Cancer causing chemicals are a major problem

From an Article by Joce Sterman, Alex Brauer and Andrea Nejman, WTOV, September 17, 2020

WILLOWBROOK, Ill. (SBG) —A Spotlight on America investigation discovered an invisible gas may pose a cancer risk to dozens of towns across America. But now, ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen, is taking center stage in a national conversation, with lawsuits filed across the country and Congress calling for accountability.

Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla said it was like a nightmare when he found out the people he represents may be at risk of cancer from a toxin in the air. He found out in a letter that landed on his desk in 2018. It was an evaluation of the air by the American Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, that looked at ethylene oxide, or EtO, which was emitted by a medical sterilization facility called Sterigenics. According to the letter, “If measured and modeled data represent typical EtO ambient concentrations in ambient air, an elevated cancer risk exists for residents and off-site workers in the Willowbrook community surrounding the Sterigenics facility. These elevated risks present a public health hazard to these populations.” For the leader of a town of 8,500 people, the information was a shock, but it had to be shared.

“My alternative was throw it in the garbage and pretend it didn’t happen or go public. I had to go public. You can’t not tell the people,” said Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla.”

Trilla’s decision set off a heated hometown battle over EtO, that would ultimately end in Sterigenics leaving town. Willowbrook may have been the first to launch the fight, but they’re far from the only place impacted. Ethylene oxide is commonly used at chemical plants and sterilization facilities throughout the U.S., with some estimates claiming emissions could impact up to 288,000 people in 36 states.

An arm of the World Health Organization and Environmental Protection Agency have labeled EtO a carcinogen. According to the EPA, long-term exposure to ethylene oxide increases the risk of cancers of the white blood cells, including Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma, and lymphocytic leukemia. The EPA says studies also show that long-term exposure to ethylene oxide increases the risk of breast cancer in females. In 2016, the EPA found that ethylene oxide was 30 times more toxic than originally believed and that people who spend their lifetimes near ethylene oxide facilities are at the greatest risk.

In 2016, EPA said ethylene oxide was 30 times more carcinogenic than previously believed.

According to the EPA’s own Inspector General, 25 communities across the U.S. have been labeled “high priority” by the agency because of elevated cancer risks. But as a Spotlight on America investigation discovered, 16 of those communities still haven’t been warned about the risk by the EPA.

Federal and state lawmakers have been calling for action to address concerns surrounding EtO. Last year, 16 attorneys general wrote the EPA, urging “stricter standards for ethylene oxide emissions.” The attorneys general also called for the EPA to work with the Food and Drug Administration to find alternate methods of sterilization to reduce the use of ethylene oxide.

We are concerned that the current EPA standard for EtO fails to adequately protect workers and communities,” wrote 16 attorneys general in a letter to the agency.

Spotlight on America repeatedly offered on-camera interview opportunities to the EPA. It declined. We also sent the agency a detailed list of specific questions which it failed to answer. Instead, the EPA sent a statement saying:

“As EPA pursues its mission to protect human health and the environment, addressing emissions of ethylene oxide remains a major priority for the Agency. EPA is making steady progress under its two-pronged strategy for addressing ethylene oxide emissions. Under the first prong, EPA is reviewing its air toxics regulations for facilities that emit ethylene oxide. On May 29, 2020, the Agency finalized the review of one of these rules: the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing. This rule, often referred to as the “MON,” will significantly reduce risk from exposure to ethylene oxide and other air toxics at affected facilities. Separately, the Agency is reviewing its NESHAP for ethylene oxide commercial sterilizers and expects to issue a proposal later this year for public review and comment. Under the strategy’s second prong, EPA is providing support to our state and territorial air agency partners as they look more closely at emissions in areas that the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) identified as potentially at increased risk of cancer from continuous, 70-year exposure to ethylene oxide in the outdoor air. Already, this work has led to steps that will reduce emissions at facilities in a number of areas in states such as Colorado, Georgia, Illinois and Missouri – faster than EPA’s rulemaking process can provide. EPA will continue to provide our partner agencies support in both follow-up technical work and in their efforts to share information with the public.”

