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The collapse of a fly ash pile in Forward turned Rostosky Ridge Road into a "potential public health hazard," a federal health agency says in a preliminary report completed last week.

Karl Markiewicz, a senior toxicologist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said the main concern is residents' long-term exposure to airborne ash particles. Whether the residue becomes a health hazard depends on how quickly the state removes it, he said.

The federal report confirmed some of the area residents' worst fears, but also vindicated their efforts to push county and state agencies into action.

"It's scary," said resident Rhonda Jarvis, 45. "It really is scary, because we didn't know. We had no idea what fly ash is or what's in it."

Hundreds of tons of watery ash oozed down Perry Mills Run on Jan. 25 into the yards and exterior areas of nine homes and one business before the ash reached the Monongahela River.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is responsible for dealing with public health issues caused by hazardous or radioactive waste.

Markiewicz said the ash poses three hazards for residents: particle size, alkalinity and arsenic content.

About 22 percent of the fly ash particles are small enough to become airborne and end up in residents' lungs. The particles are also alkaline, which means they can irritate the lungs and other body tissues. Arsenic is toxic.

Wet weather has helped suppress the number of particles becoming airborne, Markiewicz said.

"We feel that, at this point, exposures are at a minimum," he said.

Samples taken by the state Department of Environmental Protection found arsenic levels in the ash from 143 to 268 parts per million.

The agency considers 10 parts per million a concern for small children who crawl and put objects in their mouths. For older children, the agency considers 20 parts per million a concern. For adults, it considers 200 parts per million a concern.

The report said several residents may have been exposed to excessive levels of arsenic during the initial cleanup. Immediately after the pile collapsed, the DEP asked residents to shovel the ash out of their yards and onto the roadside so a contractor could haul it away. The residents handled the ash without protection for their lungs, eyes or skin.

Barbara Diess, 53, said the residents believe the DEP should have known and warned them of the hazard.

"We were put at a health risk. All along, we've been told, 'It's safe. It's safe.' That's all they told us. They never gave us any warning," she said.

DEP spokeswoman Helen Humphreys said the agency was focused on removing the ash as quickly as possible. If the agency had it to do over, "I think we would involve the health department earlier and would defer to the medical experts."

Markiewicz said the Allegheny County Health Department didn't take urine samples soon enough to show if residents had been exposed to high levels of arsenic right after the pile collapsed. Now, his agency can't determine whether health problems reported by the residents were caused by the ash.

"I wish we had the data, but we don't," he said.

Guillermo Cole, spokesman for the health department, said his agency remains convinced the residents haven't suffered any significant exposure.

"We believe that the fly ash in its present state poses no significant health risks and are not convinced that the symptoms reported by the residents are related to fly ash exposure," he said.

The health department will continue taking urine and air samples until any possible health threat has been eliminated, Cole said.

Robyn Lenhart, 37, said she's certain that her family and other Rostosky Ridge Road residents have suffered ash-related health problems.

"Everybody in my house has been constantly sick, and it's usually respiratory," she said.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Alicia, also experienced severe gastrointestinal cramps -- a sign of arsenic exposure -- right after the fly ash inundated their neighborhood, Lenhart said.

"They said it was the flu, but my 13-year-old, I had to take her to the doctor because she couldn't hardly stand up," Lenhart said. "She's never been that sick."

The federal agency recommends further cleanup and monitoring. The report also states that the remaining fly ash pile needs to be stabilized.

The DEP has already removed about 1,200 tons of fly ash from the neighborhood. Humphreys said contractors are supposed to submit cleanup estimates by the end of the week, and the agency plans to award a contract sometime next week.

As for the pile, Humphreys said the state is trying to find the entities that created it, so they can be charged for stabilizing it and cleaning the 3/4mile of creek bed between the pile and the neighborhood.

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