<p><strong>A</strong>fter meetings with local officials, companies and residents, the state is planning more work to make sure that Franklin is safe.</p>
<p>More testing is planned at sites where contamination is a concern, clean-up of former manufacturing sites will be closely looked at and a monitor that would take continuous and long-term samples of Franklin’s air is also in the works. The state also wants to ensure all local cancer cases are properly tracked to make sure that any trends would be found.</p>
<p>On Friday night, more than 600 people came to a community discussion at Franklin Community High School where officials from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, the state department of health and the U.S. Environmental Protection agency answered questions from the public.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>They also talked about the next steps in making sure that the air in Franklin is safe after concerns have been raised by the community about the potential of contamination from former manufacturing sites.</p>
<p>Mayor Steve Barnett worked with the state to bring them to Franklin for the meeting, and has asked the state to come up with a plan of action by the end of the month to test for contamination, and if it is found, to resolve it. State officials praised the mayor, saying that he is working tirelessly as an advocate for the city, challenging officials.</p>
<p>State officials addressed the concerns in the community and said they want to look into every possible angle to ensure the community is safe.</p>
<p>“If there is a problem in Johnson County, we are going to get to the bottom of it,” Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said.</p>
<p>“We are committed to listen, we are committed to learn and work together moving forward.”</p>
<p>That includes continuing to monitor the county and Franklin for any signs of a cancer cluster, after past studies by the state have shown the area does not meet the requirements to be a cancer cluster, Box said. The state wants to make sure all local cancer cases are included in the registry, as required by law, and will continue to analyze them to see if they meet the standards for a cancer cluster, she said. But so far, that has not been the case, she said.</p>
<p>“Your children are not numbers, and they are not data. The loss of any child is not acceptable,” Box said.</p>
<p>“There is nothing I can say that makes that any better.”</p>
<p>In addition to answering questions and addressing concerns, officials also want to hear from residents if there are areas with possible contamination that they should be looking at, Indiana Department of Environmental Management Commissioner Bruno Pigott said.</p>
<p>The state has also reached out to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which can help them identify any possible chemicals, whether they have adverse health effects and how to address it, Box said.</p>
<p>The EPA is already working on two sites in Franklin where contamination was found in the past and work has been ongoing to clean up those sites, Pigott said. And other sites, including former Franklin Power sites, are also being looked at, he said.</p>
<p>As part of that process, the site and the area around it is tested to see where contamination is and where it has spread. The next step is to contain the contamination, and make sure it is not spread into the community. And then clean-up of the site begins, Pigott said.</p>
<p>The former Amphenol site, where clean-up has been ongoing for years, has been a source of concern in the community. The monitoring of the clean-up shows that it is working as planned, but state officials are working with the EPA to take another look at that property, including whether any contamination could be spreading to nearby properties, Pigott said.</p>
<p>This week, the company also installed a new filter that is used to vent air from the contaminated water that the site is already cleaning. The new carbon filter will ensure no emissions are being released from the pipe, said Joe Cisneros, manager of EPA remediation programs.</p>
<p>In addition, the state is also looking to install a permanent air monitor in Franklin, which would be an ongoing measure of air quality in the community that could be tracked long-term for any issues, Pigott said.</p>
<p>The state is also looking to do more testing in any areas where contamination is a concern, including the homes where a private study found the presence of volatile organic compounds in the air, he said. The samples collected by the private company mainly showed the presence of those chemicals in certain areas of the homes, such as the kitchen where cleaning products are stored that often include those chemicals, Pigott said.</p>
<p>“Those sample results are questionable,” Pigott said.</p>
<p>That’s why the state wants to do its own testing at those properties, and others where they identify evidence that they could be impacted by contaminants, he said.</p>
<p>That testing and monitoring will continue, and if issues are found, they will be addressed, Pigott said.</p>
<p>“We’re not finished, we’re not disengaged and we’re not leaving,” he said.</p>
