You can eat the squirrels, EPA says
1:00 AM
Posted: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Tests that found lead contamination in a dead squirrel, prompting the state to issue an advisory to northern New Jersey hunters, turned out to be inaccurate, federal environmental officials said Monday.
The lead officials had detected came not from the animal, but from a defective blender that had been used to process the squirrel's tissue samples, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
"Resampling indicated significantly lower lead levels in the squirrel tissue," the agency said in a statement.
The squirrel had been sent to the EPA lab as part of tests the agency was conducting on plants and animals near a Ringwood Superfund site where Ford Motor Co. used to dump toxic waste.
The tests led state officials in January to warn hunters and residents near the dump to limit their consumption of squirrel. Many in the area are members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe and have been hunting and growing food there for decades.
State officials will decide what action they need to take regarding the squirrel advisory based on the EPA's new findings, said Tom Slater, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Senior Services.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Ford dumped paint sludge and other toxic waste in the area from its now-closed car manufacturing plant in Mahwah, near the New York border.
Eventually the Ringwood site was put on the Superfund list -- a ranking of the country's worst dump sites. Following an EPA-supervised cleanup, the site was removed from the Superfund list.
Then residents complained of large sections of paint sludge still left in the area, so Ford returned for more cleanup work. Last year, the Ringwood site was put back on the Superfund list, the first time in Superfund's history that a site has been relisted.
A group of Ringwood residents is suing Ford over the dump, saying it was responsible for a host of health problems such as certain cancers and skin diseases.
Ford spokesman Jon Holt said the automaker was pleased that the issue over the squirrel advisory had been clarified.
"Our position has been that the paint sludge has been isolated, and that it doesn't really leach into the soil or the water, so it hasn't been any real threat to the environment or animals in the area," Holt said.
But the executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association, Robert Spiegel, said residents are still at risk.
"Even if you do believe that they had some sort of blender malfunction, it's still not good news," Spiegel said. "It actually raises a lot of red flags about all the other work that the EPA has done up there ... How do we trust the rest of what the EPA is telling us?"
The lead officials had detected came not from the animal, but from a defective blender that had been used to process the squirrel's tissue samples, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.
"Resampling indicated significantly lower lead levels in the squirrel tissue," the agency said in a statement.
The squirrel had been sent to the EPA lab as part of tests the agency was conducting on plants and animals near a Ringwood Superfund site where Ford Motor Co. used to dump toxic waste.
The tests led state officials in January to warn hunters and residents near the dump to limit their consumption of squirrel. Many in the area are members of the Ramapough Mountain Indian Tribe and have been hunting and growing food there for decades.
State officials will decide what action they need to take regarding the squirrel advisory based on the EPA's new findings, said Tom Slater, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Senior Services.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, Ford dumped paint sludge and other toxic waste in the area from its now-closed car manufacturing plant in Mahwah, near the New York border.
Eventually the Ringwood site was put on the Superfund list -- a ranking of the country's worst dump sites. Following an EPA-supervised cleanup, the site was removed from the Superfund list.
Then residents complained of large sections of paint sludge still left in the area, so Ford returned for more cleanup work. Last year, the Ringwood site was put back on the Superfund list, the first time in Superfund's history that a site has been relisted.
A group of Ringwood residents is suing Ford over the dump, saying it was responsible for a host of health problems such as certain cancers and skin diseases.
Ford spokesman Jon Holt said the automaker was pleased that the issue over the squirrel advisory had been clarified.
"Our position has been that the paint sludge has been isolated, and that it doesn't really leach into the soil or the water, so it hasn't been any real threat to the environment or animals in the area," Holt said.
But the executive director of the Edison Wetlands Association, Robert Spiegel, said residents are still at risk.
"Even if you do believe that they had some sort of blender malfunction, it's still not good news," Spiegel said. "It actually raises a lot of red flags about all the other work that the EPA has done up there ... How do we trust the rest of what the EPA is telling us?"
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