The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has completed an investigation into whether air pollution in Sauget is harming people, with a particular focus on the emissions from a hazardous waste incinerator there.
An estimated 878 people live within a 1-mile radius of the 35-acre Veolia North America-Trade Waste Incineration facility. The closest residential areas are about half a mile southeast of the facility in Cahokia Heights.
The national public health agency was able to provide them some answers about community health effects, including a possible increased risk of cancer in their lifetime from long-term exposure to certain pollutants.
But it said it had inadequate data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reach other conclusions about the risks Metro East residents face today and suggested that the EPA consider returning to Sauget to do more research.
The EPA appeared to dismiss the possibility of additional action in an emailed response to the Belleville News-Democrat’s questions about the Sauget investigation, saying its data didn’t show levels of emissions that would harm people’s health.
United Congregations of Metro-East, a grassroots organization that has repeatedly protested air pollution in Sauget and the greater region, supports the CDC’s recommendation for additional air monitoring. It is also pushing for a new state law that would lower emissions in communities with heavy industrial development like Sauget, according to Darnell Tingle, the executive director of the group.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois, who requested the CDC investigation for Sauget because of community health concerns, said she planned to follow up with the EPA in a statement provided to the BND.
“It’s clear we need much more consistent data, health screening and abatement measures to truly protect our communities from any harm,” Duckworth wrote in the statement. “… I’m going to keep pushing EPA for more monitoring and to ensure it holds Veolia accountable if it fails to operate within its permit or puts the health of Illinoisans at risk.”
The CDC acknowledged that there are several industrial facilities in Sauget, as well as grain silos and a major rail transportation hub and diesel truck traffic, which could also contribute to air pollution there.
In a statement, Veolia’s Sauget site manager Lucas King said the facility’s operations are among the most highly regulated by the EPA and noted that the company cooperated throughout the CDC’s investigation.
“Veolia North America is committed to safe operations, ensuring our processes are in compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements, and protecting the health of the communities where we operate,” King wrote. “… Most of the 165 employees who work at the facility live and raise families in the local community, which is one reason why we hold ourselves to high standards for environmental safety and compliance.”
The results of the CDC investigation were publicly released May 1.
It comes nearly six years after Duckworth first requested the investigation in an Oct. 18, 2019, letter. The work initially stalled because the CDC had no modern data to analyze, prompting the EPA to collect air samples in 2021.
The CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry conducted the investigation. It is a public health agency within the CDC that responds when communities are exposed to natural and man-made hazardous substances.
Sauget pollution investigation results, limitations
The CDC’s most notable finding from its investigation in Sauget is that people who have been exposed to airborne chemical substances known as volatile organic compounds for over 30 years could have an increased lifetime risk of cancer.
This conclusion was based on a year’s worth of data from the early 1990s collected on Little Avenue, about half a mile downwind of Veolia and less than half a mile downwind of Big River Zinc and Cerro, adjacent chemical manufacturers at the time.
But the CDC couldn’t say definitively if people currently are being harmed by those substances because the EPA collected new samples of volatile organic compounds over just three days in August 2021.
The EPA’s air monitoring for the Sauget investigation largely focused on metals like lead and mercury coming from Veolia over nine months between June 2021 and March 2022. Based on those findings, the CDC said people are unlikely to be harmed by the amount of metals in the air today.
The EPA didn’t monitor at all for other air pollutants that could be released by industries in Sauget, the CDC noted in its completed investigative report.
Veolia and Afton Chemical, a manufacturer in Sauget, report “significant releases” of hydrochloric acid, for example. It’s a substance that can harm people’s health but isn’t routinely monitored in air, according to the CDC.
The agency said Veolia is also likely processing products with small amounts of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” that aren’t necessarily categorized as PFAS waste and also weren’t monitored by the EPA over the nine-month timeframe.
In her statement, Duckworth called the possible increased cancer risk from past pollution “unacceptable.”
