Unity class to study levels of chromium in Sebasticook

7/20/09

BY SCOTT MONROE
Staff Writer

WINSLOW -- Questions about the presence of a metallic mineral in the Sebasticook River and whether it could cause cancer will be the focus of study to be undertaken by a class at Unity College in the coming months.

Professor Lois Ongley said she and her environment analysis class will study levels of chromium, which in one form can be a carcinogen, in the Sebasticook by Winslow. Prior studies by the Department of Environmental Protection have not detected hazardous chromium levels.

Ongley said she and her class plan to meet with Winslow town officials in early September and plan to complete their findings by mid-December. The results will be presented to the Winslow Town Council.

"This seemed to be a good project for this class to take on," Ongley said. "They will look at several questions: where is chromium in the watershed? Is it a health hazard? Under what conditions? What are the policy implications if we regulate it?"

The class will also be assisted by Jane Edwards of Winslow, a retired deputy state law librarian and someone who has raised concerns about chromium levels in the river for years.

Edwards has been particularly concerned about chromium following last summer's removal of the Fort Halifax Dam. An earlier study of chromium in the impoundment area behind the dam found no measurable levels of the form of chromium that is a carcinogen -- called chromium 6 -- but Edwards believes the chromium levels are high and, citing other studies, has said that nearly one-quarter of the chromium in the sediment could oxidize into chromium 6.

Ongley said Edwards contacted her about the study after posing questions to the DEP about its reports "and didn't feel she was getting answers."

"The state has done significant work," Ongley said, "so my students can start there and take pieces of that and get more information and if we have a problem that people are concerned about, that also teaches my students that the knowledge and information they're getting is going to make a difference when they get out into the world."