York Daily Record Front Page

From:
Time Stamp 3/25/2002 5:56:46 PM



Pick up the Daily Record, March 25, 2002, we're front page this time! It's a really nice article, and i thank everyone for coming out. They didn't mention the meeting much, so if you can, use the article and codoruscreek.com to get people interested in Thursday's meeting. Unfortunately, i'm really busy and can't get into my usual descriptions, but we all learned some things, and picked up trash, and made a bunch of new connections. Here is the new connection from the article. I'd like to add that our walk was never intended to focus on Memorial Hospital, i didn't even know the IV bottle and used rubber gloves, and documents on patients were back there.

Here's the e-mail from Amy Fink:

Hello, Mr. Helfrich. My name is Amy Fink and I work at Memorial
Hospital. I spoke with the York Daily Record reporter last evening
about the clean-up activities at Mill Creek. We are very concerned
about the trash findings. We have very clear policies about trash
disposal and destruction of patient information. We want to take every
step possible to research the current situation and prevent this from
happening in the future.

Do you still have the trash found by the Creek? In order to research
the situation, we need to know where the content originated. If you
still have the material, could we have access to it? We would be happy
to collect it from you or do whatever is most convenient. Please call
me at your earliest convenience. Thanks so much for your help!

Amy Fink

Amy Fink
Community Relations Manager
Memorial Hospital
325 S. Belmont St.
York, PA 17403

So i talked to Amy, and they said they were going to pick up the trash bags, to track down the origin of the trash. I also told her about the run-off problem and recommended planting a riparian zone and getting rid of the concrete runoffs. We may try to work with them on this, at a later date. Earlier in the day i was picking up trash with the York Greens, also on a tributary to Mill Creek. They spotted soapy water coming from a pipe. I filmed it, then went to inquire if the homeowner knew about this. It was a very nice house, and the pipe was remote, so i figured he didn't know. I explained that we are cleaning and surveying the creek and its tributaries and that we report our findings. When i asked him if he knew of the pipe, he didn't respond one way or the other, so i told him that our findings go to the DEP and would be reported today. I was trying to give him fair warning, so that he didn't do it again, for fear of getting caught and fined. He said okay, and went back in... to come out the back door, yelling at the poor York Greens. Then he came around on his bike, insisting on talking to myself and Ben Price, Green party candidate running against Todd Platts for Congress, who was out cleaning the 83 off-ramp and stream. The man said, "How dare you come and threaten me, i've lived in this house for years, and you come around once a year... " I explained that i wasn't threatening him as he looked down and saw the pipe for himself, covered in suds, with a milky pool below.
"How do you know what's coming out of there?" he sneered.
"I don't know what's coming out of it, but no one's allowed to put anything in the stream without an npeds permit. Do you have an npeds permit or a toxic release inventory?" I was matter-of-fact, not raising my voice. He stepped towards the milky liquid and remarked it could be paint off his white-washed house. I said it was soapy, and he checked for himself, dipping his hand in and smelling it. He agreed but made no attempt to explain. I said, "it looks like a bad washing machine hook-up, we see a lot of that. Did you just do the wash."
He acknowledged that he had just finished the wash, and that it may be his septic overflow. I don't believe that (it was wash water, probably from a basement drain), but he is now aware of a problem. And so am I. I have to work on a system to contact people, or else just report it to the authorities. I'm actually trying to keep them from getting fines, so that that money can go to fix the problem. Anyhow, i've got to make calls. Bring everybody out for Thursday!!!!!! Let's show our guests from the Waterkeeper Alliance, and the local media, that the Codorus and Lower Susquehanna are ready for some national attention.