When the upstairs toilet sprang a leak, water seeped into the walls of the apartment below.
The downstairs resident ordered an environmental report that indicated black mold had formed in the kitchen and under a bathroom vanity.
Melissa Mangiagli (pronounced: Man-Jelly) lives in the apartment. The 30-year-old told Messed Up she is asthmatic and sensitive to mold.
“I know there is visible black mold and in the air,” she said. “I hired an environmental engineer. They told me it is black mold. I have allergies and asthma. I had a massive sinus infection.”
Mangiagli said she repeatedly asked the apartment management to remediate the problem, but she didn’t get the response she felt was necessary.
“They told me I was overreacting,” she recalled. “That it was not mold, that this was not serious. I wanted to say, ‘Yes it is!’”
Messed Up talked with corporate officials about Mangiagli’s situation.
By phone, Joey Bruce, director of maintenance for Venterra Realty in Houston, Texas, said, “We responded and repaired the leak. We tested the unit. The testing report was negative for mold. It came back for allergens and that kind of thing, but not black mold. Apparently after initial repairs, we didn’t know it was ongoing problem.”
Bruce also told Messed Up that contrary to what Mangiagli said, the apartment had no record of her calling in the operating system.
“When a resident calls,” Bruce continued over the phone, “the first thing we do is track it in the system. No request was entered.”
I told Mr. Bruce that I have reviewed Mangiagli’s private report and it indicates the presence of black mold.
As the warmer days approach, the number of complaints to the Metro Health Department grows longer.
Metro Health officials say those complaints are rising steadily in the wake of a tough economy that has seen many foreclosures and home abandoned.
Brian Todd, spokesperson for the Metro Public Health Department, writes, “Recent rain and warm weather signal the start of the growing season when grass and weeds can quickly overtake a property. Health Department General Sanitation inspectors are now responding by checking out problem properties and issuing notices to owners to get the property cut. Last year, Metro Health inspectors responded to more than 2,500 high grass and weed complaints in Davidson County. Call the Health Department at 340-5644 to report a property with high grass and weeds.”
Messed Up goes with one of those inspectors to a house in south Nashville.
The home appears to be abandoned and the grass and weeds are waist high.
Jawon Lauderdale says he knows this house and its owner and he says he plans to take aggressive measures here.
“We can send out a 10 day notice of abatement, instructing the property owner to clean the property, to cut it, to maintain it. I will send out a court citation and get the owner in front of the judge. If the property is not maintained then we’ll go to contempt of court charges.”
Lauderdale says this is his first inspection this year, and he plans to issue the owner a court citation to let him know the property is in violation and in need of immediate cleaning and cutting.
He says lack of compliance might end up costing the owner $50 a day.
Lauderdale says it is less about aesthetics and more about health.
“An area like this, under a canopy of trees and with the height of that grass, it keeps moisture in the ground and it is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes,” he tells Messed Up.
Lauderdale says issues like West Nile Virus concern him as do the possibility for snakes and rats.
There’s a brewing environmental controversy in Robertson County.
How long should it take to clean up an approximately 500 gallon diesel leak?
If the diesel fuel had spilled on top of the ground, it would have been dealt with months ago but because the leak developed underground, the clean up is still very much ongoing.
The Mapco station is just off the I-65 at the Springfield exit. Mapco officials reported the leak on January 26, 2009.
Since that time, the state has aggressively monitored the clean up, working closely with contractors hired by Mapco.
Robertson County EMA and fire officials have also been very diligent, monitoring the site and the clean up efforts.
It’s been 15 months, and some residents are concerned it is taking too long.
Jeff Christian is a businessman and local land owner. Christian has property near the site of the leak and he is concerned that the sale of a $2 million piece of property could be jeopardized by a buyer’s perception that the land is poisoned.
“I have a pond at the end of the runoff,” Christian tells Messed Up. “I have spent $65,000 building a pond and the diesel is going in it.”
A recent state lab test will show that discoloration seen in a stream that heads into Mr. Christian’s pond is fecal and not petroleum based.
State officials say the source of the fecal/ coliform could come from the nearby cattle auction.
Still, Christian is concerned.
“It seems like an acre. Just dig it up. Here’s my main problem. I turned over a diesel tank at my business five or six years ago and it was just a 200 gallon tank. You would have thought the world was coming to an end. We had to spend $9,000 and have it up at the end of the day…for 200 gallons!”