Lawmakers, including those at the local and federal level, have been critical of the EPA’s response to ethylene oxide emissions. In an interview with Spotlight on America, Congressman Bill Foster, D-Ill., who serves on a bipartisan congressional task force on ethylene oxide, criticized the agency for sending an inexperienced representative to answer questions and handle response during a town hall meeting in Willowbrook, back in 2018. Foster and Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla sat front and center at that meeting, which was attended by hundreds of residents.

On Capitol Hill this summer, Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., introduced legislation requiring the EPA to improve monitoring for toxic pollutants like EtO, through deploying new air quality sensors and expanding the air monitoring network currently in place. But some have raised concerns that air quality monitors at EtO facilities may not even work. In May, a coalition of nearly 60 Congressional lawmakers wrote to the EPA to request information about how air pollution data is collected. The letter asked whether the EPA planned to implement fenceline monitoring near sources of ethylene oxide, and asked whether the agency was taking action to protect communities where an air monitor detected air pollution. Spotlight on America discovered, that request for information was never answered.

Part of the problem, according to experts like Genna Reed, lead science and policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is that in the absence of stronger action from the EPA, the industry often polices itself when it comes to reporting potential hazards determined through air monitoring. “Where these monitors are, how often they’re running, all of the burden of making sure that data is accurate and gets to the agency is put on industry,” Reed told us. “So, you have to hold industry accountable.”

That’s where attorney Shawn Collins comes in. He represents 85 people in Willowbrook, mostly cancer patients, who blame their sickness on EtO emissions from the Sterigenics facility in town. Similar lawsuits have also been filed in several other states related to other ethylene oxide facilities. “The focus needs to be where it belongs,” Collins told us. “If you’re making the profit, it’s your job to make sure you’re not hurting your neighbors.” Collins told us the science surrounding ethylene oxide’s link to cancer is indisputable, and he’s prepared to prove it in court. With regard to companies emitting EtO in residential communities, he said, “They’re playing Russian roulette with their health and their lives.”

Carol Tufo has endured extensive chemotherapy & radiation treatment

“It just seems common sense that you can’t spew poison in the air,” said Carol Tufo. “Especially in a residential community.”

Today, the Sterigenics facilities in Willowbrook are shut down, after public outcry, but the lawsuits are the start of another chapter. Since Sterigenics shut down, Illinois passed a unique state law barring sterilizing facilities from operating unless they can contain 100% of EtO emissions.

Spotlight on America contacted Sterigenics over the course of the last three months, offering the opportunity to do an on-camera interview on numerous occasions. The company declined, but has created a website detailing its response to developments related to Willowbrook. The company provided this statement to Spotlight on America:

“Sterigenics plays a vital role in providing critical medical care to millions of people. Hospitals and patients in the United States and around the world depend on Sterigenics’ ethylene oxide sterilization process as the safe, effective, and FDA-compliant way to sterilize surgical kits, devices used in cardiac procedures, syringes and IV tubing, protective barriers to prevent infection, and many other vital medical products and devices. We remain committed to safely meeting their needs.”

“Sterigenics empathizes with anyone battling cancer, but we are confident that our Willowbrook operations are not responsible for causing the illnesses the lawsuits allege. The science does not support the plaintiffs’ claims in these cases. As we have stated previously, we intend to vigorously defend against the plaintiffs’ unfounded and meritless claims.”

Mayor Frank Trilla can still see the former Sterigenics building from his window at Village Hall. His souvenir from the battle to have the facilities shut down is a box full of documents about EtO and Sterigenics. Still, he told us, he looks forward to someone taking over the space for a new purpose. “I’m not going to rest until there’s new tenants in the buildings,” he said. “It’s not over until it’s over.”

MVP has created a trail of land disturbances in WV & VA

From an Article by Laurence Hammack, Roanoke Times, March 10, 2020

At a time when building the Mountain Valley Pipeline was focused almost entirely on controlling erosion, muddy runoff continued to flow from dormant construction sites.

In a letter last month to a conservation group that first raised the issue, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality Director David Paylor said the infractions would be forwarded to the state attorney general’s office, which has the authority to seek tough financial penalties.

