Toxic HYDRAZINE over East Cerritos: SFS company Heraeus denies it is cause of possible cancer risks, Press Telegram Reports

Randy Economy EXCLUSIVE PHOTO

I wanted to pass this BREAKING NEWS from the Long Beach Press Telegram, regarding Cerritos, California's recent ranking as "America's Most Toxic City" by the EPA (see below).

Also....on Monday night, July 7, 2009 at 9:40 p.m., I witnessed 6 smoke stacks from the Heraeus Plant spewing thick white smoke into the air that smelled of rotten eggs.

The smoke, and odor is now a nightly ritual here on the Eastside of Cerritos. Where is the EPA during these night hours when the Heraeus smoke stacks are raging into our bedroom community? Is the South Coast AQMD sending investigators into the Heraeus plant in the middle of the night? When will Cerritos residents be mailed information to tell us about this situation? Why hasn't the City of Santa Fe Springs issued any comments about these toxic polluters that are located in their city limits?Here is tonight's photo of the thick smoke that blows directly into the Eastside of Cerritos. If you have pictures from inside the Heraeus Plant, send me a copy of the photos to my email at RREconomy@aol.com BTW....Kelly Puente from the LB Press Telegram wrote this below article, that appears in Wednesday's edition of the PT.
RrE

Plant denies being source of Cerritos cancer risk
By Kelly Puente, LB Press Telegram
Tuesday, July 8, 2009
SANTA FE SPRINGS - A Santa Fe Springs metal processing plant under investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency denies being the source of a possible cancer risk in a Cerritos neighborhood back in 2002.

Heraeus Metal Processing Inc., 13429 Alondra Blvd., is under investigation after figures in an EPA report released June 24 showed a small Cerritos neighborhood as having the highest cancer risk in the nation.

EPA officials, however, have since said that data from the report was prematurely leaked to the media and the information was old - possibly dating back to the early 1990s. Moreover, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has said they have not found any indication of higher cancer risks in Cerritos.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the EPA and the AQMD were still investigating the plant at the Santa Fe Springs/Cerritos border, said AQMD spokesman Sam Atwood.

Curtis Mello, vice president of compliance for Heraeus, said the company is cooperating fully with the investigation. "The EPA's data related to our site is completely erroneous," Mello said on Tuesday. "We fully expect that to come out in the next week or so."

The report said that more than 95 percent of the toxins in the area came from the chemical hydrazine, a liquid used in rocket fuel and chemical manufacturing.

In a statement, Heraeus said the company utilizes hydrazine in its industrial process, but the chemical is used in a "closed system," and the by-products go through equipment that controls the release of toxins into the atmosphere.

"(Heraeus) operates a state-of-the-art facility that complies with all permitting requirements of EPA and the South Coast Air Quality Management District," the statement said.

The City of Cerritos is expected to hold a town hall meeting on the issue some time at the end of the month.

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