Confronting Ecological Crisis in Appalachia and the South: University and Community Partnerships

3. Participatory Action Research

61 3 Participatory Action Research Combating the Poisoning of Dayhoit, Harlan County Roy Silver In February 1989 residents of the community of Dayhoit in Harlan County, Kentucky, received the following notice: “Due to organic chemicals found in the well water supply at the Holiday Mobile Home Park, the Division of Water has placed a ban on consuming water from this supply. Residents of the Holiday Mobile Home Park must immediately stop using this water for drinking and cooking. The division recommends residents not use the water for bathing or showering.”1 The Kentucky Division of Water informed residents of the mobile home park that owners of the facility would furnish water for drinking and cooking until they established a permanent alternative. Initially, households were given two gallons of bottled water per day, as if this would satisfy their daily cooking, bathing, drinking, and cleaning needs. The Division of Water also instructed domestic well users who resided near the mobile home park to contact the division so they could find out if their wells required testing. Within two weeks of the initial notification “ten additional wells within a one-mile radius of the trailer park” were found to have levels of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen, well above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) maximum contaminant levels (MCLs). On March 9, 1989, more than two hundred residents of Dayhoit attended a meeting where state officials advised them once again “to discontinue use of the water. They were further advised boiling the water does not alleviate the problem but in fact worsens the situation.” Some residents were concerned about possible damage to water lines. They were told 62 Silver “vinyl chloride does permeate through plastic piping, but not copper or lead. They were told their private wells could not be flushed free of the contaminant.”2 The primary concern of most of the residents of Dayhoit, expressed at the March meeting, was the health of their children and family. What the state officials told them did not alleviate their fears. While they were told that they should not drink, cook, or bathe with the contaminated water, they were also informed that their health was not likely to be adversely affected. This did not make much sense to many in attendance. The state had not identified the source of pollution. They told the people “there was no way to arrive at a definite answer” about how long they had been using contaminated water.3 Unearthing Seeds of Fire After their initial encounters with state and local officials, citizens of Dayhoit began to understand that the answers to their most compelling questions would not be forthcoming. They discovered that they needed to form a group that would represent their interests. They incorporated under the name Concerned Citizens Against Toxic Waste (CCATW). Joan Robinett, chairperson of CCATW, outlined the purpose of the organization to a reporter for the Harlan Daily Enterprise: “All we want is to see that this situation is rectified. Everyone deserves clean water, healthy air to breathe and safe soil to live on. . . . The people of Dayhoit are no exceptions.” Reflecting frustration with elected officials, Robinett told the Lexington Herald-Leader, “We’d vote for a person and thought he would take care of our needs. And that’s wrong.”4 CCATW began to prod county, state, and federal officials. They educatedthemselvesaboutthenatureofthetoxicsoupofchemicalstheywere exposed to and their harmful effects. As more test results became public, CCATW discovered that the extent of the poisoning was more dangerous than they had envisioned. Water and soil samples taken in Dayhoit established that arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium, silver, cis-1,2-dichlorethene, 1,2-dichlorethane, naphthalene, PCBs, trichloroethylene (TCE), and vinyl chloride were above MCLs. Residents also discovered that they had some common health problems. Typically, they complained that their hands and feet would peel and blister . Former workers at the National Electric Coil (NEC) plant, next to the Holiday Mobile Home Park, exhibited the most severe symptoms. Participatory Action Research 63 CCATW was formed because county, state, and federal governments and Cooper Industries, owner of the NEC plant, would not answer basic questions. What was the effect of this poisoning on the health of their children? What chemical poisons had they been exposed to? For how long? What was the extent of the poisoning? What could the combination of these chemicals do to them? What agency would help? Their minimum...