South Philly Review

Ah, breathe in the air. Or on second thought, don't. Clean Water Fund and the Community Labor Refinery Tracking Committee recently delivered some alarming news about air-pollution levels in the area.

The two groups, along with residents, measure air quality through the use of "bucket brigades," which originated a year ago this month in South and Southwest Philly.

The latest findings were revealed at a Jan. 27 community forum at the Mercy Wellness Center in Southwest. One test was taken immediately after a Jan. 18 fire at the Sunoco Philadelphia Refinery.

Christine Knapp, program organizer for Clean Water Fund, and Joanne Rossi, president of the CLRTC, also took the opportunity to announce the citywide kickoff of the bucket brigade.

Nearly 20 residents from South and Southwest Philly attended the forum, along with representatives from neighborhood civic associations.

Working with the CLRTC, Clean Water Fund launched the bucket brigade last year in the neighborhoods surrounding the oil refinery.

The goal was to create a trained group of volunteers who could take air-quality samples that would then be sent to a laboratory in California for analysis.

"Anybody can really join that has a nose. We call them sniffers. All they are required to do is call somebody when they smell something that is not right," Knapp said.

Civic-minded residents simply contact bucket-brigade members who will come out and collect an air sample.

Members are equipped with Environmental Protection Agency-approved homemade air monitors constructed from specially modified plastic buckets. The devices are fitted with air-intake valves and an air sample bag. Each unit costs $75 to $100, Knapp said. An EPA grant covered the cost of equipment and test results.

According to Knapp, the lab provides its findings in raw data form. To help decode the scientific lingo and assess potential health risks, Clean Water Fund enlisted the expertise of two University of Pennsylvania professors who specialize in environmental studies.

As copies of the four test results and possible health risks were handed out at last month's meeting, one attendee looked at the document and gasped, "Oh my God."

All seven compounds that surfaced in the samples far exceeded EPA standards. In most cases, the levels soared through the roof.

Procured under varying weather conditions, three of the samples were taken on the Passyunk Avenue Bridge, while the other was collected on 61st Street. In two of the four samples, acetone was the leading compound, detected at levels of 16 and 63, respectively. The EPA standard is 3.7. According to Clean Water Fund research, acetone's possible health risks include effects on the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, kidney, neurological and respiratory systems and skin toxicants.

Another compound, toluene, also registered big. In the same two samples, the level of toluene detected was 28 and 31, respectively. The EPA standard is 4.2. This compound is a known developmental toxicant that puts people at risk for cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, skin, kidney, reproductive, respiratory and neurological effects, according to Clean Water Fund.

The only suspected carcinogen detected was Methyl tertiary-Butyl Ether, otherwise known as MTBE.

Found in gasoline, MTBE is an additive designed to reduce the production of smog by increasing the burning efficiency of fuel. While EPA literature describes MTBE as a "potential" human carcinogen, studies have yet to be completed to determine if the compound causes cancer in humans.

Originally, Clean Water Fund and the CLRTC had only planned to collect three samples, Knapp said, but that changed on Jan. 18 with a fire at the Sunoco Refinery. When news of the fire broke, Rossi and CLRTC vice president Al Caporali rushed out and collected an air sample. Interestingly, that sample proved to have the least troubling results, with only two compounds surfacing. Toluene topped at 26, while another compound, 2-Butanone, registered 9.8, well above the EPA standard of 1.0.