Date: Fri 06-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Jack-Sparacino-American-Wire

Full Text:

Student Project Takes On An Odor In The Air w/ cut

BY KAAREN VALENTA

Jack Sparacino, 12, needed to find a project to enter in the national Science

Horizons competition as part of the seventh-grade Discovery program at the

Newtown Middle School. He decided to explore air emissions in Newtown, in

particular the odor that often emanates from the American Wire Corporation

plant at 57 Church Hill Road.

Jack wondered how many people were bothered by the smell of the wire enameling

process done at the plant. He decided to draw up a questionnaire and find out.

Before he was done, he had corresponded with the Connecticut Department of

Environmental Protection (DEP) and a three-person DEP site inspection team

visited him at his home on Newfield Lane.

To conduct his survey, Jack identified the streets located near the plant and

selected five of them: The Boulevard, Wendover Road, Grand Place, Budd Drive

and Evergreen Road. He then went line by line through the Newtown section of

the Danbury telephone book, from A to I, to find people who live on those

streets.

"I started at `A' [in the phone book] and got as far as `I,'" he said. "I

called 27 households. Over one-third of them said they are bothered by the

smell. But only one said they had made a complaint."

When he called the DEP, Jack also became troubled by what he was told: That

the odor coming from the plant had never been tested to determine whether it

could be harmful. He also discovered that a "notice of violation" had been

issued against the plant last August for allegedly violating state regulations

which regulate the control of nuisance odors.

But Patrick Bowe, assistant director of engineering and enforcement for the

DEP's air quality management bureau, cautioned that although the DEP has

received complaints about the odor and issued a notice of violation, no

conclusions should be drawn.

"A notice of violation alleges that there may be a violation," he said. "It

requires [the plant operators] to get back to us. But it has no legal

standing. The violation would have to be proved in court, and it only gets

that far if the plant operators refuse to cooperate with the DEP."

Nor is it likely that the odor is harmful, he said.

"Very rarely have emissions from a factory ever been found to be toxic or a

health hazard," he said. "In most odor issues you are looking at strictly a

nuisance factor."

Testing routinely is done at only the largest facilities, seldom at small

factories, he added. Air sampling is usually done at the property lines to

determine what pollutants may be crossing from the plant onto neighboring

properties.

"The results depend a lot on the direction and speed of the wind, and other

factors," Mr Bowe said. "You could monitor for weeks and months and never get

an accurate picture."

Instead, the DEP prefers to "begin at the source," he said, by determining

what chemicals are being used, how they are being used in the manufacturing

process, what emissions control devices are in place, and how well they are

working.

"Sometimes adjustments have to be made, occasionally a plant has to put

additional -- generally very expensive -- controls on," Mr Bowe said.

"Sometimes it requires that a company hire a consulting engineer to look at

the controls and recommend what needs to be installed. Sometimes a process, or

the chemicals used, need to be changed. We look holistically at a plant and

the processes. It is a very complex picture which needs to be deciphered."

Mr Bowe declined to discuss the specifics of the American Wire investigation,

but he said the company is cooperating with the DEP's efforts to be sure it is

in compliance with the regulations.

Health District Responds

Established in 1940, American Wire Company is a manufacturer of insulated

wire. According to Newtown Health District Director Mark A.O. Cooper, the

facility uses cooling water, polyurethane, nylon and water soluble lubricants

in its operation.

Mr Cooper said he has often called and written the DEP to relay complaints

from residents and businesses about the odor that comes from the American Wire

plant.

"It is my understanding that the facility has a valid permit and state air

compliance approval for catalytic incinerators on each of their 26 wire

coating lines," Mr Cooper wrote in a letter to the DEP last year. "It is

difficult to explain to complainants that the odors that do emanate from this

facility are permitted by the DEP and are not a violation of any environmental

law. It would be helpful to have written documentation of some health

assessment to provide those individuals offended by the air discharges."

Except for one brief telephone call, the DEP has never responded to his

inquiries, Mr Cooper said.

"In fact, I'm mad," Mr Cooper said. "I write all these letters and make all

these phone calls over the years and I get nothing back from the DEP. I don't

begrudge that this boy gets a response, but I am the health director and I

don't even get carbon copied."

Mr Bowe said plants like American Wire, which were established prior to 1972,

do not require a permit. They were "grandfathered" into the state regulations

and need only be registered with the DEP, but they still must meet minimum

standards set by state and federal regulations, he said.

According to the information provided to Jack in early January, the DEP issued

a notice of violation number 13582 on August 14, 1997, to American Wire for

violating Section 22a-174-23(a)(1) of the Regulations of Connecticut State

Agencies, which regulates the control of nuisance odors.

The DEP said that while responding to a complaint from the Newtown Health

Department at 11:30 am on August 1, 1997, Anita Paulson of the DEP detected a

strong odor resembling metal at Commerce Street and Church Hill Road, downwind

of the plant.

In her report, Ms Paulson said she went to the plant to speak to American Wire

President William McCarthy. She said Mr McCarthy told her that the catalyst

for the afterburner had been cleaned two weeks earlier and that a neutralizing

agent had been installed a year ago, but he declined to walk her through the

plant.

Mr McCarthy said his company has always cooperated with the DEP. "We have our

permits in place and have always acted immediately on complaints," he said.

"We're doing everything above board."

He said that recently temperature probe devices called thermocouplers were

installed to measure the heat in the scrubbing process to be sure it is at the

level necessary to burn off pollutants.

The Regulations

According to Sec 22a-174-23 (a)(1) of the DEP regulations, "no person shall

cause or permit the emission of any substance or combination of substances

which creates or contributes to an odor, in the ambient air, that constitutes

a nuisance."

An odor constitutes a nuisance if it is present in such intensity,

characteristics, frequency, and duration that it is, or can reasonably be

expected to be, injurious to the public health or welfare, or if it

unreasonably interferes with the enjoyment of life or the use of property in

the neighborhood affected.

The regulation says the DEP commissioner may use air quality testing to

calculate the amount of pollution in the air but these results may not be used

as the sole basis for finding a violation, "unless the commissioner has

received 10 or more written complaints within 90 consecutive days from

separate households."

On February 6, a DEP inspection team which included Lou Santos, Anita Paulson

and Kent Ritter from the Bureau of Air Management, visited Jack and his

mother, Jane Sparacino, at their Newfield Lane home before going to the

American Wire plant.

Mr Ritter said the DEP was pleased that Jack had decided to undertake a

science project to explore air emissions in Newtown. "Involvement of youth in

environmental issues is important to the protection of our environment," he

told Jack in a January 8 letter.

After the visit, the DEP officials called Jack, the Sparacinos said.

"On Friday, March 20, they called to tell us they were trying to arrange a

tour for Jack at the plant," Mrs Sparacino said. "They told us what chemicals

are used at the plant. They wanted to be sure we didn't have allergies."

On February 26, the DEP called again to say the tour could not be arranged,

Mrs Sparacino said.

Jack said he does not intend to let that stop his efforts to get the air

tested at the plant.

"I think this is a very serious issue and it shouldn't be dismissed," Jack

said. "The people that I've interviewed are concerned that the emissions may

be toxic and the smell is horrible. If other people agree that the air should

be tested, they should write to the DEP at 79 Elm Street, Hartford 06106."

Jack's entry in Science Horizons 98 is due this week. And although he doesn't

have an answer to all his questions, Discovery Program teacher Sally Harris

said that isn't really important.

"There are other valuable reasons for doing this report even if he is not

successful," she said. "He really stayed with it even though he met

obstacles."