Toxic Town: IBM, Pollution, and Industrial Risks

7. Citizens, Experts, and Emerging Vapor Intrusion Science and Policy

166 > 167 community stakeholders engaged in VI struggles. In this way, my interest in doing engaged anthropology, in experimenting with “engaged political ecology” (Batterbury and Horowitz, forthcoming), in showcasing “scholarship with commitment” (Bourdieu 2003:24; emphasis his), is born from my eagerness to both learn about something complex like VI science and policy, and empathize with residents who are often genuinely confused (like me) about the scientific knowledge and risk calculations shaping VI decision-making. I use this chapter to open up VI debates to the sensibilities of transdisciplinarity, of anthropology and political ecology, and to new interventions and possibilities for emerging VI policy. Accounting for the Complexities of Vapor Intrusion Science Intrusion rings with the tone of contention, conflict, aberration. Vapor intrusion or toxic VOC intrusion intensifies the semantic weight by an order of magnitude. In other words, if intrusion emits something negative , “toxic” VI is synonymous with something really bad, really volatile . In fact, when I first heard that VI was the focus of concern at the IBM-Endicott site, I remember thinking that the term intrusion seemed synonymous with invasion, a word with a corporate colonial bloodline . It continues to symbolize for me how VI is yet another form of toxic appropriation (Serres 2011), a process of toxics exposure that has remained after IBM deindustrialization. Like mitigation systems marking the Endicott landscape, the “risk” of VI is front-and-center, as are the always swarming politics of risk. With the help of techno-science and the state, VI risk was made public and it was and remains an elusive public health threat. It is an “exposure pathway,” as VI experts explain, that is difficult for both citizens and scientists to fully understand, even with sophisticated sampling techniques and modeling tools. In one interview with a vapor intrusion expert, it was brought to my attention that many challenges come with studying the VI pathway, challenges that can be “rewarding” and exciting from a scientific practice perspective: From the technical perspective VI is a very challenging path to understand . The groundwater path has its challenges, but it is relatively simple 168 > 169 the indoor air concentration relative to a source concentration. Factors [can] . . . include vapor source characteristics (e.g., concentration, size, location, depth), subsurface conditions (e.g., soil layers, moisture conditions , oxygen levels for biodegradation), and building characteristics (e.g., foundation type and condition, pressurization, air exchange rates), as well as general site conditions (e.g., wind, ground cover)” (2012:1). More accurate and reliable sampling technologies for VI are also emerging. Siegel has recently pointed out that “sampling technologies, using sensors that can be pointed at potential pathways and sources, are a superior way of resolving where VOCs are coming from. To some degree those technologies exist now, but the entire field of vapor intrusion investigation will be greatly enhanced when chip-based sensors become available in the not-too-distant future” (Siegel 2010). Even if these high-tech VI sampling technologies become available at every VI site, exactly how these technologies will benefit affected residents coping with health concerns and property devaluation is unknown. The complexity of vapor intrusion science is, of course, not just complex because of the muddled nature of volatile organic compounds, which is largely attributed to the difficulty of accurately tracking and modeling the migration patterns and tendencies of these chemicals. The study of VI is also complex because scientists themselves are complex and challenged with navigating concrete worldly complexity: “It is better to think about the sciences as muddled rather than pure; to imagine the borders between the sciences and the worlds of language, culture, and politics as muddied rather than clear and distinct; to know scientists as complex hybrid figures ratherthanrarefiedheroes;toseetheworkofthesciencesasacomplicated interactionwithamessyworld,anexchangeinvolvingtools,words,things, and even more nebulous entities, rather than a methodological, pristine encounter between mind and nature” (Fortun and Bernstein 1998:xiii). Vaporintrusionscientists,muchlikeEndicott’splumeresidents,arecaught upinreal-worldcomplexityandcollectivelystrugglingtounderstand. The Regulatory Crux and a Plea for Vapor Intrusion Ethnography The scientific complexity just discussed has of course complicated and augmented the challenge of developing national vapor intrusion policy. 170 > 171 fertile territory for ethnography exploring questions including, but not limited to: how is transdisciplinarity practiced among vapor intrusion scientists; what is the array of scientific methods and imaginaries that come together in the work of vapor intrusion science; how are study designs for vapor...