NEWS ARTICLE STIRS EPA TO TEST FOR PCBs IN SOUTH CAPE

A short article that appeared in the Southeast Missourian 29 years ago prompted an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month into whether oil containing PCBs had been spread on gravel streets in south Cape Girardeau.

The tests found PCB concentrations of less than 1 part per million in soil in the area, good news considering. "That would not represent an unacceptable risk," says Pauletta France-Isetts of the EPA in Kansas City, Kan.

Polychlorinated biphenyl is a probable human carcinogen that does not easily degrade in the environment. "It's likely if there had been high concentrations of PCBs in the oil we would have seen something in the testing that was done," France-Isetts said.

She is the manager of the Missouri Electric Works Remedial Project, an EPA Superfund site on South Kingshighway. Contamination at the former MEW motor and transformer repair site was measured at 58,000 ppm.

EPA guidelines allow for PCBs up to 1 ppm in residential areas with no restrictions, up to 10 ppm in residential areas with restrictions, up to 25 ppm in industrial areas and 50 ppm in areas with transformer substations.

The July 10, 1970, article reported that the Cape Girardeau Department of Public Works had spread 1,000 gallons of used transformer oil on several streets in south Cape Girardeau, including LaCruz Street. The report said MEW had donated the oil to the South Cape Community Progress Center, an anti-poverty organization which no longer exists.

According to the story, the city had done the work at the request of the center.

The EPA acted after someone sent the agency a copy of the newspaper article. "We had heard rumors for some time that some of the oil had been used for this type of thing. We had never been able to verify that it had happened," France-Isetts said. "We felt it was incumbent on us to check things out," she said.

During the week of June 14, EPA workers used hand augurs and shovels to sample the upper two inches of soil below the gravel roadways and on the shoulders. They also interviewed City Engineer Mark Lester, officials at the Cape Girardeau County Health Department, former city officials and one former resident who might have knowledge of what happened, France-Isetts said.

Some soil samples contained no detectable PCBs at all, France-Isetts said. The fact that some PCBs were found in other samples doesn't mean they came from MEW, she added.

"PCBs are fairly ubiquitous in the environment. There are a lot of areas where it is not uncommon to find them.

"We can't necessarily say they were from the Missouri Electric Works area."

Not all transformer oil contained significant amounts of PCBs, she said.

The EPA doesn't think Missouri Electric Works provided oil for city streets on any frequent basis. "This may have been the only time," France-Isetts said.

Doug Leslie, the city's director of Public Works, said he is unaware of the city providing this type of service in the 10 years he has been here. "I have heard nothing that would indicate that was ever done," he said, speaking of his predecessors.

The area where the oil was applied has been subjected to frequent flooding from the Mississippi River over the years, leading most of the former residents to move away and to federal flood buyouts. France-Isetts said erosion caused by flooding could have reduced the amount of PCBs found, depending on how much of the surface soils eroded.

"We don't have enough information to know if there was any potential problem that existed years ago," she said.

At the contaminated South Kingshighway MEW site, workers are preparing to pour the concrete pad that will support the thermal unit to be used to treat the soil.