''My name is Joanne Marshall and I come from a small town, Greenland, New Hampshire... once a rural community... has a few remaining hay farms left and one dairy... A great place to raise families until it was disturbed in October of 1995, when large tractor-trailer trucks began rolling down our street... depositing truckload after truckload of some smelly, murky stuff and piling it on a field next door.
"...I never smelt anything like that. I was told the truckers were dumping, in short, a four-letter word beginning with s and ending with t. -- Sewerage, human waste.
"We called the owner of the field, an elderly widow, who told us that her hayer persuaded her to use this stuff on her field. She said she was told that this stuff would be beneficial to the environment...
''As days and weeks went by, we became sicker and sicker. Not just my family, but our whole neighborhood We all shared the same symptoms: first nausea and vomiting followed by severe stomach cramps and migraine headaches. Then fever and flulike symptoms, more respiratory. There was a continual battle of thick mucous, one that made it hard to swallow and discharge. At times it appeared as if our reflex system had slowed because you would gag on the mucous and sometimes choke to dispel it. Often it would wake you because your breathing passages were blocked by it.
"Upon discovering that my neighbors were experiencing the same problems, I contacted the Governor's office, which directed me to Health and Human services, Risk Assessment. The gentleman I spoke with said that our symptoms were symptoms of sludge exposure."
"Ed Roller had been a successful dairy farmer since 1979. In 1989, 1990 and 1991, Mr. Roller's neighbor spread sludge on an alfalfa field ...The runoff... carried onto Roller's land ...In the winter of 1991 his cows started dying. His Veterinarian could not find the cause. Ed sent cows for examination by the University of Missouri in Columbia. But they were unable to diagnose the problem.
"...Since Ed was about to lose yet another cow, he sent it to the University of Missouri who killed it and sent organ samples to Iowa State University. The tests at Iowa State revealed the presence of the same heavy metals in the cows" (sic) organs that were contained in the sewage sludge....
"Ed noted that his cows would get sore feet, to the extent they couldn't move around and eventually would just lay down and die. He said one of the cows he left in the field after it died was never eaten by coyotes or vultures. He figures they are smarter than humans...
''Ed Roller's personal health was adversely affected by immune system damage. Also, his father worked the farm with him and contaminants were found in his father's blood in 1991.
"Ed Roller has filed for bankruptcy--his health and his dairy farm destroyed by sewage sludge. Ed also told us about the case of a Missouri woman who let the City of Springfield spread sewage sludge on her farm--and all the vegetation died
"Ed says appeals to the US EPA, Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources, state health department and other state agencies were met with callous indifference. 'No one investigated and no-one seemed to care.' "
(COMMENT: The three citations refer to treated biosolids, recycled from sewage treatment plants to be spread as fertilizer. Perhaps a better use for it would be as fuel City Utilities could burn in lieu of coal to generate energy. WSP)
On May 6, 2002, a blackwater flood inundates the whole block at night, creeping silently like a stealthy vandal into crawl spaces, into garages, onto porches, while most people along South Avenue are asleep. My automatic sump pump cannot function underwater. The tarpaulin under the house, intent of which was to prevent groundwater from evaporating upward and eroding the saturated subflooring, fails because it now prevents floodwater from seeping into the ground. Thousands of dollars spent on remediation after the 2000 flood are wasted, as the buckling that leads to the ruination of my bathroom--and house as a salable edifice--intensifies.
June 30, 2002, another full-scale flood again sweeps north along South Avenue, turning yards into swirling shallow seas, but unlike predecessor floods, this one is in the afternoon and lends itself to being photographed, albeit in gray rain-sodden light. I kick off my shoes and wade calf-deep into the swill, camera in hand, and wind up with photos of Manhole 13 spewing its communal sludge through an ebbing eddy of circles of water, and a clear shot of the new stormwater water box at 1902 South Avenue under a foot of water. Complete records are on file with the City of Springfield's law department, but copies of a few photos are included in this Report for SASS's records. (See Photos on Pages 71, 74, 80, 81.)
