You really do not know whether to laugh or cry when someone walks up to you and begins to rationalize that we simply have to settle for whatever we can get from our government. Where did we go wrong? At what point in our history did we give up and begin settling for mediocrity?

I have spoken to several people in our community about the state Senate hearings related to the 2006 hazardous chemical debacle at the Philip Services Corporation (PSC) facility near the Fayette County border in neighboring South Fulton County.

If you remember, residents in Fayette and South Fulton Counties were exposed to pesticide waste from tankers shipped into our area from Alabama to be “treated.”

The PSC facility was supposed to be a sewage pre-treatment station for non-hazardous chemicals, but it did not turn out that way. Sadly, the only way our local residents had any idea something was in the air that could impact them was the horrible smell.

I hate to think of the times when something awful could have been on their site that did not emit an odor to warn the residents. However, we will never really know because, “The state EPD has admitted that it can find no records for any shipments at the PSC plant covering the past 16 years, despite regulatory requirements that the agency receive yearly reports on exactly what kinds of wastes are being brought to the PSC plant” (email, M. Hennessey, Ga. DHR, 9-19-2006).

PSC management described the product in question as mere waste water, but you have to wonder why a company in Alabama would spend a significant amount shipping the product to PSC in our back yard to be disposed of if they could have pre-treated the alleged negligible product in Alabama?

One thing we know for sure, people started developing specific symptoms and data showed pets were also showing symptoms in clusters. Unfortunately, the people who are supposed to protect us were slow to respond and “... sampling that did not occur until some time after the exposure” did not leave anyone feeling safe (email, J. Carson, Ga. DHR, 9-27-2006, Re: Mercaptan).

Many months after the incident, Ga. DHR released their “Survey of Adverse Health Events” and concluded, “Release of propyl mercaptan at the PSC facility may have contributed to adverse health effects in some residents of communities around PSC, and for some residents has had a substantial negative impact on the quality of life” (DHR report, Oct. 24, 2006).

In addition, Dr. Obaid Faroon with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry admitted, “... that there’s little (if any) published literature/studies on long-term effects from propyl mercaptan” (email, J. Horan, Ga. DHR, 10-24-2006, Subject: phone call to Dr. Faroon).

The two most dangerous hazardous chemical facilities in Peachtree City, Photocircuits and Georgia Pacific, went away. One of those facilities was fined by the Ga. Environmental Protection Division (EPD) for putting harmful chemicals in the air. One of the sites, according to an official with the Fayette County Development Authority, is a brown field site.

However, before you rejoice about these hazards no longer being in our community, please know that efforts are under way to bring some of these facilities back into operation.

We are a high-end, well-educated community, so do we really need hazardous chemical facilities operating in our area? We have the wherewithal to attract better alternatives.

Please do not settle for the worst case when you do not have to do so. Email Representative Matt Ramsey (matt.ramsey@house.ga.gov) and Senator Ronnie Chance (ronnie.chance@senate.ga.gov) and tell them you want EPD to make the PSC plant accountable for what they do in order to protect Fayette County.

In addition, email the mayor and council of Peachtree City (council@peachtree-city.org) and tell them you would like to see a new ordinance to protect the local citizens from facilities using hazardous chemicals and prohibit any such new operation from locating within a half-mile of any residential area.

The city watched for six months as CSX Railroad built a rail spur which now holds 50,000 gallon hazardous chemical tanker cars a mere 50 feet away from adjacent homeowners.

This time let’s stop setting ourselves up for disaster and act now to protect our community.

Steve Brown

stevebrownptc@ureach.com

Peachtree City, Ga.

[Brown served as mayor of Peachtree City from 2001 to 2005.]