EPA investigating company that did testing at SFAAP

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Jim Oyler

The Star

EPA investigating company that did testing at Sunflower plant

By GRACE HOBSON - The Kansas City Star (March 31, 1999)

Federal authorities are investigating a Texas-based company for providing
faulty data about contamination at the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant
near De Soto, the company's lawyer confirmed.

The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating the company for
possible fraud because employees cut corners in analyzing samples,
including those at Sunflower, said Thomas Kelly. He is the Washington
lawyer for Intertek Testing Services Environmental Laboratories Inc.,
which was hired by federal officials to investigate contamination at the
site.

The EPA's criminal investigations division confirmed the probe.

The federal government used the data in two key reports that are required
to transfer the plant to private ownership, most likely for a Wonderful
World of Oz resort complex and theme park.

One report was a baseline study outlining the contamination. The other
was an environmental assessment that concluded the land transfer would
have no significant impact on the environment.

Because the data are "compromised and unreliable," that conclusion is
premature, according to the EPA's official response to the assessment.

"The data doesn't cut the mustard," said Joe Cothern, the EPA official
coordinating the environmental review at Sunflower.

But the EPA has decided that the data don't have to be thrown out. The
Army Corps of Engineers is working to corroborate them.

The Oz company said the issue was a matter for the government. The
company is conducting its own environmental inventory at the plant to
learn about the contamination, an official said.

Environmentalists and some politicians said the revelation raises
concerns about the integrity of the government's process of transferring
the land. And, they said, it confirms what they've been saying: Not
enough is known about the contamination to transfer the land and trust
the developer to clean it up.

"It reinforces my concerns that I had all along," said Johnson County
Commissioner Johnna Lingle, adding that she questioned whether the Oz
company could clean up the land in 15 years, as it proposes.

"I didn't have any actual basis for it before," she said.

Kansas Sierra Club activists agreed.

"If the environmental assessment was not handled correctly, this transfer
has no business taking place," said Marc Mason, who is on the executive
committee of the Kansas chapter of the Sierra Club.

"It's just an additional degree of uncertainty surrounding this whole
project," said Craig Volland, a technical adviser to the Kansas chapter
of the Sierra Club.

The federal government is negotiating to sell the 9,065-acre plant to the
state of Kansas. The potential owner is Oz Entertainment Co., which would
get the plant in exchange for cleaning up the contamination.

The impact of the questionable data on the transfer was unclear.

Blaine Hastings, the General Services Administration manager handling the
transfer, said he did not think the problem would delay the land sale,
which could come in the next few months.

News about the investigation and potentially corrupt data didn't reach
state and federal officials handling the transfer until two to three
weeks ago, they said.

But the company disclosed publicly its problems with data in January
1998.

A contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hired the company to
analyze soil samples at Sunflower, said Dennis Karns, the corps' project
manager for Sunflower.

The corps learned of the problem soon after the company disclosed its
problems and stopped using it, Karns said.

The corps supplied the data to the Army for its baseline study. The
General Services Administration then used that information for its
environmental assessment.

But it did not officially notify the agencies conducting the studies
about the data problem, Karns said.

"There was no effort to withhold anything," he said. "I don't think it
was a show-stopper."

Corps' officials worked with the EPA, Karns said, to figure out what to
do about the data. In March, the EPA ruled that the data did not have to
be thrown out but needed to be corroborated.

It wasn't until then that state and federal officials working on the
Sunflower project said they learned of the problem.

Karns said everyone should have known before then.

"I would have expected anyone involved in the installation to be aware of
that," Karns said. "It may be a convenient excuse. My guess is the
organizations knew."

Cothern, the Sunflower EPA project manager, said he found out about the
investigation when researching his response to the government's
environmental assessment report that concluded the transfer would have no
significant impact.

"It led to the conclusion the data is suspect," Cothern said.

Rebecca Floyd, who is handling the transfer negotiations for the state of
Kansas, said she learned of the matter at a meeting March 17.

"Jaws dropped all through the room," Floyd said. "There were rolled eyes,
groans....It's just so irritating."

Kelly, the lawyer for the company, said Intertek discovered in December
1997 that analysts had been taking shortcuts in the protocol required to
evaluate soil and water samples.

Analysts -- "there were plenty," Kelly said -- failed to calibrate the
equipment before each test. Without that step, the data cannot be
certified as accurate, Kelly said.

The company has about 900 clients, Kelly said, and its Texas operation is
now closed except to re-examine the faulty data.

"But we're finding that the data is still usable to a degree because
we're able to show that even though they played with the calibration,
they didn't do anything to the actual analytical result," he said. "When
the machine measures for a presence of benzene, it will show a presence
but it may be off a slight amount."

It is highly unlikely that public health would be at risk because of the
company's improper techniques, Kelly said.

The company is using Sunflower as a model for a process to screen the bad
data, Kelly said.

That data were used in the company's evaluation of 27 of the plant's 53
sites the Army has identified as possibly contaminated, Kelly said.

The corps plans to give priority to reviewing samples at the four sites
that were deemed clean, Karns said. Officials will review all available
data on those sites, he said.

Most of the sites, however, already have been declared in need of more
investigation. During the continued evaluation, the data will be
corroborated and verified, Karns said.

At nine of the sites, the Army knows there is contamination. The data
problem could mean there is more cleanup than expected, but it could also
be less, Karns said.

"We're not as concerned about the ones we know we have to clean up,"
Karns said.

To reach Grace Hobson, Johnson County government reporter, call 234-7744
or send e-mail to ghobson@kcstar.com

All content copyright 1999 The Kansas City Star