Deep soil to be tested
in two areas

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

The state Health Department and its contractor have agreed to test deep soil samples in the Village Park and West Loch Fairways neighborhoods to see if there are chemicals making residents ill.

Nearly all of about 75 residents attending a Health Department briefing last night raised their hands when asked if they would sacrifice more surface soil samplings in favor of a few deeper samplings.

The state Legislature set side $420,000 to study soil in the two subdivisions at the urging of residents who want to know why their families appear to have more ailments, particularly among young people, than ones living elsewhere.

The suspicion has centered on pesticides that included chemicals such as dibromo chloropropane and ethylene dibromide used on nearby pineapple and sugar cane fields. Evidence to date has been inconclusive.

Officials with the Health Department and contractor Ogden Environmental and Energy Services had proposed that only surface samples, defined as no more than six inches deep, be taken since that is what most people would be exposed to. Doug Hazelwood, Ogden project consultant, said the cost involved with drilling to a depth of 4 feet in several areas would mean fewer surface sampling sites.

But Bob Achi, vice president of Citizens for a Safe Environment and a retired contractor, disputed Ogden's claims that it would take equipment that cost $1,800 a day to do the drilling.

George Theis, like others in the audience, think the Health Department needs to look at why underground pipes appear to be corroding at a faster rate in Village Park than other neighborhoods. "I can't believe something with that corrosive an impact wouldn't affect the human body," Theis said.

Residents wishing to take part in the soil study are asked to call the Health Department's Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Branch at 586-4249.

Sampling will be done from Sept. 27 to Oct. 1. A final report is due Dec. 14.