EPA Will Test For Hexavalent Chromium In Four NW Missouri Counties

[hatrack]

KANSAS CITY, MO. - The Environmental Protection Agency will sample soil and water in a four-county area of northwest Missouri where sludge from a leather tanning plant was distributed for use as fertilizer.

A lawsuit filed this week claims Prime Tanning Corp. gave farmers the sludge from its St. Joseph plant to use as fertilizer and failed to tell the state that the sludge contained hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical also known as chromium 6.

Prime Tanning Corp., based in Hartland, Maine, has disputed the claims about the sludge, which was given to farmers in Andrew, Buchanan, Clinton and DeKalb counties.

State and federal agencies have tested several areas in and around the Clinton county town of Cameron in the last year in response to what some residents consider a high incidence of brain tumors.

EDIT

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/wdaf-story-cameron-sludge-epa-042409,0,1743125.story

[XemaSab]

1. Best line ever overheard at work:

"You didn't test for hex chromium?!?!?"

There were bad things about sitting in a cube next to the world's dippiest geologist, and there were great things about it. :D