Christian says the state should have dug up the ground and dealt with the spill months ago. Now he is afraid that the length of time it is taking to remediate it is going to harm him financially.
“If I ran my business like this deal, I would be out of business,” he said. “Let me tell you, I have a $2 million estate up for sale, and if one person says they won’t buy my house because of this diesel running cross this property then it is on then!”
R.L. Douglas, Robertson County Emergency Management Director, tells Messed Up he gets complaints every day about how long it is taking Mapco and the state to clean up the leak.
“We still have diesel on the ground,” he says, pointing at dark patches of land below the Mapco station. “The state says they are following procedures, because it is underground, and not above ground, but the fact of the matter is, we have contaminated soil and with each rain, it washes diesel fuel onto neighboring property’s here. They dug a retaining pond here and the booms here are jet black, they are completely saturated. They have not been changed out and once they are full, petroleum floats past them, that is what we are dealing with. They use the word release, and spill, that is their buzz-words, but it doesn’t matter if it is a spill or release. It’s a play on words, what we look at is this: we have contaminated soil, when it rains, the petroleum product washes off the soil and leaches onto another man’s property.”
Cross Plains Fire Chief Tommy Jackson is more blunt. The fire chief reaches into the dark, moist soil, apparently saturated with diesel fuel and begins mashing the soil in his nubby fingers.
“There is diesel and sewer floating up out of the ground,” he says. “It’s been a year.”
I tell the fire chief the clean up is complicated and the state is on record as saying based on the extent of this leak, they are working rather fast.
He rolls his eyes, throwing the diesel dirt on the ground.
“They might think they are moving, but I don’t.”
“If you were running this operation, what would you do?” I ask. “You clean spills all the time?”
“We don’t leave it sitting for a year. They let fuel run on other people’s property. We are the ones getting the complaints. People want something done, one guy has land for sale and he [doesn’t] know if it is causing him problems selling or not. We would have come in and we’d have removed the dirt and put booms and pads in and monitoring it and kept going.”
“What would you say to the state?” I ask.
“They need to get off their butts and move the dirt.”
Drew Storm is a highly educated geologist for the state of Tennessee. He works for the Underground Storage Tank Division of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. » Continue Reading
A Middle Tennessee veteran has been trying to get medical benefits at the V.A. Hospital for 9 years.
Groce Nunn says the problem is, he lost his discharge papers 50 years ago, and has been unable to prove he is a veteran.
After traveling as far away as St. Louis and contacting Congressman Bart Gordon’s office with no success, he contacts that is Messed Up.
Groce Nunn is now 73. As we talk he tells me of his time in the military where he says he was a tank driver for the U.S. Army from 1953-1956. Nunn says he was with the 3rd Armored Division stationed in Germany.
Nunn, a father of 4, shows me his dog tags and two medals the Army sent him.
What the 73 year old doesn’t have is a copy of his discharge papers. Nunn says he has no idea where they went.
And this is the problem. Nunn’s family says without this specific document, the VA Hospital won’t accept his request for treatments, medicines and medical benefits.
Nunn’s daughter is Dixie Aull. “They had no record of him being in service. We have tried everything even going to St. Louis.”
Why St. Louis? I ask.
“He thought if we went personally, they could help us.”
Aull is referring to a massive warehouse fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. It’s here, in 1973, that approximately 80-percent of army records from 1912 to 1960 were destroyed.
Aull and her father believe his discharge papers were among the information forever lost.
“It’s frustrating,” she says. “He can’t buy his meds. He is diabetic. He has blood pressure issues and went through prostate cancer and we need to get him into the V.A.”
With no where else to turn, the family contacts That is Messed Up.
Messed Up staff member Nancy Smith takes this project to heart. Smith decides that No is not a sufficient answer for a veteran who served and needs help. After much work, Smith connects Nunn’s family with Operation Stand Down.
Bingo!
Years of dead ends suddenly yield positive results.
Mary D Ross is Deputy Executive Director of Operation Stand Down.
The vet gets on the phone and begins working for Groce Nunn.
Holding his dog tag, she says aloud. “That is not what his dog tag said, but you are a saint. We need a letter asap. I’ll send someone to pick it up.”
A smile comes to Dixie Aull’s face.
