Dow Poison Vinyl Chloride in Plaquemine
WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA)
[Also see: PVC: A Health Hazard From Production through Disposal Paul Goettlich 25oct01]
"Poison in Plaquemine," an investigative report into alleged vinyl chloride dumping at Dow's Chemical Plant in Plaquemine, was researched and reported by Community Advocate Peter Marshall.
Because this investigation changes as more evidence is gathered by multiple state agencies, WBRZ.com will continue to bring you new information as it happens.
However, because of the tremendous response from viewers through e-mails and phone calls, we have archived all previous stories in this investigation.
Dow subpoenaed: All tank car cleaning paper work requested
PETER MARSHAL / WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA) 4aug02
Peter Marshall WBRZ Reporter Prosecutors in Iberville Parish have issued a subpoena to the Dow Chemical company.
The order comes in the wake of WBRZ's series, Poison in Plaquemine, which raised allegations of decades of vinyl chloride dumping at the plant.
Dow is required to hand over all paper work pertaining to tank car cleaning from Jan. 1997 to the present. That includes taped interviews, procedures, memoranda, emails, audits, reports and records of disciplinary actions.
Dow has until Sept. 10 to produce the paper work. Dow is cooperating fully with the District Attorney's request, according to a company spokeswoman.
Dow defends itself again
MARK LAMBERT / WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA) 4aug02
Ad in the Sunday Advocate says they "strongly disagree with the allegations made in the WBRZ news report."
Mark Lambert, WBRZ Executive Producer
Dow Chemical in Plaquemine has again taken out a full-page ad in the Sunday Advocate to answer accusations of vinyl chloride dumping raised in WBRZ's investigative series.
Dow plant manager Earl Shipp wrote he and other company officials "strongly disagree with the allegations made in the WBRZ news report." The series documented former employees' claims that a vinyl chloride and water mix was routinely dumped onto the ground for decades.
Vinyl chloride is a known cancer-causer and has been detected in the drinking water in the Myrtle Grove trailer park near the plant. Dow contends dumping was not standard or routine, and the amount of mix reportedly dumped onto the ground "defies common sense."
The company also says WBRZ didn't give all the details of its tank car cleaning procedures. Dow denies being the source of the drinking water contamination and insists any vinyl chloride dumping was not standard or routine.
However, Dow has subpoenaed all of WBRZ's video tapes and notes from the series as it defends itself in a lawsuit filed by residents who have tainted water.
Grand Jury to visit Dow: Will look at tank car cleaning area
PETER MARSHAL / WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA) 4aug02
An Iberville Parish Grand Jury is panning a field trip to Dow Chemical in July to investigate accusations of vinyl chloride dumping at the Plaquemine plant.
Dow Chemical,
Plaquemine
Photo by Rick Portier
The grand jury has already heard testimony from former Dow employees interviewed in our Poison in Plaquemine series, including Glynn Smith.
On July 17, District Attorney Ricky Ward will take members of the grand jury to the Dow plant in Plaquemine and show them the tank car cleaning area.
According to Smith, that's where the dumping took place.
On July 23, the grand jury will meet again in Iberville Parish to hear testimony from more witnesses and experts in this case.
There is no word on when the grand jury will come back with a decision. in large part, the investigation is just beginning.
Dow contract employee confirms investigation's allegations
WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA) 13aug02
Claims vinyl chloride dumping was standard procedure
Since WBRZ first aired accusations that vinyl chloride was routinely dumped at Dow's Plaquemine facility, the company has denied there is any evidence it broke the law. But Tuesday, a current Dow contract employee testifying before a grand jury told News 2 the accusations about vinyl chloride dumping are true.
Kevin Gray appeared before the Iberville Parish grand jury to testify about what he saw during his years in Dow's tank car cleaning division.
Gray claims it was standard procedure to dump water mixed with highly toxic and cancer causing chemical vinyl chloride on the ground at Dow's Plaquemine facility.
He knows because he witnessed the dumping, and took part in it.
"The way the Dow people explained it happened, it didn't go that way," Gray said.
Gray worked in tank car cleaning for ten years starting in November of 1989. He claims from day one he was taught to dump the deadly chemical onto the ground by men who were among the first to blow the whistle.
"That was it, that's what happened cause' that was who trained me," he said. "Mr. Edward Dominique and Mr. Sonny Dominique, they was my foreman. That's the way it was supposed to be done. I do what they tell me to do."
Gray also denies that tank cars were steamed before they were filled with water as Dow has claimed. Steaming the cars would have greatly reduced the amount of the vinyl chloride that hit the ground, often flooding the entire area.
"I mean, the water would run everywhere," Gray said.
Again, in contrast to Dow's public statements, Gray also said the railroad tracks at tank car cleaning were repaired monthly because the vinyl chloride dumped on the railroad tracks ate away at the ties.
Dow is conducting an internal investigation, and Gray said he told plant manager, Earl Shipp and the company's lawyers what he knows.
But Tuesday, a company spokeswoman said its investigation has uncovered no evidence that the dumping ever took place.
The Iberville Parish grand jury will meet again on Aug. 19 to hear more testimony. The grand jury was investigating vinyl chloride contamination at the Myrtle Grove trailer park, but has since expanded its investigation to include the allegations raised in our reports.