VA-DEQ is “committed to aggressively and effectively enforcing and maintaining compliance of the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction,” Paylor wrote in a Feb. 13 letter to David Sligh, conservation director of Wild Virginia. Sligh made the letters public this week.

Sligh had asked the week before about DEQ inspections that showed violations of erosion and sediment control regulations from Sept. 19 through Dec. 20, 2019 — when construction of the controversial natural gas pipeline was stalled by legal action, leaving workers to concentrate largely on efforts to curb erosion.

The violations were especially troubling, Sligh wrote, because they began so shortly after Sept. 18 — the last day covered by a consent decree in which Mountain Valley agreed to pay Virginia $2.15 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged similar problems in the past. Approved in December, the consent decree carried a provision for enhanced fines should the same issues recur.

Paylor wrote a month ago in his letter to Sligh that “DEQ acknowledges noncompliance noted in inspection reports during the last quarter of 2019. These will be communicated to the Office of the Attorney General for inclusion in a future demand for penalties.”

But no demand had apparently been made by Tuesday. DEQ spokeswoman Ann Regn said the agency is “compiling noncompliance information monthly” and will notify Mountain Valley, in conjunction with the attorney general, of any violations or penalties.

A spokeswoman for Mountain Valley said the company had not been told of any recent violations. “MVP continues to work cooperatively with the DEQ,” Natalie Cox wrote in an email.

In a follow-up letter to Paylor on Monday, Sligh urged the state to act promptly. — “Violations by MVP, which have been frequent and damaging to waterbodies and landowners, must not be handled as routine occurrences,” he wrote. “If construction resumes, the history of this project tells us that the frequency and magnitude of violations is likely to increase, unless DEQ shows that it will act quickly and decisively.”

An attorney for Mountain Valley accused Sligh of making “inaccurate and misleading statements” about the company’s compliance with erosion and sediment control regulations.

It’s not unusual for silt fences, sediment traps and other erosion control devices to be breached by heavy rains, but those “deficiencies” can be quickly repaired and do not amount to formal violations, Todd Normane, deputy general counsel for Equitrans Midstream Corp., wrote in a Feb. 25 letter to Sligh that was posted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s online docket.

“There is a persistent misconception that Virginia law prohibits the discharge of sediment-laden storm water from a construction site,” Normane wrote. “That is legally incorrect and factually impossible.

“The inspection reports cited in your letter do not represent violations and the ‘aggressive enforcement action’ requested by Wild Virginia is not warranted,” the letter stated. Sligh, however, said it appears that his reading of the reports was borne out by Paylor’s letter.

Normane also accused Wild Virginia and other environmental groups of making matters worse by filing multiple legal challenges, which have delayed pipeline construction and forced the use of temporary erosion control measures that are more vulnerable to storms.

“If Wild Virginia’s concern is truly erosion and sedimentation, then the best environmental outcome is to support the completion of construction as soon as possible so that the ROW [right of way] can be fully restored and revegetated,” he wrote.

Wild Virginia reviewed 67 inspection reports from between Sept. 19 and Dec. 20, covering work sites in the six Virginia counties — Giles, Craig, Montgomery, Roanoke, Franklin and Pittsylvania — though which the pipeline will pass on its route from northern West Virginia to Chatham.

Three of the inspections found that Mountain Valley had not installed erosion control devices as required by the state, Sligh wrote in his letter. In another 19, DEQ officials determined that the devices were not properly maintained. And in at least eight cases, sediment was washed away from the 125-foot -wide construction right of way.

The problems came after Mountain Valley suspended work on parts of the pipeline after Wild Virginia and other groups raised questions in a lawsuit about the project’s impact on endangered or threatened species of fish and bats in its path.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s approval for the pipeline, which was followed Oct. 15 by an order from FERC that all pipeline work cease, except for stabilization and erosion control efforts.

Although other legal challenges have led to the suspension of two other sets of federal permits, Mountain Valley says it expects to obtain new approvals in time to complete the 303-mile pipeline by the end of the year.

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See also: Updated Status of Principal Legal Challenges to the ACP Now Available, Allegheny Blue Ridge Alliance, Update #267, March 12, 2020 — The new update on the status of the principal legal challenges to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is now available on the ABRA website.