Following heavy rainfall the first week of March, the manhole at Jefferson Avenue and Cherokee Street (which is at the foot of the block on which properties on the west side of Jefferson Avenue are on septic tanks about half a century old) spews and spews and spews sewage effluent into the intersection. The overflow continues 12 hours after the rainfall stopped. The contaminated water is spread by traffic, standing in yards and tracked into homes by those whose shoes come in contact with it. I use one of my photos of this manhole I dub "Old Faithful" as the cover of a flyer that is distributed throughout the neighborhood, inviting concerned residents to a meeting at my home. Sarah Overstreet, columnist with the Springfield News-Leader attends. The resurrection of old Neighborhood Watch No. 377 begins, and soon it is called Springfieldians Against Stormwater/Sewage, otherwise known as SASS. At this point, it appears some progress is being made between the residents of the neighborhood and the City of Springfield, as if tracks are coming closer together if not actually crossing, and for that reason the balance of this entry is divided into two sections:
My recurrent tumor is back. It is now higher in my head. The two former papilloma tumors were in the maxillary area (cheek) but this new mass is in the ethmoid cavity, at the root of the nose near my left eye. It is now about the size of a peanut in its shell and threatens to wrap around my left optic nerve, causing blindness, as well as penetrate the pituitary body area within the brain. If it gets into the brain, it will probably be inoperable. Dr. A. Daniel Pinheiro of St. John's Clinic, performs major surgery by removing more bone and tissue mass on July 14. Because of packing (left sinus cavity is stuffed with the equivalent of five feet of I-inch surgical gauze) and a drain to prevent tear duct from closing, I survive with intact intelligence, only a minor loss of brain fluid, a major loss of beauty, and medium loss of momentum. I am slow on schedule with 2004 Golden Words (American Senior Poet Laureates anthology) to be printed and in the hands of prepaid subscribers in time for the books to be given as Christmas gifts. (See Photo on Page 82.)
On October 26 my personal and professional life are, metaphorically, flushed down the toilet when copious overflow and cottage-cheese shaped chunks of sludge back up into my bathtub and overflow the toilets in the bathroom and utility room, leaving a moldy mess of such magnitude that Golden Words is not delivered until June 2005 and the floor is destroyed. I have faced loss of life, and now face losses of business and property. I am still inspired to keep going because I believe my role as homeowners' representative and flood-victim-who-spoke-up has made a difference.
COMMENT: Whether you think this was merely my personal pipedream might depend on how you interpret the data which follow.WSP)
January-February-March 2004:
Major news as the new year 2004 dawns in the City of Springfield is that Wonders of Wildlife Museum, John L. Morris's pipedream which opened with fanfare in November 2001, is verging on bankruptcy. Springfield News-Leader columnist Mike O'Brien publishes two columns that address the woes of WOW, second of which appears
Sunday, February 22. 2004. In this column, a few paragraphs mention me, my proximity to WOW, concern about
floods that kill crickets, and my rescue of a kitten (Ebony) whose littermates were swept to watery graves. This is the first bonafide coverage of our side of the Sunshine-Campbell story and the 150 words in their 5-1/4 inch space draw a stream of responses which I receive from throughout SW Missouri and Arkansas, mostly from fellow writers who have long known about my personal plight with flood-prone property in a city that does not seem to care. They seem to think--or hope--the publicity will force the city to do the right thing. (See Photos on Pages 85--87.)
April-May-June 2004:
On April 2, 2004, I stump the neighborhood like a politician handing out flyers, except the information given out is not political. It is an invitation to attend a meeting for the purpose of forming a Neighborhood Watch as a coalition of citizens concerned about the stormwater/sewage problems in our neighborhood. I distribute 150 flyers; about ten percent of those who receive them call me to express interest in the meeting. It is set for April 8, 2004. About half those who said they would come actually show up. Springfield News-Leader columnist Sarah Overstreet attends and the core group of the future SASS gives her a tour of the neighborhood. In the 1900 block
of South Robberson Avenue, she gets a close-up look at what concerns us: rank-smelling sewage sludge glistens eerily in light of dusk beneath the brightly lighted picture window of a two-story home.
In April, repairs are made to the line of pipe in the 1900 block of South Robberson Avenue and it appears a new lateral is installed in the yard where the sludge was seen, or the existent pipe is reconnected to a repaired portion of the sanitary sewer line in the street. Because I am out of state the latter part of April, I am unable to monitor the goings on, but a neighbor later tells me a pipe that came loose at the joint had moved out of position and was leaking sewage.
On Sunday, May 9, 2004, Sarah Overstreet's column appears under the headline: Neighbors tired of fighting losing battle with fetid flooding.
