A BREATH OF FRESH AIR HARD TO COME BY:
Communities Struggle to Save Environment & Health

 
Reported by Brad Penner STATEWIDE Correspondent

 
They say time heals all wounds but three years have done little to improve the air around Linda Modlin's home in Dakota City. They've done little to ease the effects of hydrogen sulfide gas that seeps inside.
[Linda Modlin] "Migraine headaches, sinus infection, conjunctivitis."
Linda Modlin claims these are the symptoms she and her family have felt since her neighbor, I.B.P., expanded its hide tannery.
[Modlin] "Fatigue is sometimes just overwhelming. After we have had it in the home, it will take us three or four days to get back on our feet to the normal, you know, energy that we're used to."
Wastewater from I.B.P. flows into lagoons near the plant. A monitor set up next to Modlin home measures the amount of hydrogen sulfide in the air. In a recent six-month period, the monitor recorded levels that exceeded state clean air regulations more than 1,000 times. In Lexington, a similar monitor recorded more than 3,000 violations in the last year. The similarities with the problems in Dakota City don't end there.
[Tootie Carroll] "It smells like billions of rotten eggs, the odor. I have a son that has asthma. It causes him trouble with his breathing. It causes us trouble with headaches, a lot of headaches."
Tootie Carroll and her family live just a few hundred yards from I.B.P.'s waste lagoons. She believes hydrogen sulfide gas is also causing insomnia, and her daughter, Heidi, sometimes gets sick to her stomach when she stays at the house.
[Heidi Houser] "The air is so thick and it's almost as if you can cut it with a knife. Really thick. You can see this haze. "
The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality is now taking steps to enforce the State limit on total reduced sulfur or T.R.S. Hydrogen sulfide is a major component of T.R.S. State regulators sent letters to 26 facilities that might be contributing to the problem in and around Lexington.
[Jay Ringenberg, Dept. of Environmental Quality] "Under the regulations, the agency is required to consider all potential sources so we went through a process of identifying those potential sources, eliminating the ones that we could, and including the ones that because of the type of business they're in were included in the potential list."
Each facility is asked to provide D.E.Q. with information about what it does. That information will help the agency narrow the list of potential polluters. Then they will begin to look for solutions.
[Ringenberg] "We looked at the process that the regulations require and it lays out a provision on the agency that we allow the sources an opportunity to voluntarily comply with the standard as well as voluntarily implement a program on their part before we take enforcement action against them."
In Lexington the list of potential polluters includes several feedlots, a couple of rendering plants and the city's own wastewater treatment plant. One company on the list has facilities in Lexington and Dakota City.
[Ringenberg] "Because of the size of I.B.P. and being the largest industry in either Lexington or Dakota County up there, they have a high potential for emission. I think our monitors are located in an area that captures a lot of that data. For sure they are going to be a player in both sites in the solution."
I.B.P. has answered the State's letter regarding T.R.S. emissions in Lexington but they have some questions.
[Gary Mickelson, I.B.P.] "We'd like to know more about the process, what direction they're headed in terms of enforcement of T.R.S. in the Lexington area so we're just looking for some input and I want to continue the relationship we have with them and hopefully it will be a cooperative one."
Jay Ringenberg says cooperation is exactly what they're looking for. Next month they plan to begin meetings with operators of facilities that may be contributing to Lexington's pollution problem. D.E.Q. believes their approach will be more effective than heavy- handed enforcement.
[Ringenberg] "We will work with them on developing control strategies and plans, and I think if people take an active role in all that in conjunction with us, we will get there faster."
In Lexington some who have complained about the problem are hopeful but skeptical. Attorney Greg Lauby has helped some of the people with concerns. He says they're glad to see the State taking some action.
[Greg Lauby] "On the other hand, this issue has gone on so long and seemingly worsened over the period of time both in frequency and in intensity of the emissions and odors that I think they're a little reluctant to believe this will be a solution."
[Ted Boom] "As far as the voluntary compliance, I don't think it's going to work.
Ted Boom is among those Lexington residents who believes hydrogen sulfide is affecting their health. Lois Hill is convinced the gas is coming from I.B.P.'s waste water lagoons."
