Hydrogen sulfide, Sniffing Out Problem in South Sioux City
BY PAUL HAMMEL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

 http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_div=3D3&u_hdg=3D0&u_sid=3D99229

South Sioux City, Neb. - People in this town are getting sick of the frequent, rotten-egg smell in the air. That much is clear.

What is not clear is what will be prompted by a first-of-its-kind scientific study that found an association between high levels of toxic hydrogen sulfide gases in the air and increased emergency room visits for respiratory diseases and asthma.

Opinions differed broadly at the first public discussion of the study at a meeting here Thursday night. About 90 people attended.

Local residents said the study validated their health concerns. They called for tougher enforcement and tougher standards on meatpacking plants and others that release the rotten-egg-smelling gas into the air.

State officials called for more studies, saying one "exploratory" research project is not enough.

And officials of meatpacker IBP Inc. called for consideration of the company's soon-to-be completed, $13 million covered waste-treatment lagoons, saying the lagoons would virtually eliminate releases from IBP's tannery and meat-packing plant in nearby Dakota City.

"That's the bigger story," said Gene Leman, chief executive officer of IBP's fresh meats division, of the completion of the treatment facility, which is expected to be finished in 90 days with the decommissioning of seven uncovered lagoons. "It's a great system."

But only a few feet away, area residents - including some who have battled the odor issue for the past decade - said the study confirmed their claims that the gas causes headaches and nausea and exacerbates asthma and other breathing maladies for people living nearby.

"You have told us, yes, there is a corporate polluter in the area, and we need to do something about it," said Robert Black of Homer, Neb.

David Krogh, a Dakota City resident and activist with a local citizens group, said the study should inspire the State of Nebraska to toughen its enforcement and lower its standard for hydrogen sulfide from the current 100 parts per billion in the air to 30 ppb, the standard used in the study to indicate a high level of the gas.

However, Dr. Adi Pour, the Nebraska state toxicologist, said the single exploratory study probably was not enough to prompt a tougher standard.

The research, conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a wing of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, covered Dakota City and South Sioux City. Using 19 monitoring stations, the agency tracked emergency-room visits for days after high levels of hydrogen sulfide in the air.

It found that visits for respiratory diseases by children increased 20 percent to 40 percent. Visits for asthma for both children and adults increased, but researchers said the numbers involved in the study were too small to draw a more solid conclusion than to "suggest" a cause and effect.

The lead investigator in the study, Dr. Dave Campagna, said the study already had drawn national interest, but he emphasized that it was exploratory because there were no previous studies to compare with.

"This is the first step," he said. While it is "good science," studies in other locations will be needed to confirm it, Campagna said.

IBP officials seized on that, insisting that the study was inconclusive in nature.

"I feel sorry for people with asthma," Leman said. "But I don't think the link here is strong enough."

The study did not identify the source of the hydrogen sulfide releases. At least 13 sources have been identified in the area, though local residents point to IBP as the major contributor. A 1999 report by the company indicated that it released more than 1,900 pounds a day of the substance. Releases have been cut significantly, state officials said, due to the new treatment system. Exact figures were not available.

Shelley Kaderly, an air-quality administrator with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, said IBP is "a significant source" of the hydrogen sulfide emissions. "We haven't identified other significant sources," Kaderly said.

She said that the state does not have enough monitors to pinpoint a single source, but that she would look at the new study's results. She added that IBP's new covered lagoons and sulfide stripping and burning system had significantly reduced its emissions.

Leman said the study indicated that a couple of the monitoring sites that found high levels of hydrogen sulfide were near other potential sources, including an open lagoon at a trailer park. IBP, he said, was the only source that has taken steps to reduce its emissions.

That brought little solace to some local residents, who said they've fought the problem for years with action coming only recently, after the U.S. Department of Justice sued IBP.

Merrill Hale, a City Council member in South Sioux City, said the city has been frustrated in its efforts to solve the odor problem. The study, he said, should provide ammunition to solve the problem.

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