“Amen. Thank you so much,” Ross says hanging up with a smile.
So what happened?
“For some reason your social security numbers are not in the records,” she says to the 73 year old. “We are not sure why. The R.A. was entered incorrectly. But they found you and they are typing up a letter of eligibility. Once we get the letter should take care of all those problems.”
Groce Nunn will reportedly get his discharge papers in a couple of weeks.
Groce Nunn smiles and says he is happy, feeling 20 years younger.
Dixie Aull wants to thank me. I say, Staff Member Nancy Smith is the one who made it happen.
Aull is very appreciative.
Operation Stand Down says they help vets with seemingly impossible problems like this every single day.
If you need help all OPERATION STAND DOWN AT 248-1981
With Swine Flu floating around seemingly everywhere, how safe are you when you fly?
You are trapped inside a sealed sardine can for 2, 3, up to four hours with strangers, many of whom are sneezing, coughing and hacking.
Does your mind start wondering? How pure is the air in this cabin?
According to the Air Transport Association, which represents the airline industry; air on airplane is actually many times safer than the air you breathe at work or home.
Both the world health organization and the center for disease control and prevention report that airline travel remains safe for passengers and crew.
The air onboard a commercial aircraft is cleaner than that in most public buildings. Fresh air enters and exits the cabin on a continuous basis. The air inside an airplane is completely exchanged with outside air 10 to 15 times per hour. The air in the average office building is exchanged only once or twice per hour.
Numerous scientific studies prove that aircraft ventilation systems protect against the spread of disease. There is no evidence that cabin air quality poses health risks to passengers or crew. There have been no documented cases of any passenger contracting h1n1 from an airline flight.
Most commercial aircraft use hospital-grade HEPA air filters to remove viruses and bacteria from the cabin. These are similar to the filters used by hospitals to clean the air in organ-transplant and burn-unit wards.
The cabin ventilation system is designed so that air supplied at one seat row leaves at approximately the same seat row, minimizing front-to-back air movement. This minimizes the possibility of airborne contaminants moving through the plane.
Travelers can protect themselves and others by following simple steps aimed at preventing the spread of infection. The center for disease control recommends washing your hands often and covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
According to Vanderbilt infectious disease expert Dr. Bill Schaffner, airlines do a good job purifying air on your flight.
Schaffner: “Influenza is heavier than air. So gravity pulls the germs down and they fall quickly. But if you are within 3 to 4 feet of the infected person, you are in that zone.”
ATA officials say 50% of the air is brought into the cabin through the engines at 36,000 feet. Officials say the air there is pure as air can be.
Schaffner agrees with that, but what about sitting on the tarmac prior to departure. Have you ever noticed how hot and stuffy it can be? That is a time when Influenza can move more readily through the cabin.
The other good news according to Dr. Schaffner, pillows and blankets and head rests are not a source of infection.
“It is the breathing, in and out of the flu virus itself,” the infectious disease expert says.
And what about wearing masks?
“There is no good evidence that masks work,” He says. “In a confined space the transmission level goes up. It depends on how long you are in that confined space and how close you are to an infected person. That is why children spending all day long in schools, enhances the level of transmission.”
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When the upstairs toilet sprang a leak, water seeped into the walls of the apartment below.
As the warmer days approach, the number of complaints to the Metro Health Department grows longer.
Lauderdale says this is his first inspection this year, and he plans to issue the owner a court citation to let him know the property is in violation and in need of immediate cleaning and cutting.
There’s a brewing environmental controversy in Robertson County.
A recent state lab test will show that discoloration seen in a stream that heads into Mr. Christian’s pond is fecal and not petroleum based.
“If I ran my business like this deal, I would be out of business,” he said. “Let me tell you, I have a $2 million estate up for sale, and if one person says they won’t buy my house because of this diesel running cross this property then it is on then!”
“We don’t leave it sitting for a year. They let fuel run on other people’s property. We are the ones getting the complaints. People want something done, one guy has land for sale and he [doesn’t] know if it is causing him problems selling or not. We would have come in and we’d have removed the dirt and put booms and pads in and monitoring it and kept going.”
With Swine Flu floating around seemingly everywhere, how safe are you when you fly?
According to Vanderbilt infectious disease expert Dr. Bill Schaffner, airlines do a good job purifying air on your flight.
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