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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Jimmy Smith, a 78-year-old lifelong resident of Collegeville, told a packed crowd at Hudson K-8 School this afternoon that he lost one daughter to cancer and another is undergoing chemotherapy, something he attributes to pollution in the heavily industrial north Birmingham community.
 
“We buried her (58-year-old Teresa Langford) three weeks ago. Bone cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, and last but not least — brain cancer,” Smith said. “All based on us not knowing what was going on in Collegeville.”
 
Smith made his remarks after officials with the Environmental Protection Agency discussed plans to address the arsenic and benzo(a)pyrene found in soil samples near the Walter Coke plant and plans to take samples from other nearby neighborhoods.
 
The two substances are linked to a host of health problems including skin and respiratory problems and even cancer, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
 
In 2009, the EPA took soil samples from 76 homes and four schools in Fairmont, Harriman Park and Collegeville and found 21 homes had what the agency considers excessive levels of BaP, while three contained excessive levels of arsenic, EPA officials said.
 
Hudson K-8, built after the samples were taken but before the results were in, and the former Carver High School had excessive levels of both chemicals, while Riggins School had an excessive level of arsenic. The EPA found that the Calloway Head Start School did not have excessive levels of either.
 
The EPA did not know about the construction of the new Hudson school –which was built on the site of the old Hudson school — until after the fact, said Brian Holtzclaw, a community engagement coordinator for the agency. “We were quite frankly shocked,” Holtzclaw said.
 
Walter Coke voluntarily paid for the soil sample tests at all properties, the clean-up at Hudson and Riggins and placed a fence around the old Carver campus, said Karen Knight, chief of corrective action services for EPA’s region 4. The company will pay for the clean-up of the other 24 properties, Knight said.
 
Company officials were present at today’s meeting but referred questions to spokesman Mike Monahan. Efforts to reach Monahan were unsuccessful tonight.
 
In April, Walter Coke was sued in a class-action suit by a North Birmingham resident, on behalf of herself and other property owners, claiming the company had damaged their property by polluting the air and water. The company is expected to file a response in June, according to court records.
 
Knight said samples will soon be taken from other areas. Knight said she was not yet sure which neighborhoods they’ll be taken from, but homes where children stay will be given priority.
 
“For us who have been exposed, it’s a done deal. For our kids and grandkids, it’s not,” Knight said.
 
Dana Robison, Environmental Health Scientist for the ATSDR, said the full extent of the risk to those in the affected Birmingham areas will not be known until the samples are further studied by toxicologists and doctors. That report should be ready in a few months, she said.
 
Until then, residents are advised to only garden with raised beds and using clean soil, she said. Produce from those gardens should also be thoroughly washed or peeled.
 
“Right now, I can’t tell you whether it’s 100 percent safe to garden,” Robison said.
 
Children should thoroughly wash their hands after playing in the dirt, remove their shoes before coming inside and wood chips can be placed over patches of bare soil, Robison said.

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