Birmingham, AL (WIAT) - Cancer causing chemicals creeping into homes through windows and through attic space is something movies are made of, but it's actually real life, being played out in Birmingham. For months now Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass along with the CBS 42 investigative team, have been following a storyline of toxins threatening entire communities. We have pictures and sound you will only see on CBS 42 as the cleanup of dangerous chemicals in Birmingham schools now prepares to move on to dozens of Birmingham homes.
A river of blackness coats the outside of Frankie Winborn's house despite his efforts. He steps out into his yard weekly to wash the siding. His trees bloom through solid black branches. The pecans in his yard are dried out and black when they fall to the ground. Inside, he says soot piles up so heavy in his attic it weighs his ceiling down. "I just replaced it because it had a lot of black soot in it. d Did the best I could to replace it." He knows something is wrong in his neighborhood. Any day now, trucks are expected to move onto his street to clean up contaminated soil. Walter coke, the nearby coke producing plant, has tested more than 70 properties in this area and found contamination at 23 homes and 3 schools.
They don't claim to be responsible for the high levels of chemicals. They say they're doing the clean up to be good neighbors.
"North Birmingham has been an industrial area for well over 100 years. The substances that are of potential concern can come from a number of industrial or non-industrial sources, says Michael Monahan, Director of Corporate Communications for Walter Coke.
Collegeville neighborhood association president Vivian Starks says, "They have constantly told us...it was an industrial area. but that's not helping our problem. I know it's an industrial area but I still live here. I want my air just as clean as everybody else."
Vivian speaks her mind every month with Walter Coke at community meetings. also at those meetings are federal environmental protection agency officials. They are overseeing the cleanup project after issuing an administrative order to the company.
"We put new seeding in , put concrete back, new wood back, and it’s done. we bring it back to the same level and usually a little better, cause I see that wood would need to be replaced. you would get new wood", says Karen Knight EPA Region 4 representative.
Winborn doesn't know if he'll get new wood and new soil since his house hasn't been tested, but he doesn't need an expert to tell his where the black soot is coming from. He blames the coal piles across the street.
"That coke hill has been a problem since I’ve been here for 16 years. I can clean today and it will come back tomorrow", says Winborn.
Our investigative team took an exert to Winborn's house. Shaun Crawford, an environmental health scientist looked at PAH's- which cover a variety of cancer causing and non-cancerous chemicals. The numbers were 13 times higher in his house than outside his house. More specifically, chemicals like benzoapyrene, chromium, arsenic and lead were all higher inside his home as opposed to outside. Dr. Anne Turner-Henson has been asked by the environmental protection agency to help residents learn more about the toxic chemicals invading their communities.
"If the pollution is coming to the soil...you can clean up that individual soil. but it's still going to be getting dirty and polluted so you gotta look at the source of the air pollution", says Henson.
In the meantime Winborn has gotten creative with his soot problem. "I noticed I had a lot of dust all over the furniture and on the floors and stuff and I was looking at my mop bucket and I noticed it was black soot in it. I decided to get some cardboard and put it in the window and slow it down a little bit. It won't stop it, but it'll slow it down. I really don't know how to deal with big industry. Just don't know how to deal with them", he says.