The following is an e-mail sent by DHEC Commissioner Earl Hunter to the agency staff in November 2005 following The State’s series on Franklin Park subdivision.
Dear Staff,
In the last 12 days, many -- if not most -- of you have no doubt seen, read or heard about The State newspaper series of articles and op/ed columns concerning the water quality of the Franklin Park subdivision in Richland County and the allegations that these residents have been “poisoned” for the last 20 years. Throughout this situation, we have tried to do what my grandmother always recommended in situations such as this. We've tried to take the high road. She always said it was less crowded up there.
I can no longer sit by and watch the unfounded accusations against this agency and staff continue without responding. In responding, there are two primary audiences I am most concerned about getting the facts to on this situation. The first of these is the group of residents who live in the 51 homes of Franklin Park. They have been led to believe that this agency doesn't care about their health and well-being and that they are in imminent harm and are being poisoned. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have already made contact with members of this community and will be working with them in the coming days and weeks to clarify the truth of the situation and, hopefully, ease some of the fears they have. In fact, we will be meeting with them Monday night.
The second audience is you — our staff — regardless of what specific program you may serve.
It is my great hope that each of you believes in this agency and your fellow staff across the state enough to know that the allegations made by The State newspaper cannot be true as presented. In the event that you may not work directly in a program that deals with lead poisoning screening and prevention, this may be a good opportunity to explain the side of the story that The State hasn't bothered to print or share with the residents of Franklin Park.
Those of you who work with regulations know that our goal is to work with the regulated community to make sure facilities stay in compliance to protect the public’s health. This can take months or years to accomplish through the administrative and legal processes we must adhere to. We take a more forceful approach and demand and enforce immediate corrective action when the public’s health is at imminent risk.
According to the federal Lead and Copper Rule, which went into effect in South Carolina in 1994, a water system has to exceed a level of 15 parts per billion (ppb) for two consecutive six-month periods to be considered in violation. Piney Grove Utilities, which operated the water system in Franklin Park until very recently, exceeded this protocol twice since 1997 and was ordered to begin corrosion control treatment. DHEC has analyzed 147 water samples collected from Franklin Park since 1994, and only 21 have exceeded the action level of 15 ppb. In fact, the average of all samples collected in Franklin Park is 8.5 ppb. This is hardly a level that would constitute a public health emergency.
The federally mandated drinking water action level is not in and of itself a health-based standard; rather, it is an action level to require corrosion control treatment to help reduce the amount of lead leaching into the water from lead pipes and fittings. There is no lead in the well water serving the residents of Franklin Park. The lead appearing in samples collected from Franklin Park is coming from the houses in Franklin Park.
As for the blood-lead levels The State has reported, the action levels we follow are health-based. The first level of concern is 10 micrograms per deciliter in children and 25 for adults. None of the residents the newspaper had tested in August met or exceeded these levels. The highest adult level was 10, and the highest child’s level was 7. This same child had a level of 10 back in 2003. The State reported that the child had a 15. However, that one test was a finger-stick screening sample, which is inaccurate and must be verified by a sample from the arm (vein). The follow-up sample taken from the child’s vein was 10 at that time, and has dropped further since then.
I also think it is important to let you know that all of this information was available to The State through both a written statement from the department and the files from Franklin Park, which were reviewed through South Carolina’s FOI provisions by The State. None of it has appeared in print. We also submitted a letter to the editor on this subject to The State in late July of this year. That letter was never printed either. In fact, what few verbal statements any of our staff and others have given have been twisted, turned around and used out of context. We have no reason to believe that will change any time soon.
As a result, I have declined their request for an interview. Their response to my decision has been to use their Opinion page to call us "defensive" and to suggest that this is why the agency should be a part of the cabinet — so that the director could be held accountable and fired for what has actually been a misrepresentation of the facts and a week's worth of innuendos and inaccurate conclusions by one news outlet. I understand and appreciate that the press consider themselves, and are meant to be, the "watchdog" of government. But when the press starts to make the news rather than simply report the facts in a fair and balanced way, then things have gotten out of balance.
Additional information on our "side" of the story can be found on our Web site at www.scdhec.gov. I would suggest that you take just a few moments to read the facts. In doing so, I hope each of you who may have questioned or wondered whether The State's allegations were true will once again feel good about being a part of this outstanding agency. I continue to be proud of each of you and the job you do every day for the people of South Carolina. You make this agency great. And I take personally any criticism of the job you do under what can only be described as "less than perfect" conditions.
During this challenge I ask that you hold your head high knowing that the ultimate concern of this agency has always been, and continues to be, the health of the public we serve and the environment in which we live.
Thank you for all you do.
For additional information, contact: (803) 898-3432