“It must be examined and measures must be taken to ensure those impacted are informed and have the assistance they need to prevent further damage to their health,” she wrote.
Washington University Professor Jay Turner, who has conducted multiple air quality monitoring studies in the Metro East and in St. Louis, said in an interview with the BND that it’s possible emissions have dropped since the 1990s because of regulations and some industrial facilities going out of business or making their operations more efficient.
“It does not raise alarms,” Turner said of the CDC’s report. “But what it does to me is it says, ‘This is worth looking at a little deeper to better understand what these cumulative and long-term exposures might be.’ That would mean more robust contemporary measurements, which the report recognizes are lacking.”
Turner said further research could determine whether there are elevated levels of volatile organic compounds in Sauget and how far into the community beyond industrial areas emissions remain high.
CDC's recommendations for next steps from EPA
The CDC’s investigative report includes recommendations for further action the EPA could take, including long-term, community-based air monitoring for volatile organic compounds in Sauget and Cahokia Heights and soil testing in residential areas closest to industries that historically released lead into the air.
When asked whether it would take action in response to the recommendations, the EPA told the BND it had not seen any recent air quality data to suggest that residents are being exposed to unhealthy air pollution levels from Veolia, including the agency’s air monitoring from 2021 and 2022, which it said didn’t detect anything that would have short-term or long-term health effects on people living nearby.
The Illinois EPA deferred comment to the federal agency.
Tingle, of the grassroots organization, said he and the coalition of faith-based community leaders have been calling for the same measures the CDC is now recommending.
“It’s basically confirming everything that we’ve been saying needs to happen,” Tingle said. “And it’s really speaking to the past harm that still hasn’t been rectified. … While this may be an industry that provides jobs, it also takes years off of lives of others. And this community has shouldered an unfair toxic load for too long.
“I appreciate the report, but it was correct to say it was not enough data,” Tingle added.
United Congregations of Metro-East advocates for marginalized groups like majority Black or low-income communities facing disproportionate burdens from air pollution.
Sauget has been home to heavy industry since it was founded in 1926 by Monsanto, which opened a plant there to manufacture, and later incinerate, chemicals. The village was originally named after the company.
Three chemical manufacturers continue to operate in Sauget today within a mile of Veolia: Afton Chemical Corporation, Occidental Chemical Corporation and Flexsys W.G. Krummrich Plant.
In the past five years, Afton has been cited four times by regulators for violations including underreporting hazardous pollutant releases into the air and underestimating the amount of chemicals lost to leaks, according to the CDC’s report. Veolia has been cited once for equipment issues affecting incineration and pollution control, allowing storage tanks to leak vapors and emitting more nitrogen oxide than allowed.
'We have yet to be invested to the table'
United Congregations of Metro-East has specifically called for stricter rules for Veolia in recent years. Tingle said that’s because the company’s air pollution control permit was up for review, giving community environmental activists an opportunity to weigh in.
Tingle isn’t hopeful about the future of federal regulations on industrial emissions under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has brought about staffing reductions and touted historic deregulation at the EPA.
United Congregations is currently working with lawmakers in Illinois on a bill that could lower emissions in highly industrial areas by forcing regulators to consider companies’ cumulative impact on the health of the community.
“Individually you guys may be doing what’s ‘legal’ but collectively you are doing greater harm to the community,” Tingle said.
The local group also wants to talk with industry leaders in Sauget about air quality in the community. But Tingle said Veolia has failed to engage with United Congregations.
“I’ve reached out to them and asked them — this is over the past year — about getting together a community council to talk about cumulative air impact,” Tingle said. “Veolia stated that they’ve reached out to other businesses to do that. They said they’ve gathered the cohort. But we have yet to be invited to the table, if there is really a table.”
Veolia said in response that it plans to invite United Congregations to participate in the council when it begins meeting later this year.
Editor's note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat. Lexi Cortes is a reporter for the BND, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
