A LITTLE TINY TIDBIT OF THE CHEMISTRY BEHIND NDMA

The following is my report presented to (and ignored by) CPAC late last November. I recently came across a very relevant quote on the North Perth Advocate website (the link is on the right side of the page). Aldous Huxley was quoted as follows: "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." I also wish to advise my readers that there will be more posted here in the near future regarding both precursers, breakdown products and other compounds related to NDMA. These include compounds used in and by textile manufacturers, foundries and industries producing surfactants, soaps and detergents, all former (or current) businesses here in Elmira.


CPAC MEETING OF NOVEMBER 29, 2010
Delegation by Alan Marshall of the Elmira Environmental Hazards Team

The details including scholarly references regarding the following information I am presenting are all on line, both as stand alone reports as well as in summarized form on my Elmira Advocate website.
The Travis-Agardy Report of July 29, 2010, while focusing on Trichloroethylene (TCE) also gives a historical review of synthetic (man made) organic chemicals, their fate and transport in the environment. This report essentially puts the lie to the excuses we here in Elmira as well as the rest of the country have been subjected to regarding the waste disposal methods employed by Safety-Kleen, Chemtura and so many other polluters. This report makes it clear that in ground waste disposal pits as well as lagooning were emphatically rejected as grossly unsafe in the 1800’s. These practices have quaintly been referred to by Conestoga Rovers, Uniroyal, Crompton and Chemtura as “historical” waste disposal methods which were the accepted practices of the day. The day being in the 1940’s through to 1970. These statements are complete nonsense and rubbish. Numerous documented cases in the last thirty –five years of the NINETEENTH century show that in ground waste pits and lagoons were responsible for numerous poisonings and drinking water contamination in several countries in Europe.
Further technical reports including “Contaminated Earth and Water: A Legacy of the Synthetic Dyestuffs Industry” clearly indicate that the next step in avoiding public condemnation and legal ramifications involved avoiding on site waste disposal by locating on significant rivers in order to dump, dilute and disperse toxic wastes downstream. This report and many others delve into the history of the synthetic dyes industry. They include references to bladder cancer being diagnosed as early as the 1890’s in the workforce at Hoechst Dyeworks in Frankfurt Germany. They refer to Azo dyes as being particularily problematic both as environmental pollutants and as the cause of health issues amongst dye workers. Certain Azo dyes indeed have been prohibited because they produce specific banned amines in their wastewater. Azo dyes have two Nitogen atoms joined by a double bond . Amines are a Nitogen and Hydrogen combination. Finally I’ve also found references to various methods of wastewater treatment that incredibly enough include the addition of DIMETHYLAMINE to the wastewater. Any follower of the pollution history of Elmira will already know that everything I’ve just described is screaming out the word N-Nitrosodimethylamine or NDMA. The synthetic dyestuffs industry ‘s products were used extensively in Elmira, much closer to the south wellfield than Chemtura are located. I am of course referring to the former Borg Textiles on Howard Ave. Between late 1989 and mid 1991 before a deal was cooked up, Uniroyal Chemical went so far as to offer to pay for a hydrogeological study focused on “other sources” of the NDMA contamination in Elmira.
Much to the shame of every party here in this room we have the knowledge of free phase Chlorobenzene , several hundred yards off the Chemtura site, without any public response or followup to my discovery and presentation of this information here at CPAC. We also have gradually building evidence and knowledge of a major pollution threat at Borg Textiles which may explain the historically high NDMA readings at well CH38, downgradient from Borg . Either or both of these probable sources will grossly, negatively impact an already compromised, behind schedule and frankly extremely unlikely cleanup of the Elmira Aquifer by 2028, much less ever.

Alan Marshall Elmira Environmental Hazards Team
November 22, 2010