Officials brief residents on Birch Stream cleanup

BANGOR – Residents of Griffin Park and several environmental groups were briefed Friday night on steps being taken to prevent contaminants from entering Birch Stream and the air around it.

Residents of Griffin Park, a subsidized housing complex operated by the Bangor Housing Authority, say the air and water around their homes are making them sick because the nearby stream is polluted with runoff from Bangor International Airport, the Maine Air National Guard Base and the Airport Mall shopping center.

While some residents have said they had noticed odors coming from around the stream before, the odor was particularly overpowering on April 7.

Ann Birmingham, a resident, called the police, and a fire crew responded to investigate. Fire personnel traced the odor back up the stream to BIA and the nearby Guard base. They learned from Air Guard personnel that the smell, which has been described as “yeasty,” came from de-icing fluid, and contacted the DEP, which sent staff to investigate.

Water samples tested this spring showed Birch Stream contained a number of chemicals, including acetone, heavy metals, oil, gasoline, jet fuel and propylene glycol – a component of the chemical used to de-ice airplanes.

Some Griffin Park residents, among them Birmingham and neighbor Gina Pratt, worry that propylene glycol is causing an assortment of illnesses, including sore throats and lungs, headaches, asthma, nosebleeds, leukemia and other cancers and a higher than normal rate of spontaneous abortions.

When asked after the meeting about de-icer related illnesses among airport personnel, BIA Director Rebecca Hupp said there had been none to her knowledge.

Birmingham and Pratt were among a handful of Griffin Park’s 150 or so residents who attended Friday night’s session, which was shown live on local access television and taped for later showings. They brought with them representatives of several environmental organizations, including Maine Rivers, the Environmental Health Strategy Center, Bangor Area Citizens Organized for Responsible Development, and the Maine People’s Alliance.

Birmingham said she and her neighbors wanted answers to their question about what they’ve been breathing. She said residents also wanted confidential health assessments conducted, preferably by an independent party, and the stream to be cleaned up.

During the meeting at City Hall, organized by Rep. Patricia Blanchette, whose legislative district includes the east side neighborhood, officials from several city departments, BIA, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Air National Guard outlined some of the steps being taken now or planned for the future to prevent further contamination of Birch Stream.

Some of the city’s elected officials also attended.

Ed Logue, DEP’s regional director for eastern Maine, discussed air and water testing that had been conducted at the stream, as well as plans to monitor it. He said that the first of three reports on water quality at Birch Stream would be released in the week ahead and that the second was due out in October. He said the DEP did not yet have enough data to determine what remediation might be required, but that he had tapped city public works personnel to help clean up some of the trash, furniture and shopping carts contributing to the stream’s condition.

While he said the stream’s water quality had deteriorated in the past three years, he noted it improved dramatically in May after the city and Air Guard took steps to divert runoff from the stream.

Dan Wellington, the city’s code enforcement officer and a federally registered health specialist, said health and building surveys are being developed in conjunction with the state Bureau of Health, with assistance from the state toxicologist and environmental health unit. The surveys, he said, would look at environmental issues that may be causing some of the illnesses at Griffin Park, such as mold, excess moisture, whether improper building techniques or materials were used in constructing the complex, to name a few.

City Engineer Jim Ring and the Guards’ Lt. Col. Eric Johns described the steps those entities are taking to prevent further pollution.

Next week construction will begin on a $284,340 collection system that will divert de-icer to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, Ring said. Johns said the Guard was building a similar system and that a bid opening was set for later this month.

Pratt and Birmingham said that if the de-icer is found not be causing the illnesses, they hope would discover what is causing them.