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Coal tar, cancer haunt Gilford

By CUTTER MITCHELL
Staff Writer
jmitchell@citizen.com
 

Article Date: Sunday, November 4, 2007

GILFORD - Things were looking up for Gilford and the Lakes Region in general in the 1950s, and large trucks were a common sight along the road to the gravel pits of Liberty Hill.

They came and went regularly in 1952, moving material.

It seemed normal for good economic times. But 50 years later, the trips are raising deep concerns in a residential neighborhood bordering Jewett Brook.

"When I left (for the Korean War) it was a gravel pit," recalls Jerry Lacroix, a lifelong resident. "When I came back, it was a tar pit."

The "it" he refers to is a section of land near his home where trucks deposited large quantities of coal tar and tar-saturated materials. The tar is a byproduct of superheating coal to produce gas, a process no longer used in the area today.

The gooey substance was hauled to Gilford after a manufactured gas plant on Messer Street in Laconia, operated by Gas Service Inc., exploded and burned. The deposits eventually grew into what witnesses described as a black lagoon surrounded by a wasteland.

It is now known how the material got to Gilford - the trucks. Still unknown, though, is what to do about it.

Town residents and community leaders are growing concerned that they are sitting on an environmental time bomb with potentially serious health concerns and profound economic consequences.

Longtime residents fear the real toll may be found in medical problems, including an estimated 18 cases of cancer, among current and former residents of the neighborhood.

Longtime Liberty Hill resident Betty Trask, whose husband died seven years ago from cancer, remembers that it was shortly after the gas plant explosion when a lot of activity began to occur in and around the Gilford gravel pits.

She said she saw many trucks hauling in loads to the gravel pits in 1952.

"At that time, we didn't even know it was dangerous," Trask said.

Lacroix, who lives across the street from the dump site, said his uncle, Sylvio Morin, originally owned the pit. He said he doesn't believe Morin was fully aware of the nature or potential hazards of the dumping.

"I was shocked," he said about what he found upon returning to the area. "But I didn't think too much of it. I figured it didn't belong to me, so keep my mouth shut and go about my business."

Rodger Breton, who grew up at 27 Liberty Hill Road and whose mother still lives at the residence, said he remembers, as a boy of 12, playing with friends around the tar pond without any regard for the potential hazards it posed.

Thinking back, he said he remembered finding dead animals around the pond.

Residents living in the area at the time said the coal tar pond was frequented by curious kids, and Jewett Brook, which wraps around the downward slope of Liberty Hill, was a popular fishing spot.

The pond sat in the open for about 10 years. Lacroix recalled that at some point, the coal tar pond was bulldozed over and filled in with soil. Trask said it wasn't long after that when house lots became available. Families then started moving into homes built over the pit.

Before that there were only a few homes on the Hill, including the Lacroix family farm.

History

The story behind the coal tar, and how it was buried there, can be traced back to the March 5, 1952 fire in neighboring Laconia. The Laconia Evening Citizen reported that the Gas Service Inc. manufactured gas plant on Messer Street exploded in the early morning hours in a blast that could be heard and felt throughout the city.

The blast and fire that followed ripped apart the steel-and-brick building, reducing it to rubble.

Shortly after the explosion, portable gas equipment was brought up from Lowell, Mass. and hitched onto the remaining portions of the Gas Service plant in Laconia so production could go on. While production continued for a short time, a natural gas pipeline brought into the area eventually made it unnecessary to make gas locally.

What resulted from the week-long dumping was an oval-shaped pond of coal tar. Estimates of the size vary, but it was big enough to show up in aerial photographs taken at the time.

Documents prepared for the Department of Environmental Services as part of a Liberty Hill site investigation indicate an unnamed construction firm was hired to secure a location and dispose of coal tar from the Laconia plant in 1952.

As part of a report tracing the history and ownership of the area around 69, 77, and 83 Liberty Hill Road, research found that in March of 1949, Sylvio Morin sold 11 acres of land to the Laconia Sand and Gravel Company.

The Gilford gravel pits, identified in the documents as "Laconia Sand and Gravel Company," became the resting place for the coal tar. Ownership of the Sand and Gravel company is unclear. Documents included with the site report say the corporation was terminated by the Secretary of State in 1951.

