EPA pledges better communication about risks at Franklin, other sites

To help heal mistrust stemming from past erroneous reports, the Environmental Protection Agency has worked to improve the way it communicates with communities near contaminated clean-up sites, such as those in Franklin.

An audit published in September by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General found that information about certain contaminated sites had not been properly given to communities, hindering their abilities to determine risks of exposure to harmful contaminants.

The report found risk communications by the EPA on the Amphenol site in Franklin and several others to be lacking and ordered the agency to update its risk communication practices.

At the local level, more communication is being shared with local officials and community stakeholders. The EPA directly communicates with residents whose homes are selected for testing, with the public through stakeholder meetings and through the Amphenol My Community Clean-up page, the statement says.

The EPA is also in frequent contact with Franklin city officials, Mayor Steve Barnett said. Barnett and his chief of staff, Tara Payne, are part of a formerly weekly, now monthly, virtual community meeting that the EPA holds for stakeholders. Barnett trusts the EPA’s clean-up efforts because the agency has acknowledged past mistakes and the agency is rising above those, he said.

“They have come forward and said they did not do a very good job at the beginning of this thing — and when I say in the beginning, I mean in the last 20 years — of communicating with residents on what the problem really is,” Barnett said. “But I feel really good about the accomplishments that have been made since 2017. They are on a really progressive path towards getting this thing done.”

The audit by the Office of Inspector General follows a previous warning issued by the inspector general’s office in June 2019. At the time, the office indicated the information on the EPA’s website was not up-to-date and the situation in Franklin was not under control, as it was presented to be.

According to the inspector general’s office, region administrators had information since 2018 that suggested the Amphenol site should no longer be classified as “controlled.”

The inspector general’s office required that those overseeing the local projects verify the website information on the status of human health and groundwater migration issues was accurate and up-to-date. Those recommendations were completed by Oct. 7, 2019, the report said.

In the two years since the 2019 communication lapse, several steps have been taken to ensure that the agency correctly presents clean-up information to the public, according to a statement from EPA.

At the agency level, in 2019 the EPA hired a senior risk communication advisor to work in the Office of the Administrator. In 2020 the EPA developed and launched a course for staff covering principles of risk and science communication, as well as the process for risk communication at the EPA, the statement says.

Those changes have increased trust between Franklin officials and the agency, Barnett said. Still, though that trust is there, he doesn’t take the EPA’s word for it. The city has been working with environmental consulting firm EnviroForensics since 2017 and conducts independent testing to verify the EPA’s results.

“Since I started working with the EPA in 2017 I feel like they have been very forthcoming about what we really have here,” Barnett said. “With that being said, the city of Franklin, in 2017 hired a private consultant from an environmental agency to go through all the data that is being presented and then explain to me what all this means and where we are going.”

The report from the Office of Inspector General also includes some general concerns about the timeliness of public information on the progress of clean-up projects. The EPA has taken various actions to improve its risk communication nationally, and future national guidance to address this concern can be expected, the statement says.

Though public updates are infrequent, residents needing information about potential risk exposure have been provided information promptly, the statement says.

So far, the city’s consultant has been satisfied with the work the EPA is doing and with the speed of the clean-up at the site. The site is about 60% remediated, according to the most recent status update the EPA provided in June.

Since beginning a new remedial strategy at the site in 2018 the EPA has ordered Amphenol to complete extensive, air, soil and water testing and to replace sanitary sewer pipes and dispose of contaminated soil. Currently, based on indoor air investigations and completed mitigation measures, there are no known exposures, the EPA says.

With oversight from the EPA, Amphenol tested the indoor air of the buildings on the site and all homes where access was allowed within the contamination area. Amphenol installed mitigation systems and repaired plumbing systems in homes where needed, the EPA says.

Lingering myths about the extent of the contamination still persist. Both water and air in the area is deemed to be safe, based on testing completed with EPA oversight by Amphenol and independent tests by the city’s consultants.

“That is a bad stigma that has been put on Franklin through false information,” Barnett said.

Water in Franklin is safe to drink and comes into Franklin via Indiana American Water’s water supply that is tested by the state and serves many other cities in Indiana. The water Franklin uses today is collected from and purified in Shelby County, Barnett.

Waterlines were not impacted by contamination at the site and sewer lines in the contamination area were replaced, Barnett said.

The EPA is expected to release a final report on the status of clean-up at the site and final remediation actions later this year. No timeline was given for that report’s release.

Though there is a complicated history to the Amphenol site, the EPA is doing their best and the city is watching closely, Barnett said.

“I’m one of those kids who was told it was taken care of and now that I’m in this seat I can see it wasn’t taken care of as well as it should have been,” Barnett said. “Now I hope I’m making a difference to make sure it is taken care of before I leave office. I don’t want another mayor to go through what I’ve been through in this office.”