Judge Booker Stephens of McDowell County

Marcellus drilling suits head back to mediation

From an Article by Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette Mail, February 26, 2016

While lawsuits against natural gas drillers are causing a stir among West Virginia lawmakers, the first in a series of those suits is headed back for another shot at settlement through mediation, following a hearing Friday in Charleston.

A three-judge panel hearing the cases against Antero Natural Resources and Hall Drilling said that they wanted the parties to take part in another mediation session after lawyers for the residents dropped one of their two major claims, an allegation that the natural gas companies were operating in a negligent manner.

Alan Moats, a Taylor County circuit judge who heads the panel, encouraged the companies and the residents to try to come up with a settlement that would allow natural gas production to continue, but reduce the impacts on nearby residents and communities. “If there’s anything that can be done that would lessen the impacts these people are experiencing, if we could do that, it would be more important than money,” Moats said.

The parties agreed that they would meet again with McDowell Circuit Judge Booker Stephens, who led a previous mediation session that did not produce a settlement. Moats led Friday’s surprisingly brief hearing, which had been scheduled for arguments on major motions that are pending and need to be resolved before trial. That trial, scheduled for July, is the first in a series of cases filed in at least seven counties by more than 200 people who allege Marcellus Shale operations by the gas industry are disrupting their lives.

The suits, first filed in October 2013, outline concerns regarding noise, dust, excessive traffic, bright lights and a variety of other effects of the boom in the natural gas industry in northern West Virginia. Cases are pending in Doddridge, Harrison, Kanawha, Marion, Monongalia, Pleasants and Ritchie counties. Antero and Hall Drilling, which operate as partners at many sites, are the defendants in almost all of the cases.

In November 2014, the state Supreme Court referred the cases to West Virginia’s Mass Litigation Panel, which often is used to handle complex lawsuits that involve common issues of law and fact, but also involve large numbers of plaintiffs or multiple defendants.

Lawmakers have become interested in the Marcellus cases, and earlier this week the state Senate passed a bill that supports say is aimed at putting a stop to such suits.

Attorneys for the residents, including Charleston lawyers Anthony Majestro and Jim Peterson, brought the cases as nuisance suits, alleging that the industry activity constitutes an unlawful interference with the residents’ use and enjoyment of their property. The lawyers originally claimed negligence by drilling companies, but have since dropped those claims.

In SB508, lawmakers want to narrow the ability of residents to bring nuisance suits. The measure would give defendants a “permit shield” if they have some sort of government authorization for their activities.

Expense Deductions Questionable or Illegal?

Around the country, landowners are suing Chesapeake Energy and other drillers for massive deductions from royalty checks

From an Article by Peter Gorman, Fort Worth Weekly, April 16, 2014

Donald Feusner used to be a dairy farmer. His 370 acres of land in northeast Pennsylvania border New York state in a gloriously lush area. In 2011, when his farm was no longer profitable, he sold off his herd and retired to what he thought would be the life of a gentleman farmer, living off the proceeds of the gas wells Chesapeake Energy had drilled on his land. And in December 2012, when the wells came in, it looked as though he’d made a safe bet: Royalty income from the first month’s production alone totaled more than $8,500.

But five months later, with the wells still producing the same amount of gas, his royalty check suddenly shrank by more than 80 percent, to just under $1,700, eaten away by what Chesapeake called “post-production costs.” In the following months, his checks dwindled even further, to almost nothing.

“In October 2013, I got a check that said my royalty was $6,000,” said Feusner, “but after one set of deductions it was reduced to $115; after another adjustment it dropped further. They wound up taking 99.3 percent of my royalty. I got $46.”

Harold Moyer, an accountant with the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau who represents Feusner and 150 other royalty owners in northern Pennsylvania, said that Feusner’s lease agreement was bad from top to bottom: It not only let Chesapeake put a large well pad on the property for no extra money, but it allowed the company to deduct post-production costs.

Those costs covered every aspect of getting the gas from the well to market: separating out water moisture and other gases, compressing it, sending it through gathering lines, even a fee for selling it. And the deductions weren’t made just from Feusner’s checks. Across Pennsylvania tens of thousands of people who leased their mineral rights saw their post-production costs — which are legal under the terms of most leases — jump from pennies on the dollar to most of that dollar in the beginning of 2013.

