Hazardous chemical cleanup begins in neighborhood; could extend miles further

CHERAW, S.C. — Barbara Graham looks at the mess in her neighbor's backyard and worries.

"It bothers me that it's something that could be potentially harmful," she said.

She lives on Pecan Drive in Cheraw, where a private contractor started digging up six backyards on Tuesday.

They were hired by the EPA to remove soil contaminated by PCBs that have been buried there since the 1960s.

Nearly $1 million is being spent on what federal officials called the first phase of a cleanup. The properties are adjacent to the former Burlington textile mill.

“This is just the first step in what should become a large cleanup process," said on-scene coordinator Matthew Huyser, with the EPA out of Atlanta.

"Most of what they'll find as far as contamination is no more than six inches below the surface, but they may go down two feet in some places," he said.

PCBs were commonly used in transformers, but also served in a variety of other commercial and industrial uses, until the chemicals were banned in 1979. They have been linked to cancer and that concerns Cathy Hatchell, who played here as a child.

She played in the ditch where officials said Burlington dumped contaminated wastewater for decades.

"You would see fluids and stuff in the ditch, but we were kids. We didn't pay that much attention as to what it was," Hatchell said.

What Burlington did was legal at the time, because environmental restrictions were lax then. Neighbors are at risk of exposure through groundwater, though most here have city water, which is safe, and not wells.

The EPA is concerned about PCB contamination through dust in the air. Someone could inhale it or get it on their skin.

"In the meantime, we're wetting the soil to make sure there's no dust being generated and distributed in the community," Huyser said.

The problem was only discovered about a year ago, when a developer buying some land noticed what looked like some kind of spill. The soil was tested, and PCBs were found.

A nearby park called Huckleberry Park is closed, roped off, with signs alerting neighbors to an environmental investigation. The same ditch runs right behind it.

"That was the main favorite park and the stream that goes through it, we all played in it," Hatchell said.

The former plant, which is now called Highland, no longer represents a danger to the community.

This first cleanup effort is expected to take four to six weeks. However, less serious soil contamination was found along the drainage ditch toward the Pee Dee River, three miles away.

If funds are approved, the cleanup could be extended all the way to the river and even in the river itself.

The EPA said homeowners now dealing with the mess, noise and dirt will have their yards re-seeded and repaired, so there's no long-term impact.

The potential long-term impact they're worried about now is to their health.

"People have had some illnesses around here. You just don't know," Graham said.

DHEC has alerted neighbors to stay out of the work area, including the ditch, to wash hands after being outside and to keep children out of the dirt.

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