New Toxic Waste Scandal Erupts at Midway Village In Daly City

US EPA to announce startling new findings:

Toxic Cleanup Was Inadequate, Some Relocation of Residents May Be Necessary!

Midway Village Residents to Confront Government Agencies, PG&E

Demand Permanent Relocation, Health Care and Just Compensation

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Community Meeting:

Contact:

Residents Outraged They Live on Contaminated Site After Assurances It Was Safe

Daly City, CA -- The United States Environmental Protection Agency will hold a community meeting on Saturday, March 20, 1999 at 10 a.m. at Lawson Hall, 125 Acacia Street, Daly City to announce their new findings that the toxic contamination next to homes at the Midway Village housing project was not cleaned up properly. U.S. EPA will also announce that some relocation of residents may be necessary. Furious Midway Village residents will attend the meeting to express their outrage that they have lived on toxic contamination for years after being assured by government agencies that the site had been cleaned up six years ago.

Residents will demand permanent relocation, health care and just financial compensation from PG&E and government agencies responsible for exposing them to cancer-causing chemicals for years without their knowledge. "I have lived in Midway Village for 19 years and I am sick of living on toxic waste," said Juliette Arterberry. "There is too much cancer here. It is time for our government and PG&E to permanently move us away from this toxic place, and provide health care and compensation for our illnesses."

Midway Village is operated by the San Mateo County Housing Authority. The 150 units are occupied by 1200 people, primarily people of color. Midway Village and Bayshore Park are contaminated with toxic substances, notably polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PNAs), a class of compounds of which many are known carcinogens. Midway Village was built on land heavily contaminated with toxic chemicals from the neighboring PG&E site. Residents were never warned of the contamination when they moved into Midway Village.

Exposure to contaminated soils was unrestricted for many years. Children played in the toxic soil and residents grew vegetables for home consumption. Residents began complaining of cancers, tumors, body rashes and sores, bloody noses, and respiratory problems, and many have passed away from these illnesses.