IDEM tests home in Franklin, investigates new site for toxins
FRANKLIN, Ind. (WISH) — The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has shared new steps being taken to investigate possible toxins in Franklin.
IDEM confirmed Friday it has already tested one home that showed alarming levels of toxins in June. Another home will be tested shortly, and state officials are talking with a third family.
At the same time the department has opened an investigation into a facility to see if harmful toxins have been released into the environment. It is at 400 N. Forsythe St., the former Franklin Power Products location. It’s now the home to several businesses and near at least a dozen homes.
IDEM could not confirm what spurred this investigation to occur.
For years, families in Franklin have searched for answers why there have been around 50 cancer cases in the last decade, many of them highly unusual and in children.
“Nobody seems to want to do anything about it with all these kids getting cancer. That tells even the dumbest person that there’s a problem here,” said Chuck Cornelison, who lives near the former Franklin Power Products site.
Environmental activists voiced concern the cancer cases could be connected to some long-controlled U.S. Environmental Protection Agency cleanup sites releasing harmful chemicals. These are places the federal agency have said were safe for 20 years.
While there’s been no definitive link, the alarm bells have gone off in the community and for state and federal leaders after testing by an environmental firm in June showed dangerous levels of chemicals in a handful of homes near these EPA-run cleanup sites.
At a forum two weeks ago, the U.S. EPA, IDEM and the Indiana State Department of Health promised to keep searching for answers.
The owner of the building at 400 N Forsythe nor the U.S. EPA, which has said it would be doing some additional testing at some of its long-controlled Franklin sites that some are concerned could be releasing toxins, responded by Friday night to requests to comment.