Neck-Area air pollution more toxic
By Bo Petersen
Low-income residents in the industrialized Neck Area breathe more dangerous air because of the type of pollution they live close to, a new study suggests.
FILE/STAFF
An aerial view of the Neck area of North Charleston
Charleston-North Charleston ranks the fourth-worst metropolitan area in the country for the disparity of health risks from industrial pollution on low-income neighborhoods compared with other neighborhoods, the study said. The report comes in the wake of an investigation that found the air outside hundreds of South Carolina schools had high levels of toxics, and as a Neck Area school takes part in a national Environmental Protection Agency program testing for toxics.
The new study, by analysts at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Southern California, breaks down the impact of pollution based on how dangerous the chemicals are, rather than how much total pollution is emitted, and by how unevenly the emissions are blown over neighborhoods of different racial makeup and incomes.
Read the report
Justice in the Air (28 page pdf)
"Some of the toxics are very toxic. Some are a 100,000 times more toxic than others," said Michael Ash, a University of Massachusetts economics and public policy associate professor, and one of the study's authors.
Using EPA emission reports and the agency's rating of relative toxicities, the study ranked a military marine products plant on the old Navy base as the most-dangerous local polluter because it emits manganese and manganese compounds, Ash said. The chemicals are 36,000 times more dangerous than ethanol and 60 times more dangerous than formaldehyde, he said.
The Charleston area has 14 percent of its population with incomes below the federal poverty line, but 25 percent of the population in the flow of local industrial emissions is low-income.
Charleston Marine Containers Inc., the plant, is actively working to reduce toxic emissions, said Cody Baker, general manager. The company has made changes such as switching to water-based coatings that have reduced its hazardous air pollution by more than 50 percent, he said. The company meets its permit limits. Company officials have joined a collaborative effort with schools and regulators to work with the community on air pollution.
Previous story
EPA to test for toxins in air around Chicora Elementary, published 04/02/09
"We're very concerned about it as a company. We're trying to do the right thing," Baker said. The plant makes containers for the military.
Shredia Boyd, board chairwoman for the nearby Union Heights neighborhood group, said the study was one more alarm for residents.
"I'm just wondering how (regulators and governments) plan to work together to eliminate the pollution, when the plans are to make the area heavy industrial. Are they concerned about people who live in the area or are they not concerned?" she asked.
The reports' findings were no surprise, said Nancy Vinson, of the environmental advocate Coastal Conservation League. "How many national reports of toxic air pollution does it take to get South Carolina's attention? Isn't it time our state leaders looked at better options?"
Community meeting
What: Residents in the North Charleston-Neck Area are invited to speak about air-toxics monitoring at Chicora Elementary School with state and federal health officials at a meeting hosted by a collaborative group of schools, regulators and nearby companies.
Where: St. Matthew Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, 2005 Reynolds Ave., North Charleston.
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday.
More info: For more information contact 953-0150 or toltonrd@dhec.sc.gov.
Reach Bo Petersen at 937-5744 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.
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Printer-friendly versionComments
BillytheKid (anonymous) says...
There is not any room for industry that can't take care of their own neighborhood.
April 29, 2009 at 1:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
catburger00 (anonymous) says...
"Some of the toxics are very toxic."
How insightful.
April 29, 2009 at 4:27 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
moonpie (anonymous) says...
How about the company that imports coal and stores/dumps it on the ground at the old base? I agree "cat" article was very insightful. Lends no credance to its worthyness at all.
April 29, 2009 at 6:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
voxpopuli (anonymous) says...
Moonpie, what company is dumping coal at the old navy base?
April 29, 2009 at 6:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
theronce (anonymous) says...
Now, if you asked anyone posting here today whether the air was cleaner around an industrial area or any other area, I'm certain that most would say the industrial area. As a follow up question, if you asked whether people around an industrial area had to deal with more pollution, I'm just as certain that the same crowd would say yes. Did we have to pay someone for this.
April 29, 2009 at 7:02 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Luna (anonymous) says...
Charleston-North Charleston ranks the fourth-worst metropolitan area in the country for the disparity of health risks from industrial pollution on low-income neighborhoods compared with other neighborhoods, the study said.
*******************************************************
Same ole, same ole!