But the same documents also indicate Morin signed a release to Gas Service Inc. The release, according to the report, permitted disposal of coal tar on or near what is now 63 and 69 Liberty Hill Road.

The former Sand and Gravel Company property was sold in June of 1960 at a tax auction. In May of 1966, documents filed with the DESindicate Gerald Gilbert sold the property to Christopher Downes Jr., who ultimately developed it into the neighborhood it is today.

It appears the tar was largely forgotten for 20 years as the land was developed and families moved in. But the existence of a possible waste site came up in 2000 during proceedings between KeySpan Energy and Energy North Natural Gas, Inc. KeySpan was taking over EnergyNorth, which was the successor owner of Gas Service Inc.

The Liberty Hill site was disclosed, eventually touching off a study.

But a look back at building records and town files - a process that is part of a waste site investigation process - shows there were warning signs from events as simple as digging test pits for septic systems as far back as the 1970s.

GEI, the company contracted by KeySpan to investigate the site, prepared a 2,225-page report that has been filed with the state of New Hampshire. It states that the extent and location of coal tar contamination was only realized in 2004 when a resident at 83 Liberty Hill Road, listed as Richard Muthersbaugh, dug up the backyard to put in a new septic system and a tarlike substance began "bubbling up."

The substance later was determined to be coal tar. It is believed to be part of what is now estimated to be a 121,000-ton deposit of coal tar buried in the area.

This is when the DES got involved and management of the site began.

Costs

@$:At the time of the blast, damage to the Gas Services building was estimated to be $50,000. In the year-end review published Dec. 31, the Evening Citizen reported the owners had invested $100,000 to overhaul the plant so it could meet the needs of the burgeoning population of Laconia and its growing industry.

In the late 1990s, it cost Public Service Company up to $13 million to excavate and clean up the area around the Gas Services plant itself in Laconia.

Contractors had to install steel barriers along the Winnipesaukee River's banks and excavate mountains of contaminated soil. The project began in 1999 and wasn't completed until 2001. Preparation had begun as early as 1996.

The project removed 17,000 tons of soil and coal tar from the site and treated 200,000 gallons of contaminated water. Reports at the time indicate it cost between $10 and $13 million.

PSNH took the lead on the cleanup, but ultimately liability for the site was shared with EnergyNorth.

From 1926 to 1945, PSNH owned the former manufactured gas plant site on Messer Street before selling it to Gas Service Inc., which is the company that owned it at the time of the explosion. Later Gas Service Inc. became part of EnergyNorth, which eventually became part of KeySpan.

KeySpan already has spent more than $2 million just to investigate the Liberty Hill site, and the cost for full mitigation could top $15 million, officials say.

Health Risks?

According to a fact sheet provided to townspeople by DES on Oct. 9, coal tar contains a known carcinogen, Benzene, and a possible carcinogen, Naphthalene. Both were found in coal tar contaminated groundwater on Liberty Hill, though nothing has been officially linked to human exposure.

The chemicals in coal tar have been linked by the Agency for Toxic Substances to certain types of cancer, including skin cancer and lung cancer.

The International Agency for Cancer Research, under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service, has determined prolonged exposure to Benzene can lead to acute myeloid leukemia.

Faced with a pocket of cancer deaths within the neighborhood, town officials asked state health officials to investigate a possible cancer cluster.

An anonymous report was slipped under the office door of Town Administrator Evans Juris after news of the coal tar disposal re-emerged.It outlined 19 cancer-related deaths and other severe illnesses among current and former Liberty Hill residents.

Juris contacted state medical officials after receiving it, asking for a review.

"My initial reaction was one of concern because of the amount of people it affected," Juris said. "When I saw the numbers, it just shocked me."

The state has dismissed the document as "unscientific" noting, among other things, that the claims couldn't be verified. The Citizen requested and obtained a redacted version of the report from the town. Names of the individuals listed were blotted out.

It lists circumstantial evidence of health problems along the street by address, with notations ranging from "brain cancer" and "lymphoma" to other forms of cancer and serious medical problems, including respiratory issues.

Even now, months after the report came to light and was dismissed by the state, Juris still feels it raised an important question in his mind: Is there more to what is happening on Liberty Hill?

DES environmental epidemiologist John Colby has conducted several probes into a possible "cancer cluster."

Results of the study were revealed at a meeting with townspeople earlier this month. Colby reported that there was no evidence of a "cancer cluster" in the neighborhood. But he did conclude that the state was able to confirm at least nine cancer cases in the area.

The federal Centers for Disease Control define a cancer cluster as a "greater than expected number" of cancer cases within a group of people, in a geographic area, or over a period of time.

The data used in the state report originated from the New Hampshire Cancer Registry. That registry only records place of residence for patients at the time of diagnosis, so a resident of Liberty Hill who moves away, then is found to have cancer, never is recorded as someone who had lived in Gilford.

Also, the information in the registry only dates back to 1986, when it was created.

Residents are not comforted by the state's conclusions.

"I'm absolutely flabbergasted that anyone with a brain could say there isn't a problem with cancer. Everyone in the neighborhood has been affected," said Kathy Lacroix, who has lived with her husband Jerry on Liberty Hill for 41 years.

In the Lacroix family alone, several relatives who have lived on the hill have died of cancer. Friends and family members say both Sylvio Morin and Christopher Downes Jr. eventually died of cancer as well. There were others.

Although clearly tragic and cause for concern, this does not equate to a "cluster," Colby told townspeople. There may be a number of cancer deaths in the neighborhood, but that does not mean they are a direct result of environmental issues - they could be purely coincidental, he argues.

That explanation doesn't satisfy Lacroix nor ease the fears of families who have moved away.

Environmental Risks?

Studies done by a KeySpan contractor, GEI, have revealed extensive ground water exposure.

More recently, engineers have found that there has been an exposure pathway detected into Jewett Brook. This means chemicals may have been leaching into the brook for the past 50 years.

The brook winds its way through several Laconia neighborhoods and eventually empties into the Winnipesaukee River. Earlier this month, a hiker walking along the brook behind the former house lots reported a strong, foul odor.

GEI has projected it would take more than 120 years before ground water would return to acceptable levels, an estimate based on 83 percent removal of the coal tar tonnage. Even complete removal would require 35 years of monitoring before the site's expected to return to normal.

Thus far GEI, through continual well testing, hasn't found any exposure pathways into the bedrock drinking water wells feeding various homes in the area.

All involved want it to stay that way. But how best to ensure it is a matter of dispute.

The town wants the site excavated and all contaminated material removed. It is estimated this could cost as much as $16 million.

KeySpan has proposed leaving 99 percent of it buried, arguing excavation would expose area residents to more health risks. DES has rejected this and called on KeySpan to focus more on removal. But the agency has stopped short of calling for full removal.

This sparked the town, in late October, to elevate its case to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with hopes the location could receive Super Fund designation and result in a full cleanup.

Property Values

@$:Since completing its study of the neighborhood, KeySpan has bought four homes on lots that sit directly above the contaminated area.

"The properties were obtained based upon arms-length negotiations, and to settle potential litigation," read KeySpan documents provided to the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission in hopes of recovering purchase costs.

Recent testimony before the PUC by Petricia Haederle, a KeySpan representative, revealed "the amounts paid necessarily included compensation for the disruption to the homeowners and a release of potential claims, in addition to the appraised value of their property."

A search of tax sale records on file with the Belknap County Registry of Deeds indicate KeySpan paid nearly $1.7 million for the four properties, roughly 160 percent of their assessed value.

One was purchased for $820,000; its assessed value was $288,700. The new assessed values for the four properties total $71,830. Two homes have been torn down and the foundations filled in.

In recent meetings between Liberty Hill residents and DES officials, John Regan, project supervisor, and other DES representatives, have said in the past they've seen land values come back after attention surrounding a contaminated sites dies down, even though there may be some hazardous material still buried in the area.

But sellers still must disclose potential hazards.



For more information on Liberty Hill, contact the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services at 271-3503 or view the full state site report online at http://des.nh.gov/pdf/LibertyHillSiteInvestigationReport.pdf.

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