There has also been talk that a second grand jury will be impaneled in West Baton Rouge Parish, but sources close to this investigation told us that decision has not yet been made.
DEQ visits Dow: Plant manager refutes allegations
PETER MARSHAL / WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA) 4aug02
Monday, the Department of Environmental Quality started asking questions at Dow Chemical, five days after WBRZ's investigative series, Poison in Plaquemine.
The DEQ is taking allegations raised in our reports seriously. It will be looking for hazardous waste permits and any paperwork that outlines tank car cleaning procedures.
That includes sending a team of senior inspectors to the plant on a fact-finding mission. Monday, seven DEQ inspectors went to Dow, unannounced, to begin an investigation that they say could take weeks, perhaps months.
They are investigating accusations by several former Dow employees that vinyl chloride was simply dumped on the ground at the plant for decades.
"It's an investigation that we're just now starting it based on the information you all reported," DEQ spokesperson Bruce Hammatt said.
The fact his department is reacting so quickly is one indication of how seriously the DEQ takes the allegations, according to Hammatt. It's been five days since the story broke.
"I guess the fact that I'm sending over all of my senior staffers, our most experienced staff, going over there should give you an indication of how serious we take it," Hammatt said.
Monday, the top man at Dow's Plaquemine plant said his internal investigation doesn't support the former employee's allegations. And he denied that dumping vinyl chloride was a standard or routine procedure.
"Based in what we know right now, there's no evidence to support that those operations were occurring," Dow plant manager Earl Shipp said.
Shipp also insisted there is no evidence Dow is responsible for vinyl chloride contamination in the Myrtle Grove trailer park water supply.
He said testing and groundwater flow patterns indicate that contamination comes from another source.
But an Iberville Parish grand jury looking into the Myrtle Grove contamination is now investigating the rail car cleaning procedures.
Dow issued a subpoena to WBRZ for all of our stories, videotape and notes.
Dow whistle blower testifies before
grand jury:
Glynn Smith tells jury DOW routinely dumped vinyl chloride
MARVIN MCGRAW / WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA) 4aug02
Former Dow supervisor Glynn Smith, and employees Herbie Walker and Edward Dominque, spent four hours testifying behind closed doors, telling the grand jury what they told us in a News Two investigative report.
Smith says he was in charge when employees dumped thousands of gallons of vinyl chloride mixed with water onto the ground. The mixture was dumped next to the railroad tracks when workers cleaned tank cars.
He says it was standard practice at the plant for three decades.
Smith's story was corroborated by three other employees, including Walker and Dominque.
The grand jury is looking into what caused vinyl chloride contamination in the drinking water below the Myrtle Grove trailer park, which sits around two miles from Dow's Plaquemine facility. Dow has denied it has anything to do with the Myrtle Grove contamination.
Tuesday the company launched a public relations blitz. Plant manager Earl Shipp spoke several times on a local talk radio station.
"I want to reassure the public our current operations are best in class, best industry practices and this is in no way related the operations we have going on today."
"As the to specific allegations Mr. Smith makes, I don't' know if they're true at this time. If they are true, and he was wronged, and if that's the case, we will say that publicly, we will make sure everybody is aware of that."
DEQ wants paperwork from Dow
PETER MARSHAL / WBRZ News (Baton Rouge, LA) 4aug02
Investigation reaches day 2
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is now in day 2 of its investigation into allegations of vinyl chloride dumping at the Dow Chemical plant in Plaquemine.
The investigation is sparked by a series of WBRZ reports. DEQ has issued an administrative order mandating that all paperwork pertaining to the vinyl tank car cleaning from 1957 to the present be handed over.
The order is requesting, in part, information regarding:
- "The types and quantities of materials discharged into any waste water sump at the Dow, Plaquemine facility as a result of these activities."
- "The types and quantities of any materials spilled, placed, discharged or otherwise released to the ground, waters of the state, or a permitted outfall from the rail car or tank truck cleaning activities at the Dow, Plaquemine facility."
- "All procedures and/or practices (1957 to current) utilized in cleaning rail cars or tank trucks at the Dow, Plaquemine facility including a chronology for when each of the procedures/practices was in place.
"We'll be able to take a look at all that information with the increased people that we do have in an enforcement now in surveillance, and we'll be able to look at all that data and determine if in fact violations did occur, and then what's the corrective action for those," DEQ spokesman Bruce Hammatt said.
Dow has 30 days to produce the paperwork.
Dow subpoenas WBRZ
(WBRZ - Before 2aug02)
Wants reports, raw videos, reporter notes
Dow Chemical is trying to get materials from WBRZ's investigation in which former employees say they dumped vinyl chloride onto the ground for decades.
News 2 Executive Producer Mark Lambert testified in a deposition Friday for about an hour. Dow's attorney objected to our cameras being at the deposition.
Dow subpoenaed copies of the series, raw video, and reporter notes. The subpoena is in relation to a lawsuit filed by Myrtle Grove residents, who claim Dow contaminated their drinking water.
WBRZ gave Dow copies of the series, but refuses to hand over unpublished and confidential material.
The station wants a federal judge to throw out the subpoena. A hearing on that matter is scheduled for Aug. 2.
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