Jerry Simmons, executive director of the National Association of Royalty Owners, said the situation in Pennsylvania is the worst case of royalty rip-off he’s ever seen. It’s so bad there, he said, that Gov. Tom Corbett recently asked his attorney general to start an investigation.

Rules vary from state to state on post-production costs and other methods that drillers use to reduce the amount of royalties they pay. But one version or another of the problem seems to be happening all over the country, from shale drilling plays in Ohio to South Texas to the Rockies.

The worst offender is Chesapeake Energy, by several accounts. “There is no question that Chesapeake is the bad actor all over the country, and its actions are being imitated,” said Jackie Root, president of the Pennsylvania NARO chapter. “They’re taking deductions from leases that have ‘no deduction’ clauses, and then they sometimes take deductions that are not legal at all.”

NOTE: The original article is quite long and detailed.  Please read this printed Article in the Fort Worth Weekly.

Charleston law firm sees increasing oil and gas injury suits

From an Article by Andrea Lannom, State Journal, August 30, 2013

Charleston lawyer Bobby Warner said his firm Warner Law Offices has seen more oil and gas-related injury cases while seeing fewer coal-related injury lawsuits. 

Warner said in the past two years, the firm has handled at least 10 cases involving explosion and fires and other cases involving injuries such as burns, broken bones and paralysis. A significant portion come from North-Central West Virginia, Warner said.

“We still handle a substantial amount of work with injury related to coal mining,” Warner said. “In the past two years, we have seen a decrease in those particular cases, though I’ve seen a substantial increase in oil and gas cases.” 

Some of the more recent cases his firm has handled involved nine people who sued NiSource and its subsidiary Columbia Gas over asserted damages sustained from last year’s gas pipeline explosion in Sissonville. All but one ended up settling their claims.

Filed July 29, the seven suits all listed the defendants as Columbia Gas Transmission LLC, NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage Company, NiSource Midstream Services LLC, NiSource Energy Ventures LLC, NiSource Corporate Services Company, William Christian, Jack Whitmire Jr., Mitchell Thomas, Daniel Herpin and John Does 1-10.

All suits alleged negligence to all defendants, willful, wanton, reckless conduct as to all defendants and negligent training, management and/or supervision.

Plaintiffs Tina White, Darell Sigmon, Lorie Estep, Dorma Harrison, Shelby McMillion and Amy McMillion and her two minor children have reached confidential settlements. 

The case brought by Margaret Johnson will go forward with litigation. In her case, Johnson said she was sitting in her Sissonville Drive home when the pipeline ruptured. 
In her suit, she said as soon as she saw flames around her home, she ran barefoot across her front deck to her car, sustaining burns and blisters in the process. When she got to her car, the suit continues, she reached out for the hot door handle but jerked her hand away from the heat, causing the tendons in her thumb to be injured, later requiring surgery.

After the filing of these suits, Columbia Gas released the following statement in response:

“Since the incident in Sissonville, W.VA., took place, Columbia Pipeline Group has settled with and provided compensation to over 40 families impacted. Our legal and insurance teams continue to work with families — and in some cases, their personal attorneys — to settle any remaining claims. As we have since the moment this incident occurred, we are committed to working with those families in a fair and reasonable manner. Columbia took immediate action following the incident in Sissonville to ensure that basic essentials, including temporary housing, food and transportation were provided to the affected community. 

In addition to attending to local families, in the hours, days and weeks after the incident, we partnered with the regional office of the Red Cross — to tap into their special expertise, to provide additional support for those in need. Again, our legal and insurance teams will continue to work with families to settle the remaining claims in a fair and reasonable manner.”

Warner’s firm also recently settled a Harrison County case against Frontier Drilling and Antero Resources. In this case, Joseph Davenport was working on one of the rig sites when a power tong struck him and knocked him off, causing him to have a severed spinal cord. Davenport alleged the reason this happened was because the drill was not working properly. 

The companies settled for $12 million, which Warner said is one of the largest single-plaintiff settlements this year in West Virginia.