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Special Report: Toxic Neighbors?

Kettleman City - The small town of Kettleman City is less than four miles away from a 1,600 acre landfill for household and hazardous waste.

A sign posted at the entrance to the facility warns of the potential dangers here, including exposure to chemicals known to cause cancer and birth defects.  A danger that Kettleman City residents, and activists, say aren't staying there, but have cast a shadow over their small town.

"The studies that the government does always says its fine, but obviously now that we know at least 5 kids with birth defects, 3 that died in such a short period of time we know that everything is not okay in Kettleman City," said Bradley Angel, executive director of Greenaction.

The group Greenaction says, they've discovered a cluster of deadly child birth defects in the town, affecting babies born between September 2007 and November 2008.

"Now we have literally dead children on our hands, we don't know what's caused it," said Angel.

Bob Henry is the senior district manager of Chem Waste... the facility at Kettleman City, operated by Waste Management, Inc. He's worked there for more than 20 years.

"This facility is highly regulated and does an excellent job at managing hazardous waste... So there is no impact to the local community," said Henry.

In fact, Chem Waste is proposing to expand their existing hazardous waste landfill to take in even more toxic materials like those containing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCB's -  a pollutant banned by Congress in 1976, for it's adverse effects on human health.

"If Kettleman City is worried about any type of contamination coming from this facility they need to remember we are downwind from their community," said Henry of the expressed concerns of pollutants from the landfill.

Henry says the B-18 landfill is lined with several layers of clay and geo-syntehtic materials designed to keep toxins from entering the environment.

"The other is the groundwater, with the geological formations we have, we're not connected to the aquifer connected to Kettleman City," said Henry.

Chem Waste has applied for the proper permits from state and national agencies and is now in the middle of a detailed study requested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, before a permit is granted.

"We're now in the process of doing a congener study, this is a study around the perimeter of the property, for soil, vegetative and air sampling, to see if any PCB's are escaping the site," said Henry.

It's the first such study ever performed at this location in the 28 years the facility has been there.

But chemicals may not be the only toxin to be found in the landfill.

In a 2006 letter to the U.S. Department of Energy, Senator Barbara Boxer cited concerns that the Kettleman City facility was taking in radioactive soil from Rocketdyne, a rocket engineering company.

Henry would not confirm if the facility did accept the Rocketdyne waste.

"Materials we receive here that do have here would be materials that have naturally occurring radioactive materials.  What we are prohibited from accepting are source radioactive materials, materials that are manmade," said Henry.

Meanwhile, in about 8 years, Henry says the facility plans to seek approval to create a second hazardous landfill at their site, which would double the amount of toxic waste there.

Complicating the issue, the nearly $17 million a year contribution the facility makes to the Kings County economy, and the nearly $3 million a year in taxes and fees  it pays to the County.

"It would be a devastation to the county if we were to close," said Henry.

But residents of Kettleman City say the only numbers that matter to them are the recent baby deaths and birth defects.

They are asking the EPA to deny them their permits, to expand their toxic landfill.

"Chem Waste says they care, well prove it, withdraw your permit application for proposed expansion of the dump, and be a good neighbor like they claim they are, which they haven't been," said Angel.

The Kettleman City facility is currently testing samples of soil, water, and plants as part of the PCB congoner study and hopes to have results released to the public in the near future.

Meanwhile, Kettleman City residents are planning to protest the facility's expansion proposal at a march, Saturday.