Health
Waste Management’s Kettleman Hills Facility has been an integral part of the Kings County community for 30 years. By providing secure and proper handling of local residential and business hazardous waste, WM helps protect the health and safety of the local community.
The Kettleman Hills Facility is one of the most highly regulated sites in California. In addition to regular onsite and external monitoring, several studies have been conducted examining the potential health risk of WM’s operations on the local community. These reports have all concluded that the facility does not pose a health risk to local residents.
State of California Study
- The state of California recently concluded an investigation of birth defects in Kettleman City and found no connection to the Kettleman Hills Facility. The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) and the California Department of Public Health conducted what Cal/EPA Secretary Linda Adams described as “one of the most thorough environmental health investigations ever conducted in California.” The results, which were released in December 2010, revealed that investigators could not find exposures to hazardous chemicals from the Kettleman Hills Facility that could explain the birth defects.
- The study read: “Air tests found no link between the Kettleman Hills Hazardous Waste Facility and environmental contamination in the town. The ground beneath the facility diverts water away from the town, so wastewater from the facility cannot affect the wells that supply the town’s drinking water
PCB Congener Study
- A recent study confirmed storage of PCB’s at the Kettleman Hills facility the local community and the environment. In the most extensive study of its kind ever conducted at an active and permitted facility, U.S. EPA and Waste Management collected and analyzed soil, air and vegetation samples to determine whether wind-blown PCB particles could pose a health concern. In its findings, U.S. EPA concluded:
- Concentrations of PCB congeners measured in soil samples collected at the perimeter of the Chemical Waste Management (CWM) Facility are 2,000 times below EPA’s risk-based residential clean-up levels, based on their toxicity.
- Risk of health impacts from PCB congener concentrations measured in soils, vegetation, and air near the perimeter of the CWM Facility are in the same range as risk of health impacts in other rural areas without known PCB activities or sources.
- Concentrations of PCB congeners measured in soils, vegetation, and air at the perimeter as well as those collected at the B-18 landfill drainage swale of the CWM Facility do not adversely affect ecological species.
- There is no evidence suggesting that PCB congeners from operations at the CWM Facility are migrating off-site at concentrations that would adversely affect the health of local community residents or the environment.
- Concentrations of PCB congeners measured in soil samples collected at the perimeter of the Chemical Waste Management (CWM) Facility are 2,000 times below EPA’s risk-based residential clean-up levels, based on their toxicity.