April 29, 2009 at 8:21 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
terp4life (anonymous) says...
voxpopuli the company is called Kinder Morgan....and it is true, they were caught on camera by a local from his sailboat dumping material right into the river. This was a huge story a year ago maybe because the ports authority thought this guy was a terrorist and actually fined him.
Now here's the best part, our WONDERFUL DHEC, who takes bribes to grant permits, actually granted a permit to Kinder Morgan for their 20 acre expansion (I could be wrong on the exact acreage), so now we're talking 10x the pollution. And now we're bringing a port to the old Navy Base....how can these permits be passed with a study released showing Charleston County has the 5th worst Air Quality in the Country. Time for you good ol' boys to turn things around or their will be NO lowcountry....all the streams will be polluted and cancer rates will soar.
April 29, 2009 at 8:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Lazy2009 (anonymous) says...
I got toxics all up in my lungs!
April 29, 2009 at 9:02 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
terp4life (anonymous) says...
Here is one of the articles:
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/20...
Search for Kinder Morgan, read how many fines they continually get slapped with for violating Air and Water Quality standards, yet DHEC somehow yanked a permit out of their A** for an expansion.
April 29, 2009 at 9:04 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
icbmman (anonymous) says...
You people do realize that coal is one of the primary sources of energy that powers your computers that enable you to espouse your so-called informed opinions?
April 29, 2009 at 9:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Luna (anonymous) says...
Yep and our lungs know it as well. THere is no such thing as clean coal.
April 29, 2009 at 10:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
UrGatorbait (anonymous) says...
'"study suggests...."
Great reporting.
April 29, 2009 at 10:44 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
icbmman (anonymous) says...
Luna, and your proof of that statement? Gore, Obama, and his minions?
Clean coal is being researched and accomplished through innovative technologies in the industry. Coal is a powerful, effective energy source, it just needs to be filtered. And we are being told to rely on ineffective, inefficient sources like solar and wind.
Just like clean, safe, efficient energy is possible through nuclear energy...yet, it is cast aside because it doesn't fit the left-wing environmental extremist agenda.
April 29, 2009 at 11:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tides (anonymous) says...
And to think, all these previous reports were Sugar Coated by government!
Corruption and greed runs wild in SC.
April 29, 2009 at 1:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tides (anonymous) says...
All the construction and illegal of dumping paint and other toxins on the ground on the construction sites. Nobody cares to enforce the laws we have. you call and complain, law enforcement does nothing except maybe make a little report that gets buried too!
April 29, 2009 at 1:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Tides (anonymous) says...
Remember. President Obozo said he was going to BANKRUPT the coal industry.
April 29, 2009 at 1:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
terp4life (anonymous) says...
icbmman,
You are what is wrong with this country. Wake up!! There are cleaner and more efficient technologies that need to be implemented. Let me ask you this, do you like your local caught seafood? Do you like it with toxins due to all the run-off and crap dumped into our local streams? You know that the marine life DOES get exposed to this stuff. Just like YOU will see the effects of our Poor Air Quality.
And what do you think McCain would've done? Heck Bush is the one that has ruined our country for the past 8 years.....WAKE UP!
April 29, 2009 at 3:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Uncommon_Sense (anonymous) says...
Maybe the wind is blowing the wrong way. They should get the wind to blow so that only 14% of the people below the poverty line are "in the flow of local industrial emissions" instead of 25%. While it is all well and good to point these discrepencies out, there is a dearth of practical solutions suggested by the article.
April 29, 2009 at 4:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
singleroni (anonymous) says...
STILL CLEANER NOW THAN WHEN I WAS A KID WITH THE CRESOLE PLANT, THE FERTLIZER PLANT , WESTVACO AND THE ASBESTOS PLANT AND THE NAVY YARD. MAYBE THATS WHY I AM BALD NOW? WHO CAN I SUE?
April 29, 2009 at 4:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lloyd007 (anonymous) says...
Bottom Line...South Carolina has been a part of such corruption for years and years..so much blood is on it's hands.It's not in the neighborhood of whites, so who gives a damn ? This report is nothing new..Try writing a story on what's going to be done about the mess. Knowing this state, Not one Damn thing...
