Mayoral candidates call for better communication, free cancer screenings at polluted site

Wichita mayoral candidates proposed a range of ideas in response to the first health study of the 29th and Grove chemical spill site since its discovery in 1994, from changing state law and requiring Union Pacific to pay for cancer screenings to helping residents test their own air levels.

The report, issued Friday by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, found that residents who live above the 2.9-mile plume of groundwater contaminated with trichloroethene (TCE) in northeast Wichita were significantly more likely than other people in Sedgwick County and Kansas to be diagnosed with liver cancer.

State doctors cautioned that there’s no way to know definitively if TCE is responsible for the outsized number of liver cancer diagnoses, but current and former residents of the area, which includes a number of the city’s historically Black neighborhoods, are being asked to complete a community health assessment.

Candidates had various thoughts about who should pay for current and former residents’ cancer screenings, including KDHE, Sedgwick County and Union Pacific, whose rail yard was the site of the spill.

“Our focus on health and safety has guided our efforts as we have worked to clean up soil and groundwater near our rail yard in northeast Wichita,” Union Pacific said in a statement. “With a final cleanup plan approved by KDHE in February, Union Pacific is ready to finish the job.”

Mayor Brandon Whipple, who is running for re-election, characterized the state agency’s rollout of the health study and approach to communicating with residents as “disgraceful.”

“The entirety of this situation is just incredibly unacceptable when it comes to the actions of the state and KDHE,” Whipple said. “They are the ones who are supposed to be on top of this when it comes to getting out information to residents, and we have been working tirelessly to encourage them to do that.”

“Are there other incidents throughout Kansas where there’s pollution that could negatively impact the health of folks living there without those people actually knowing it? We need to be updating and making sure that we’re modernizing our state statutes when it comes to proper communication.”

State Epidemiologist and Environmental Health Officer Dr. Farah Ahmed told reporters Friday that there are “hundreds of sites” across Kansas and that the state prioritizes its health response based on “what is the potential for humans to be exposed to whatever the contaminant of interest is.”

TCE, a common solvent used to clean off paint and remove grease, can cause cancer in humans — “especially kidney cancer and possibly liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“For us to go nearly 20 years with no response, no communication, and no help at all levels of government is unacceptable,” said former television reporter Lily Wu, who has secured a number of high-profile endorsements, including from Sedgwick County Commission Chair Pete Meitzner. “No wonder why so many have lost faith in government. They weren’t there when people needed them the most.

“KDHE should inform the affected community, provide resources for cancer screenings, and ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.”

All but one of the nearly 2,800 properties in the 29th and Grove contamination site were connected to city water before the chemical spill is believed to have taken place in the 1970s or ‘80s, the health study said. TCE exposure occurs when a person breathes, ingests or touches the chemical.

“A timeline, I think, is what is important,” Save Century II founder Celeste Racette told The Eagle. “Regular meetings so that neighborhood residents and past residents know where we’re going and what Union Pacific is doing to clean up the site.”

The railroad is expected to hold a community forum in the next 60 to 90 days.

Freelance journalist Jared Cerullo, who plans to get his name on the ballot by collecting 100 signatures rather than paying filing fees, offered a particularly scathing assessment of the state’s response to the chemical spill.

“The fact that KDHE hid the details of this massive environmental disaster is appalling,” Cerullo said in an email statement.

“People should lose their jobs over the unacceptable handling of this matter.”

District 5 City Council member Bryan Frye, who has been endorsed by former Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell, said the city needs to own its own role in keeping citizens informed.

“It’s important the city follow KDHE’s lead and share information to neighbors as it becomes available,” Frye said in a text.

Julie Rose Stroud, an environmental health manager at the Evonik chemical plant in Haysville, previously worked as a lab technician testing Wichita’s drinking water and as an environmental compliance regulatory specialist for KDHE.

“I am confident that the state of Kansas is doing their best with the resources they have to ensure the proper steps are taken in regards to the 29th and Grove contamination in terms of environmental remediation,” Stroud said.

The state released its final corrective action for the 29th and Grove site in February, which requires Union Pacific to pay $13.9 million for the remaining cleanup.

“My greatest concern in regards to this issue is the health and safety of those directly exposed to TCE,” Stroud said.

She called on KDHE to conduct more extensive air vapor contamination testing, which the agency has indicated it plans to do, and encouraged residents living on top of the contamination site who want to test their own air levels to contact her.

“These individuals should be educated and protected to ensure justice,” Stroud said.

Assigning responsibility

Cerullo called on the railroad to fund annual cancer screenings for residents of the affected area.

“The company should be required to create a fund that will pay for screenings for anyone living in the boundaries of the spill for at least the next decade, if not more,” Cerullo said.

Union Pacific’s statement did not respond directly to a question about its willingness to support such a fund on top of the state-sanctioned remediation efforts.

“We are committed to reviewing this study and will continue to engage with KDHE, the community, elected officials, and other stakeholders as we proceed to implement the state-approved cleanup plan,” a railroad spokesperson said.

Whipple suggested the Sedgwick County Commission may take the lead on a cancer screening fund.

“The County Commission serves as the board of health and would have the resources for something like that,” Whipple said. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder to them as far as execution of any plan that would be directed towards citizens in that area who might not only have concerns but be affected by this site.”

Racette, who has addressed the City Council about issues related to groundwater contamination several times since 2019, noted that only the Gilbert and Mosley Project and the North Industrial Corridor Project appear in the city’s financial records as contamination sites.

“This site has never been on our books, never been on the financial statements and identified as being groundwater contamination,” Racette said.

“Not once in these maps that were in our financial statements would a citizen know this has been identified as a contaminated site.”

She said not having these records amounts to a lack of transparency on the part of the city

Whipple said citizens need to understand that the city’s role in the ongoing response to the 29th and Grove contamination is a supporting one.

“I don’t want folks who are running for mayor who don’t know what we do out there saying basically we have to clean it, this is all on the city,” Whipple said.

“When it comes to public health, that’s the county. When it comes to where the responsibility of this cleanup, that’s KDHE. We’re happy to play a role of course because we have a vested interest to ensure that residents know what threats are out there.”

Mayoral candidates Thomas Kane and Shelia Davis did not respond to The Eagle’s inquiry.