Island to open after pesticide cleanup done

The environmental education campus on Oatland Island closed last November after traces of DDT found

Web posted September 11, 1999

By Gail Krueger
Morris News Service

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Efforts to clean up a deadly pesticide are on schedule for a deserted island near Savannah to reopen next month in time for students to resume field trips where they study the environment.

Oatland Island Education Center will re-open to students as soon as Oct. 1 and to the general public after the first of the year.

The environmental education campus was closed last November after traces of the long-banned pesticide DDT -- dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane -- were found in two areas on the center's grounds.

There was no immediate threat to human health, but the Savannah-Chatham County Board of Education took no chances and shut the center -- which is visited by thousands of schoolchildren each year.

This may be among the quickest ever environmental hazard cleanups.

Jack Wardlaw, chief financial officer for the school district, credited the close cooperation of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for the fast response.

``Most situations of this nature take a long time to clean up -- a matter of years,'' Mr. Wardlaw said.

Before the board gained the Oatland site in the 1970s, it had been a testing center for the CDC, where scientists battled malaria, yellow fever and other deadly insect-borne illnesses.

During the research, they used thousands of pounds of DDT, other pesticides and some very low-level radioactive material.

When the lab closed, the materials were buried at two different sites on Oatland in accordance with the environmental regulations in effect at the time.

The CDC will take full financial responsibility for the cleanup, estimated to cost at least $2 million, said Jonathan Richmond of the CDC. The cleanup will consist of removing 2,200 tons of soil -- 1,500 from one site and 700 from the other site -- equal to about 75 dump truck loads. The soil will be hauled away on covered trucks and burned at a special incinerator.

Out of Oatland's 174 acres, fewer than three acres were found to contain any contamination.

The assessment of the site found DDT in the soil and in ground water at the burial sites to be at levels above the federal Environmental Protection Agency's standards, said Larry Miles of S&ME Environmental Services, the local company contracted to do the initial testing and design of the cleanup plan.

The DDT is in a solid, powder form in the old burial trenches and is present in surface ground water near the trenches in the form of suspended solids -- DDT does not dissolve in water.

No drinking water anywhere on Oatland Island -- which comes from much deeper aquifers -- has been contaminated.

Removing the soil should remove the contaminated ground water as well, Mr. Miles said. If later tests show there are still DDT solids in the water, the remaining contaminated water will be pumped out and disposed of.

Tests for radiation found only levels at or below those normally found in the environment.

Part of the cleanup will include temporarily moving the old homestead cabin that is the center of Oatland's annual Cane Grinding Festival. The cabin will be moved back in place when the cleanup is done. Any trees that have to be removed will be replaced, Mr. Richmond said.

The cleanup areas -- the larger one at the homestead site and the smaller one between the bison pens and the marsh -- will be fenced off while the work is done.

The general public will be allowed back to Oatland when most of the truck and heavy equipment traffic is complete, Mr. Wardlaw said.

Harris Lentini, director of Oatland, said the center's programming never stopped during the closing. Instead, the Oatland staff took the program to area classrooms and gave instruction elsewhere -- at docks and beside creeks.

During the closing, new aviaries have been built and other improvements made to the animal pens, trails and grounds.