April 29, 2009 at 4:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
icbmman (anonymous) says...
terp4life, just like the rest of your ilk, you immediately spew your condescending tripe towards anyone who even provides a smidgeon of common sense, and then have the audacity to tell them to "wake up". You also proceed to regurgitate liberal talking points either from your Obamessiah, George Soros, or HuffPo...when I wasn't even mentioning national politics! How completely expected...idiotic and vacuous, but expected, nonetheless.
Interestingly enough, the EARTH seeps vast amounts of chemicals and toxins through its fissures in ALL of its oceans, lakes, and streams...the very resources we use to acquire all of our local seafood. In addition, all of the creatures that constitute our seafood swim in their own excrement, even ingesting it. Yet, we still eat seafood and survive.
That's beside the point, however. You sit at your computer and make emotional, irrational posts on how evil the coal company is, while at the same time using an instrument which requires coal in order to power it. Hypocrisy at its best.
I understand that we must ensure that we don't place high levels of toxins like mercury and sulphur in our water. As a matter of fact, many coal companies take great care to safely store and secure coal supplies that aren't being used immediately. However, if we actually used clean coal technology as well as nuclear power, they would virtually eliminate the dangers of coal poisoning fish and the environment. Those are sources of power that Bush and McCain both have neglected to push growth for.
April 29, 2009 at 5:01 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
omarro1974 (anonymous) says...
Bottom Line...South Carolina has been a part of such corruption for years and years..so much blood is on it's hands.It's not in the neighborhood of whites, so who gives a damn ? This report is nothing new..Try writing a story on what's going to be done about the mess. Knowing this state, Not one Damn thing...
-----------------------------------------------------------
Exactly.
April 29, 2009 at 5:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
newbattleaxe (anonymous) says...
Until about 1970, the Cooper River below West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company's mill and the Charleston Naval Shipyard was almost dead. The Ashley River around the fertilizer plants was so toxic as to be nearly dead.
The City of Charleston had been dumping its garbage into the masrh along the Ashley River just below The Citadel for years . When Stoney Field first opened, there were reports of football players getting injured on broken glass that had churned up from household garbage.
"The Neck" was the site of many polluting industries. The whole area absolutely stank most of the time. Yet, many proud people lived there, and raised their families there. Their children went to school in the area, won academic and athletic awards, and there was a strong community spirit. I don't remember hearing about a lot of people assuming other people would fix their problems for free.
Now, we have all these outside reports coming in, and people are worried. People seem to expect someone else to "fix things" for free. Anyone who has seriously studied Ecology knows "There's no such thing as a free lunch."
April 29, 2009 at 8:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
emerson15 (anonymous) says...
I have to agree with the corruption and greed scenerio. And yes SCDHEC is a joke when it comes to this. As far as the polital barb about the minions of Gore, etc..this is a state run by the GOP for the bebefit of the wealthy with no consideration for anybody's health who happens to be in way of their path to more wealth.
April 29, 2009 at 9:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
TheTruthFighter (anonymous) says...
I wish someone would investigate why is SC one of the highest state in the union in Cancer? I bet the money in my pocket it has EVERYTHING to do with the dirty water and air in this state. Where is the EPA when you need them. DHEC is a joke!
April 29, 2009 at 9:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
leap2conclusion (anonymous) says...
Nice to see someone admit when they fight the truth.
newbattleaxe has it closer than most.
Air quality is MUCH better, just look at the record.
singleroni- I think your on your own with the hair thing...
and uncommonsense has it -
If anyone actually READ the report they'd see that it says the model says that the MSA (that's Charleston, Dorchester AND Berkley counties) has an income related disparity of impacts.
NOT the Neck.
The whole area.
Let's all hold our breath while waiting for the correction.
April 29, 2009 at 10:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
yird (anonymous) says...
Get off your computer, pull the main breaker in your abode and revel that you are doing your part to combat evil coal.
I in the mean time will continue to enjoy the benefits of electrical power.
It might be the underlying cause of some people dying prematurely but considering what the average life expectancy was prior to all the life expanding perks we have today as a result of electrical power, does anyone really think we'd be better off without it regardless of what is used in the generation process?
April 29, 2009 at 10:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
leap2conclusion (anonymous) says...
yeah
It's hard to type by candlelight.
Everything has some risk. Cars are the biggest risk - both to yourself and those who live near the roads- but (most) everybody drives
April 29, 2009 at 10:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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