The Stewardship Lectures

The Stewardship Lectures 2004

November 18, 2004

Woburn Toxic Waste Crisis:

A History of Grassroots Activism &

Governmental Response

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world; indeed it's the only thing that ever has. -- Margaret Meade

This was the theme of the Stewardship Lecture organized by the Walden Woods Project on November 18^th, 2004.

The panel discussion was moderated by Kathi Anderson, presently Executive Director at the Walden Woods Project, who was affected by and worked on resolving the Woburn tragedy as the legislative assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy in the 1970s and 1980s. The three panelists and Kathi Anderson became close friends brought together by the common fight for justice.

More than 60 people attended the event. People came to hear the first account of the story from the point of view of the victims of the tragedy. They also came to be inspired by the stories of individual struggle. And there were plenty of these stories that evening.

Anne Anderson is a quiet beautiful middle-age woman. While she was reading her account of the story from the few hand-written pieces of paper, her voice was shaking a little bit. Of all the panelists present, she has suffered the most losing her son to cancer. In January of 1972, her son, Jimmy, was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia at the age of three, due to longstanding water and soil contamination of arsenic and other heavy metals from local industries. After a long and painful struggle, Jimmy had died in 1981. As Anne was hearing cases of other child leukemia in her neighborhood, she became convinced that something must attribute to such a leukemia cluster, that an agent from outside causes the disease in children. However, most people, initially even her own husband and reverend Young, did not take Anne's suspicions seriously, thinking that it was grief and yearning for understanding speaking in her.

Anne felt that she owed to Jimmy and other sick children in her neighborhood to test her suspicion. Anne co-founded the organization For A Cleaner Environment (FACE) in 1979 to bring the issue to public and governmental attention. The fight to convince federal and state agencies of a link between toxics in Woburn’s drinking water and childhood leukemia was a long one and sometimes seemingly hopeless. As Anne was saying that evening, when she thought there was no one left to turn to for help and she began losing hope, an incredible set of lucky circumstances would emerge, such as when a phone would ring and a new person would appear that would help in carrying out the investigation that needed to be done. In the end, the efforts of FACE were successful, and the EPA declared the area a Superfund site under long-term cleanup status.

As her last words, Anne stated that when one feels injustice is being committed, one should be determined, one should not lose hope, and when not able to get help from local agencies - not to be afraid to go up the governmental ladder asking for help from higher ranked officials.

The miraculous circumstances that Anne mentioned also linked her to Kathi Anderson who had been working as the legislative assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Upon hearing about the Woburn tragedy and the city’s environmental contamination by local industries, Kathi was appalled and joined with Reverend Young, Anne Anderson, and others in the Woburn community, in a 10 year effort to direct state, federal, and private resources toward tackling one of the most challenging environmental and public health problems of the time.

Reverend Bruce Young was the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Woburn for 33 years until his retirement in 1999. When he noticed that many children in his small parish were being diagnosed with leukemia, he worked tirelessly for two decades to focus government attention and resources on one of the worst leukemia clusters ever documented. Also known as a "social activist ", in 1969 Bruce was "directed" to pay attention to a public health concern in Woburn and was a crucial source of community support, both politically and spiritually.

Bruce offered several real life anecdotes from his life and work at Woburn that offered the audience a superb first-hand account. As an example, when a set of barrels were dropped off in the night on the highways passing through Woburn, it led to investigation testing the quality of Woburn waters. As a result, the contamination from the TCE was detected in the water, the municipal wells were shut down, and the investigation was led in the right direction. Yet, as Bruce pointed out, those barrels were not source of contamination, since they were intact, and they contained solid chemicals. Bruce Young strongly believed in this kind of divine intervention throughout the many-year struggle.

Suzanne Condon is the Associate Commissioner and directs the Center for Environmental Health and the Center for Emergency Preparedness at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH). Her many responsibilities now include directing the Center for Environmental Health, which conducted a nationally recognized study linking exposure to drinking water contaminants during pregnancy to the subsequent development of childhood leukemia among Woburn children. At the time when Anne Anderson began leading the fight for the governmental response, Suzanne was fresh out of college with a degree in statistics. She went to the victims’ houses gathering data trying to investigate whether there is a statistical significance of leukemia cluster in Woburn. The results were inconclusive, due to the lack of more information and lack of knowledge in that field at a time. Suzanne also stated that in addition to the lack of technology to detect pollution and lack of knowledge to link it to the public health, government official manner of work was not personal and compassionate enough. Suzanne kept emphasizing how important and beneficial community involvement between local government officials and public truly is.

Woburn activists’ efforts brought about changes in the field of epidemiology, in the study of groundwater, and in the court system. The Woburn story is an enduring example of how each individual (whether a private citizen or a government official) can make a difference in improving the quality of life for others.

The panel discussion left people with conflicted emotions - saddened yet inspired. The comments left by the audience in response to the question what was the best feature of the panel were:

“Open testimony of individual courage”, “Passionate, approachable speakers, honest”, “Heartfelt presentation of Anne and Bruce”, “Everything - the panel laid the groundwork for very relevant discussion period afterwards.”