Contamination traps northside resident
Christy Pickard’s home polluted with PCE, TCE; Roe helping find answers
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When Christy Pickard purchased her home on North Buckeye Street in 2013, she thought she had finally made it. She had a good job. She was living in the neighborhood where she grew up, right next door to her brother. Little did she know that her dream was actually a nightmare.
She received a letter in 2017 from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), requesting that she attend a community open house, she had a feeling right away that something serious was about to happen. She knew that her neighborhood sat next to the old Midwest Plating site on the city’s north end. She knew the plant property was contaminated. And at the open house she learned that contamination had spread. Her home was affected.
“I knew right away what was going on,” said Pickard. “I knew it had something to do with that property.”
While the EPA officials didn’t come out and say she was in danger, she knew something had to be wrong. They asked her if she was suffering any medical problems, and when the officials learned she worked in an industrial setting, they “tried to pass the buck,” Pickard said.
“They tried to downplay it,” said Pickard. “At the time, I didn't put two and two together because I didn't know there was a problem. But almost from the very beginning, I started suffering, migraines, anxiety, and other things. I'd never had that problem before.
“But when I moved into this house, I realized that I was having migraines every week. They said it was because I work (in a factory), but it started probably at least a year and a half or two years before I got my job.”
The EPA admitted that her neighborhood – her home – might be contaminated, but it took nearly two years before the agency conducted testing at Pickard’s house on Nov. 7, 2018. Her fears were confirmed. There was contamination: tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE). And the vapors were encroaching her house from the groundwater beneath it.
“Apparently the PCE and TC gas in my home was so high for their standards, that the results were unreadable,” said Pickard.
Indeed, when Pickard received the official report nearly a year later, on Sept. 27, 2019, the EPA disclosed that PCE and TCE had been detected in the sewer lines in her neighborhood. The chemicals also were in her home, far above acceptable levels.
“Indoor exceedances do not necessarily mean that you will experience health effects, only that there is a need for the installation of a vapor abatement mitigation system and additional follow-up proficiency sampling,” the EPA stated in its report. “After reviewing your data, ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry) recommended an intermediate vapor reduction system followed by a permanent system for your property to reduce your indoor exposure to site-related pollutants.”
The EPA followed through and installed a permanent vapor reduction system. Pickard was less than impressed.
“Basically, it’s a tube that comes out of my basement and directs the air out of my basement to outside,” said Pickard. “Immediately, it raised my light bill a lot. And from here on out, I'm responsible for that mitigation system. If anything happens, I'm responsible for all repairs and everything.
“They came in and dug in my basement and drilled holes to test. My basement is a dirt basement. They did they put plastic over it. That's it. It looks like duct tape that they got to hold it in place. But that duct tape is not going to hold forever.”
But did it work? Pickard doesn’t know. The EPA has not cleared her property following treatment. Her brother’s house next door was cleared. He received a binder full of papers to confirm it. She has received nothing.
Sherry Roe is turning out to be the Indiana version of Erin Brockovich. The Kokomo resident and activist has spent more than a decade investigating and fighting companies and the government over industrial contamination; first over the death of her father from chemical exposure, and now whenever she is notified of a situation. She is currently volunteering her efforts to assist residents in Mooresville, Ind., with a contamination issue, and she is helping Pickard here in Kokomo.
Roe explained that General Motors and Midwest Plating turned over the northside property to a RACER Trust in 2008. This holding company is part of a voluntary remediation effort allowed by the EPA.
“They tested over there and said there were only low levels, almost undetectable, of TCE in the soil,” said Roe. “And yet, in 2017 they come back, and she's got to have emergency canisters put in her house?
“The RACER Trust only has to do the bare minimum and the state will sign off. They take their word for those test results and say they're good. Then, later down the road, because that stuff just keeps leaching, we have a problem.”
And the problem could be larger than Pickard’s home. The area in which she lives is identified by the EPA as the Kokomo Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Plume Site. It encompasses the neighborhood immediately east of the former factory, from 1509 N. Washington St. to as far east as Main Street. While the site is considered inactive by the EPA, it is only because no update has been filed by investigators in more than a year.
Pickard explained that not many of the residents in her neighborhood agreed to testing. Without it, there is no way to know whether other properties are experiencing what she is.
“You don't know because they wouldn't let nobody in the house,” said Pickard. “That's on them. I didn't want to know it, either, but I wanted to protect my health. I can't sell the house now because I have to disclose the contamination.
“People ask, ‘Why don't you just move?’ I can’t afford two mortgages. It gets me so angry that my life don't mean any more than that. I love my house. It needs some work, but I don't want to put work into it because of this. I wish I could just walk away, but I can't. I make too much money to file bankruptcy. If I was able to do that, how am I going to buy another house?”
Roe contended that the only reason Pickard’s property was tested is because the trust wants to do something with the Midwest Plating property. In fact, soil excavation and site treatment began on the property last year.
“It's all about the dollar,” said Roe. “They want to build over there. They're wanting to do something with that land. That's the only reason they're concerned. Once they clean that up, they're going to say it's all clean. And they're going to give it back to the city.
“The thing that makes me angry is if this was Carmel, if this was Indianapolis, it'd be on mainstream TV. Everybody would be hearing about it. But when you take a small town, a poor neighborhood, they think they can get away with it. And nobody hears about it.”
Pickard has few options. She can’t afford to walk away. She doesn’t know if the treatment system has made her home safe. Without a report clearing the property, she can’t sell it. She has contacted an attorney and is exploring her legal recourse. But mostly, she’s just stuck.
“I would have never bought this place had I known,” said Pickard. “But, I didn't want to move out of the north end. It's next door to my brother. We can look out for each other. This is my old neighborhood where I practically grew up and lived in my whole life. I thought it was just going to be easy. But now I'm scared to put any kind of money into this place.”