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THIS BARGE WON'T BUDGE -- Napa Valley veteran
locked in
dispute with EPA won't leave toxic slough.
Herman Miller splits time between the
Veterans Home of
California at Yountville and his boats on the Stockton slough.
He is currently battling the Environmental Protection Agency
over his right to continue living part-time on the water near
a toxic area.
Story here...
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/
2006/08/13/news/local_top_story/iq_3555460.txt
Story below:
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This barge won't budge
Local veteran locked in dispute with EPA
staying put in toxic slough
By JULISSA McKINNON, Register Staff Write
Herman Miller can't decide which sound he enjoys more, the lapping of
the delta waves or the roar of industrial dirt movers from the opposite
shore of the Old Mormon Slough in Stockton.
Miller, 81, splits his time between the Veterans Home of California in
Yountville and the 1920s-era produce barge he calls "The Florence."
Though he benefits from the Veterans Home on-site doctors and hospital,
Miller said undoubtedly he calls Old Mormon Slough his home.
It doesn't matter to Miller that the Environmental Protection Agency has
designated the slough as highly toxic. The World War II Navy veteran
said he's lived there for the past 14 years and he's determined to stay.
Four years ago the EPA earmarked the zone a "superfund" site -- a
classification the government reserves for the nation's
worst-contaminated areas. Several times the EPA has asked Miller to
leave. Time and again Miller has refused.
Miller's refusal to budge has held up the EPA's planned clean-up of the
slough and an adjacent 29 acres, the former site of McCormack and
Baxter, a wood-treating company that freely oozed carcinogenic chemicals
into the soil and its neighboring waterway from 1942 to 1990.
Now the EPA is planning to spend $13.8 million to try and prevent the
chemical residues from further leaching into the ground and polluting
groundwater.
Fred Schauffler, an EPA administrator overseeing the cleanup said the
first step of the multi-year project is laying down a two-foot layer of
clean sand on top of the contaminated soil on the slough's bottom.
"This prevents exposure of the fish to the contaminated soil. They are
feeding on the organisms there," he said. "This reduces the chances of
people eating contaminated fish and the human health and ecological
risks that go along with that."
Just weeks ago, Miller finally agreed to move his barge 1,000 feet up
the slough so contractor crews could begin the laying down the sand
cap.Miller says he won't budge from the slough unless the EPA relocates
him to a home of equivalent utility and stature, a government obligation
whenever they forcibly move someone under the Uniform Relocation
Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act.
"The word utility is a stickler because I have a 25-ton crane on deck. I
have a forklift that can lift things out of the water and do all kinds
of stuff to maintain and repair boats," said Miller who keeps a
miniature tug boat, a deep sea boat, and others, all of which he is
gradually remodeling, tied to his barge. Miller is convinced the EPA
will soon "see the light" and allow him to remain on the slough because
they can't find a "fair and reasonable" housing match.
By no means does Miller believe that he might be putting his health at
risk by living on a superfund site.
"I've gone diving in that water. And it wouldn't stop me today from
going in it. It's ridiculous!" Miller said, his voice growing louder as
he contested the notion that his surroundings are toxic. "What am I
gonna do go down and eat the mud?"Miller's slough abode lies within
walking distance of downtown Stockton, a necessary convenience according
to Miller because he's been diagnosed as legally blind and can no longer
drive. The slough is also only a three-hour train and bus ride from the
Vets Home, where Miller lives part-time, mostly he says for health care
access.
But Schauffler said there's no way Miller or any boat for that matter
can remain on the slough because anchors and propeller motion would
likely disturb the $6.3 million sand cap. A log barrier at the slough's
mouth will bar all boat traffic from the slough once the sand layer is
in place, Schauffler said.
In recent weeks, EPA workers moved Miller's furniture and other
belongings off the Florence and into storage.
Schauffler said soon the two parties must reach an accord on Miller's
replacement home. One sticking point that brought negotiations to a
stalemate was that Miller believes the EPA must relocate him to some
kind of waterfront property. Schauffler disagrees.
"His vessels are not the kind you can take to a marina and tie up. And
waterfront property is hard to come by and very expensive," Schauffler
said. "What we had offered him was a comparable standard dwelling,
basically a three-bedroom house with a garage, which he has flat out
rejected."
Miller insists he won't agree to anything he doesn't believe to be "fair
and reasonable." He added that he spent the better part of his life as a
construction and engineering inspector, in essence holding contractors
accountable to what they had promised.
"I'm not a guy who has to have friends. I don't have problem if people
are mad at me," he said.
He added that he refuses to give up life on the water and succumb to the
kind of existence relatives and friends have tried talking him into for
years.
"What a lot of people don't know is you don't have to be a member of the
white picket fence society if you don't want to," Miller said.
Miller's fiercely independent attitude in part led him to live on boats.
Miller loves the unparalleled sense of freedom he feels on the water.
But he has faith that resolution is possible.
"I believe in negotiations," Miller said. You can negotiate everything
because there's two sides to everything.
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Larry Scott
