A former Ilion resident who is attempting to get environmental and health risk studies conducted by federal and state agencies held a meeting this week in Herkimer, inviting village residents to get active in her cause.
Having several instances of rare illnesses in her own family, including a sister being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2008 at the age of 35, Carrie Firestone started soliciting information from village residents.
Over the last year, Firestone has collected anecdotal accounts of cancer cases and illnesses among current and former village residents. And she has researched documented instances of pollution in the area, as well as residents’ comments on where un-documented pollution is believed to have taken place.
Firestone, with assistance from members of her Ilion High School graduating class of 1988, also started a Web site to support the effort, which was named The Ilion Project.
The project’s stated mission is to gather information about illness patterns in Ilion and then, in time, look for a possible environmental cause.
Until the meeting Monday at the American Red Cross of the Mohawk Valley, the project has mainly been the result of work by Firestone, who now lives in Connecticut. She said she is encouraged by the group of residents who turned out.
A total of 15 people, including county Legislator Jeffrey Stone, R-Ilion, attended the meeting. Several of those in attendance spoke about their experiences with illness, both personal and through observations of friends and neighbors.
Firestone said the number of cases of rare diseases in the village, based on her research into the subject, are well above national averages.
The findings warrant further investigation by government agencies, she said.
But having lived out of Ilion for 27 years, Firestone believes action will only be taken after current residents get involved. “I’m deferring to the people of Ilion,” she added.
The meeting ended with local residents planning to start a petition, based on the information from The Ilion Project, and to submit signatures to state and federal agencies. Another meeting of the group is being scheduled for three weeks from Monday, and the group is hoping to have government officials attend.
State and federal spokespersons agreed that environmental investigations are a direct result of local involvement.
Elizabeth Totman, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson, explained each site is different but there is usually a common starting point for government involvement. “It starts local and works its way up,” she said in a phone interview.
As an example, an investigation can be started by residents witnessing suspicious activities, Totman said. Local officials are contacted and the information goes to state officials and, if necessary, the EPA, she added.
The main way that a site gets onto a national priority list for federal clean-up programs is through the state Department of Environmental Conservation making a direct request, Totman said.
Steven Litwhiler, of the DEC, said his department investigates information related to practices of illegal dumping and similar pollution. “We will take information from anyone that wants to report,” he said, referring to residents observing dumping or finding drums of unknown material.
But The Ilion Project cites instances of dumping and pollution that many believe happened in the past, prior to improvements in environmental standards.
Litwhiler said many current industrial waste laws have been in place for “decades.” The Resource Conservation Recovery Act required large industrial manufacturers to participate in controlling measures aimed at monitoring hazardous materials, he said.
Yet, reporting suspected contamination is still approached without regard for when pollution took place.
Information can be reported, Litwhiler said, “When you have an instance of contamination at a site because of improper disposal or past practices.”
A lack of record keeping prior to more contemporary environmental laws does play a role, however.
“Some of this stuff happened before these programs,” Litwhiler said.
Ilion, N.Y. —
