WARREN Official: Results show stench isn't a health hazard

The leader of a citizens group remains concerned.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Based on monitoring results done by a Youngstown firm, the city's deputy health commissioner acknowledges the stench detected by some township and city residents is a nuisance, but he doesn't think residents' health is at risk.
MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown installed five monitors last month throughout the township -- two at residences, one at the township building and one each at Leavitt Elementary and Labrae High schools.
"It's a concern as far as a nuisance," said Bob Pinti, deputy health commissioner. "But our No. 1 priority as a health district is to make sure it's not a health hazard. I think the results from the MS Consultants have shown it's not."
The monitors logged the hydrogen sulfide levels at each location at three-second intervals for several days. Residents in the city and Warren Township have complained of an odor, likened to rotten eggs, plaguing the area for the last several months.
What's causing it
The odor has been attributed to hydrogen sulfide, which can cause health problems at high levels and long-term exposure.
After Warren Recycling's construction and demolition landfill on Martin Luther King Avenue was identified as a possible source, the township and school district selected MS Consultants to monitor the problem. Warren Recycling paid for monitor installation and the study.
A letter dated June 10 from MS says that while hydrogen sulfide was found in the area, the source of it "is difficult to determine due to everyday activities occurring in and around the study area."
It refers to the landfill, residential trash and debris burning, lawn mowing equipment and open ditches containing raw sewage from failed septic systems as among the potential sources.
"Warren Recycling has gone to great expense and we've gotten great cooperation out of them," Pinti said.
Concerned citizens
A citizens group, Our Lives Count, has been meeting for the last few months regarding the odor. Debbie Roth, group president, points to readings from the monitors as a reason she's still concerned.
The log taken from the monitor at one of the residences shows a spike in the hydrogen sulfide that lasts about three seconds and levels out after nine seconds. Pinti hadn't seen the readings log and declined to comment on them.
Gregory M. Zarus, an atmospheric scientist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in Atlanta, said testing hasn't been done to determine the effects of hydrogen sulfide levels that spike briefly and return to lower levels.
"Hydrogen sulfide exposure with really short durations are a gray area," he said.
Tests have shown that very high levels for short periods of time can cause death and that lower levels for long periods of time can cause health problems. Those tests were conducted at levels higher than those recorded by the five monitors.
There have been tests that have shown negative effects on people with asthma who are exposed to higher hydrogen sulfide levels at short intervals, Garus said.
Cooperation
Atty. Samuel F. Bluedorn sent a letter to Roth last week on the company's behalf saying Warren Recycling has been cooperative with MS Consultants and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in performing air quality studies.
"To date, all results were found to be inconclusive as to the source of the hydrogen sulfide and combustible gases present," the lawyer wrote.
While the company sympathizes with Roth and takes her concerns seriously, "it cannot tolerate any continued false allegations or misrepresentations regarding its operation or any noncompliance with environment regulations as they pertain to air quality," the letter said.
The company has advised the attorney's office to take "whatever legal actions are necessary against the appropriate group and/or individuals" if any future misrepresentations occur.
Roth said the letter won't thwart the group's efforts, but she wants to see what the city is going to do. The group based its belief that the odor was coming from Warren Recycling on what it was told by city officials, she said.
Levels monitored
The hydrogen sulfide levels monitored previously also have not exceeded what's deemed harmful by the OEPA and the Ohio Industrial Commission, officials have said.
Councilwoman Susan Hartman, D-7th, said that officials from the health department removed the cap from a leachate pipe surrounding the landfill and hydrogen sulfide was detected.
Pinti said Warren Recycling was considered a possible source but that hydrogen sulfide was found in other areas of the township as well.
The city has been aggressive in trying to address the problem, Hartman said, but tests have never shown any harmful levels of hydrogen sulfide.
Hartman plans to schedule a meeting with MS Consultants, health department officials and residents to review and explain the latest results.
"No one has stopped trying to find a solution to the problem," Hartman said. "No one has given up on it."
Pinti also hopes for a meeting with MS Consultants.
He agrees that it's not something that's being ignored.
"It's something we have to continually monitor," he said.
dick@vindy.com