[Lois Hill] "I know it is. We drive past it when we go to our house. That smell is really bad. You can have the car windows rolled up and it's really bad past their lagoons."
The City of Lexington has done some testing that shows the presence of hydrogen sulfide around their wastewater treatment plant. It remains to be seen how many other potential sources of the gas will ultimately need to address the problem.
I think there is a reluctance to jump to any conclusion that I.B.P. is entirely responsible for this problem absent some proof.
[Ringenberg] "I think it many times is unfair to finger I.B.P. as the only source but indeed they are a very significant source and will have to be a significant player."
Ringenberg says his agency will take the same approach to the T.R.S. problem in Dakota City as they are in Lexington. I.B.P. believes they have the plans in place to address concerns there.
[Mickelson] "We continue to press for the permission we need in order to make environmental improvements here in Dakota City. "
I.B.P. wants to build covered lagoons and expand its wastewater treatment plant, but it also wants to expand its hide tannery at the same time. So far the State has not approved the permits I.B.P. needs to build the facilities.
[Ringenberg] "We are indeed looking at the construction permit now. We still have outstanding issues on information we have not got. And until that time we're not going to proceed."
[Mickelson] "We have asked them well, how do we go about gathering or collecting this information. They don't know. We have had to go to outside consultants in order to try to determine how we gather that information, how we provide that to the State, and obviously since it is something that is new not only for the State but for us, it takes time and it further delays the improvements that the people in Lincoln and the people here claim they desire."
Rod Krogh is among the group that worked to get State regulations in place that would address hydrogen sulfide emissions. He doesn't trust I.B.P.'s plan.
[Rod Krogh] "I don't want to allow them to increase the waste stream 50% and the hydrogen sulfide emissions by 50% in this area without proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have come into compliance.'
[Mickelson] "The citizens group, other people who are concerned about this issue had the T.R.S. standard in place. If we take these measures, we make the environmental improvements to our treatment operation, we expand our tannery and include air scrubbing systems and yet we don't meet the T.R.S. standard then we will have to make additional modifications so they have their insurance. Let's move ahead. Let's get this project off the ground."
Mickelson says the tannery expansion and waste water treatment improvements are intertwined and I.B.P. does not want to do one without the other. The citizens group wants I.B.P. to build the treatment plant first.
[Krogh] "With the present emissions as they are, we are not about to allow them to get their increase in the tannery without a fight."
In the meantime, a federal agency is using Dakota City residents to study the effects of hydrogen sulfide. Two monitors sit in Linda Modlin's laundry room. They detect the gas when it gets inside the house.
[Modlin] "They both have audible alarms except the first two weeks we had the low level one in, the alarm about drove us crazy so we made them come and disconnect the alarm."
One monitor records low levels of H2S. The other kicks in when high levels are present.
[Modlin]" I don't think they ever anticipated the high levels getting into a closed home and that surprised us also because our home is only eight years old and it's pretty airtight, but that also explains why once it does get in, the level stays so high."
Several other Dakota County families have the same kinds of monitors. Linda Modlin says the study will continue for another year. She doesn't expect much to change in that time.
[Modlin] "We believe our major source is six uncovered lagoons, and if construction were to start on new lagoons tomorrow, we are easily two to three years away from a fix."
There are several potential sources of hydrogen sulfide in and around Dakota City, but I.B.P. says they are ready to do something about their share of the problem. The State isn't sure if that plan is the right thing to do and the folks who fought for cleaner air wait for someone to do something.
[Krogh] "It's been a very frustrating experience and our frustration is not just at the polluter in our opinion, it's also at the regulatory agencies. They have failed to perform their regulatory oversight function and enforcement duties as prescribed under the law. What we want is compliance and we want the regulators to do their job and we just want to regain what all other Nebraskans in the state enjoy and that's clean air."

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .