substances at lower levels.
And increased studies have shown certain chemicals are toxic at lower and lower levels of detection. According to Dr. Bernard Greenberg, a physical chemist, the dissolved phosphorus, total phosphorus, total solids and suspended solids, ammonia and total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) in this analysis are “scandalously high.” Also detected in this analysis are toluene, benzene and barium; all carcinogenic and all of which Agri-Mark has denied being present in its effluent.
And since all of these chemicals are mixed together one must consider the cumulative and unpredictable effects created by this toxic blend which is being dumped daily onto fields, pumped into unlined storage lagoons, sprayed into the air and ultimately into Vermont’s drinking water and waterways. Scientists will tell you that you might be able to predict the number of reactions created by the combination of two chemicals, but beyond that the reactions are immeasurable. And, sometimes, the breakdown products are more toxic than the original material.
But the presence of the chemical hexavalent chromium in this analysis is the most troubling. Better known as the anti-corrosive that caused multiple forms of cancer in the citizens of Hinkley, Calif., depicted in the film “Erin Brokovich,” this chemical is used to re-passivate the oxide film lining of the stainless steel pipes, equipment, storage tanks and truck tanks. The bleach disinfectants — chlorides — are the cheapest way to kill microorganisms, but they also remove the oxide film from stainless steel; thus the need for hexavalent chromium.
In the Hinkley case, Pacific Gas and Electric’s unlined storage ponds leaked this chemical into the town’s drinking water. Inside the Cabot plant, all of the equipment must be cleaned after every batch of milk is put through the system in order to prevent contamination, recalls and loss of money.
In 2000, the EPA’s acceptable limit of hexavalent chromium was 0.05 parts per million. The Endyne detection of this chemical in Cabot’s effluent is 0.025 parts per million. However, California, which has always been a leader in environmental issues and more aware of the catastrophic effects of hexavalent chromium, is now requesting the EPA reduce the acceptable limit of this chemical to .02 parts per trillion. Industrial chemists are inventing new chemicals faster than they can be tested, and every day we learn that there are no safe levels of most of the chemicals that already exist.
