CITIZEN GROUPS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

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When members of YCCC noted what seemed to be a higher than normal incidence of illness among people who lived along the stream, they asked the EPA to test for contaminants in the river, along its banks, and in local wells. After that agency reported finding no heavy-metal concentrations high enough to threaten human health, the citizen group asked Vanderbilt University to repeat the tests. The students and faculty of that institution found—in the streambed—concentrations of cadmium, chromium, and lead that exceeded EPA maximums by 3,000, 4,000, and 1,500 times, respectively. (The university's findings on well-water safety also differed from those of the federal agency, and a reexamination of that situation is now under way.)

YCCC went on to conduct its own survey of the Middlesboro populace, and discovered that 11 of 700 residents had leukemia (as compared with a national average of 7 to 10 cases in 100,000 people). When this information was reported to state and federal agencies, the Center for Disease Control, in Atlanta, was asked to look into the matter.

The notoriety of Middlesboro's plight perhaps came to a head when 14 YCCC members testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Water Resources . . . after which state and federal environmental agencies began to bring pressure to bear on the city and the tannery to reduce pollutant discharges. Arrangements were made to import drinking water by pipeline, a project which is scheduled_to be completed in July 1983. And in November 1982, the EPA began to move toward finally enforcing the city's National Pollutant Discharge Permit. A deadline of April 1, 1983 was laid down for improvement of the color and solids content of sewage-plant effluents, though Middlesboro's attorney is attempting to appeal that order.

Meanwhile, the Middlesboro Tanning Company has declined to participate in EPA hearings. Worse yet, the Delawarebased corporation claims that it will have to shut its doors if forced to pay its fair share of Middlesboro's sewage-treatment costs. Despite this threat of increased local unemployment (a form of pressure which might well be called blackmail in some circles), the YCCC has the firm support of the community.

Throughout the battle, the environmental group has concentrated on being polite but firm, earning the support of state and federal agencies by remaining calm and presenting well-backed evidence. And, though the fight for clean water isn't yet won, the progress the YCCC has made is substantial.

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