The next day, Monday, May 10, 2004, I spot a crew working on the manhole east of Manhole 13, so approach them at the Washita Street--South Robberson Avenue corner. They are with Insituform of Saint Louis. Naturally, I am under the impression that my persistence and Sarah's column have combined to get some action by and attention from the City of Springfield. I ask a crew member when his firm got the job order. He doesn't know. He says they are cleaning the line of sanitary sewer pipe that culminates in the next manhole near the south end of the street, which I later learn is Manhole 18. They flush the line with water. That same afternoon, Insituform inserts slipliner into the pipeline, threading it into the manhole at Washita Street and South Robberson Avenue and exiting at Manhole 18. I learn that after the flexible tubing is threaded through the pipeline, it is treated with water; this causes the material to adhere to the walls of the pipe, hardening as a sealant that cures cracks, breaks and loose joints.
It diminishes the diameter of the pipe by only about 1/4 inch all around and is less expensive than replacement of old pipes with new. It is also a time and labor saver. The whole sliplining operation is finished in between 2-3 hours. No muss. No fuss. No digging. (See Photos on Pages 83-84.)
If the neighbors and I think our influence has any effect on convincing the city to do something beneficial in our neighborhood, we have more reason to harbor such belief when a crew of workmen from Ace's Pipe Cleaning Service in Kansas City shows up a few weeks later. I discover them at Manhole 13, grab my camera, follow them around the neighborhood, and, speaking Spanish as "a reporter with a newsletter," learn they are cleaning the chamber walls of manholes in preparation for treatment that will ''keep leaking groundwater out and sewage in." I photograph the chamber wall of the manhole in the Sunshine Corners parking lot behind my neighbor's and my property. It is either old red brick, or cinderblock brick that has a brick-red hue, but in either case it is porous and has probably been leaking sewage into groundwater that ends up in our backyards. (See Photos on Pages 77-78.)
July-August-September 2004:
In July, when crews do the follow-up sealing of manhole walls, I am recovering from surgery and unable to do any evidence gathering.
(COMMENT: It matters little that I get no further evidence, since sewer rehab crews are not in the neighborhood because of any influence I or the others have had. Crews are in the SASS neighborhood in compliance with the Consent Decree dated May 31,1995, and the apparent crossing of the city's tracks and ours is probably solely coincidenal. It took ten years to get here. Since we didn't even know they were coming, what else should we have thought except that we had some influence. Perhaps we did, but the answer is most likely to lie in the provisions of the Consent Decree, comments about which follow. WSP)
(COMMENTS: In January 1995, during negotiations that led to the Consent Decree of May 31, 1995, the City of Springfield amended its Agreement with Wade & Associates, lnc. to implement its Pilot Study Area Survey recommendations. Thus, Wade was retained to conduct additional phases of the City's multi-year sanitary sewer renewal program on a citywide basis, incorporating all 15 watershed basins, with a completion date established of no later than July 1, 2008. The City of Springfield began to literally clean up its Intiltration/Inflow act by Wade's evaluation of all Basins, which evaluation was followed with a Rehabilitation Program for those Basins that most needed to be rehabilitated coming first. Our Fassnight Creek Basin was low on the list of priorities. Since information about Phases I, II and III were not received by Al Baker from the City of Springfield in order to incorporate highlights into this Report, the only material included herein is pertinent to our Fassnight Creek Basis, Phase IV. The following Phase IV excerpts are presented here because of their relationship to work in the SASS area from September through December 2004. WSP)
This Report contains recommendations for a multi-phase public-private rehabilitation and relief sewer program to be implemented within the Phase IV study area.
Every SASS member and/or his or her attorney, or an attorney for SASS as a class, should become well-acquainted with sub-sections FC10 and FC11, including the locations of landmark manholes (those with histories of I/I problems) as well as those which were selected for the test monitoring to be discussed next. Even more important, become familiar with the manhole that services your property because, in the event it disappears as happened in our SASS neighborhood in 2005, you might need to identify it if your matter goes to court. (See Photos on Pages 68-69.)
October-November-December 2004:
Flow monitoring is conducted by field crews as part of the City of Springfield's Fassnight Creek Drainage Basin rehabilitation program in compliance with the Consent Decree ofMay 31, 1995.
(COMMENT: My earlier statement about having the impression the City of Springfield was involved in a cover up, or was covering its own tracks, is corroborated by the findings expressed by the city and attested to by Wade in the official report excerpted on the next page. WSP)