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Muscatine Residents Raise Health Concerns Over Slag, Supervisor Responds

Kate Payne / IPR
A local official in Muscatine County says he's now considering banning the use of slag on county roads after hearing public health concerns from area residents.

A Muscatine County official says he’s open to banning the use of steel slag on local roads, after hearing concerns raised at a public meeting this week. Area residents are worried about the risks of heavy metals found in the steel manufacturing byproduct.

In past years, the county has used steel slag on gravel roads instead of more pricey rock. County supervisors recently suspended the practice, but declined requests to ban it outright, citing the need for more information on potential risks associated with the product.

But after attending a meeting of residents who are worried about heavy metal exposure from the slag dust, the chair of the board of supervisors, Nathan Mather, says he’s convinced.

“Unless I hear something that completely knocks what we heard tonight out of the water, I don’t see how we don’t ban it. That’s my opinion,” Mather said. “It’s gonna sound weird maybe to some people, cause it sounds like, ‘oh he’s been so against it.' No. I’m just trying to get the truth.”

This week some 90 local residents filed into the community center in Wilton to learn more about the practice, and to voice their questions.

Initially, concerns about the use of slag were due to reports that chunks of metal from the gravel roads were flattening tires and cracking windshields. But more recently, larger public health concerns have emerged.

"I would say that any child playing or living very close to areas where slag is deposited could reasonably be expected to experience adverse health impacts." - Stuart Schmitz, State Toxicologist

At Tuesday’s meeting, chemist and member of a local anti-slag citizens’ group Edward Askew presented testing results showing high levels of manganese in the slag.

“The legacy is one problem. Future use is another problem. And we can do something about future use by just getting rid of slag,” Askew said. “We should be telling the county, ‘cut it out!’”

The company SSAB, which produces the slag at its plant in Montpelier, Iowa, conducts testing of the material to monitor the levels of certain metals. Iowa’s state toxicologist Stuart Schmitz reviewed some those results from a June 2018 analysis, when manganese levels were detected at 22,000 milligrams per kilogram.

In his analysis, Schmitz concluded children living and playing near the slag may be at risk for adverse health effects, from accidentally ingesting dust from the slag.

“[E]very child, if playing in and regularly exposed to the slag, would potentially be adversely impacted by the manganese within the slag.  For a child to be adversely impacted from the slag they would need to be play in that area about once every five days,” Schmitz wrote in his analysis. “Because of this I would say that any child playing or living very close to areas where slag is deposited could reasonably be expected to experience adverse health impacts.”

Schmitz also found workers who handle the slag may be at risk, if they were exposed to the material “for an entire work day, most days of the year”, a situation he considered unlikely.

At this week’s meeting, Askew also highlighted the presence of cadmium in the slag. Testing conducted in January 2019 of samples taken from SSAB’s stockpiles detected levels of cadmium at 22 milligrams per kilogram. Previous tests had not detected the element.

Schmitz has not yet analyzed the presence of cadmium in the Muscatine slag, and says he’s waiting for further testing to conduct a more formal health assessment of the material from the processor and material on local roads in the county.

According to the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, manganese exposure is linked to increased risks of fertility issues in adults, and developmental issues, personality and memory changes in children. Cadmium is linked to kidney disease, lung damage and cancer.

"I go home and I live my life and I don't think about slag all that much. But I think we have reason to think about it now." - Nathan Mather, Chair of Muscatine County Board of Supervisors

SSAB spokeswoman Ivonne Furneaux says slag has been “used safely for decades” and that the company is cooperating with state and local leaders.

“SSAB takes the health and safety of our employees and communities seriously. We will continue to monitor and evaluate our operations to ensure we meet all applicable regulatory standards related to health, safety and the environment. We are working with the appropriate state and county officials to provide factual, scientific data regarding slag,” she said in a written statement.

Mather said Tuesday his mind was changed after hearing from local residents, but says he would still like to get more information from the slag processor and from Iowa’s departments of public health and natural resources. State officials have planned to conduct more testing of gravel roads in the county, but say bitter winter weather has delayed the project.

“What I heard tonight sounds really convincing. But there might, conceivably, be something that indicates the other way,” Mather said. “And I’m not trying to be wishy-washy, I’m just trying to say: when you’re making decisions that affect this many people, you got to at least give people a chance to speak up. So that’s I think what we’re gonna do.”

But some residents are pushing back on supervisors’ desire for additional testing, saying taxpayers should have a greater say in the use of local funds. Doug Hoag is with the slag committee.

“So I ask, who put this board of supervisors up there?” Hoag asked. “We elected them there. And they need to be listening to our county constituents here.”

Others raised concerns about potential impacts to their private drinking wells, to their families, and to county road workers.

Askew argues that the county could be exposed to legal liability for using the material.

“Look at everybody in this room,” Askew said. “The health effects, the long-term, short-term health effects, for you, for your children, for your grandchildren, your nieces, your nephews, everything. There’s your liability.”

Over the course of the more than two hour-long meeting, the residents of Muscatine County got Mather’s attention, and gave him something to think about ahead of the next supervisors’ meeting on Monday.

“I go home and I live my life and I don’t think about slag all that much,” Mather said. “But I think we have reason to think about it now.”

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Health Environmentpublic health
Kate Payne was an Iowa City-based Reporter