THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, April 17, 1995 TAG: 9504170121
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
A decade ago, the Riddick family was full of hope, dreams and plans for the future.
Parents and children bought three large lots off Effingham Street. They began building their homes one by one, with the entire family pitching in to nail, paint and pour concrete.
In 1986 the Riddick family completed its third home in the neighborhood that stands near the abandoned Abex lead foundry.
Their dream became a nightmare, six years later though, when officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told them they were living on lead-contaminated land.
``Our dreams were shattered,'' said Charlie Riddick Jr.
Now the entire Riddick family - Charlie Sr. and his wife, Arnez; Charlie Jr., his wife, Avis, and their child; and Tyronne Riddick and his family - all face the prospect of trading in their dreams for a new beginning. It's a beginning that they hope is free of contamination, of environmental officials and red tape.
``We want to leave because it seems like that's what's best,'' Charlie Jr. said. ``It's the most logical solution. It's just not easy."
"I didn't build this house to sell it; this was our dream. Everything in here was custom-built for us.''
The city has begun the first steps of what is likely to be a yearlong process toward buying the Riddicks' home and helping them move from the contaminated land. Once the city buys the homes, they'll be demolished and the dirt will be removed down to the groundwater.
The contamination came from the now-closed concrete Abex structure, which still stands. When the foundry was still in operation in the 1930s and '40s, before anyone knew the harmful effects of lead, workers buried waste from the plant on the surrounding grounds.
Several years ago, the EPA declared the area a Superfund site. Since then, residents have fought to be moved.
The housing authority and the council must hold a series of public hearings on the area redevelopment plan, which should be scheduled within the next two months, said Gordon Wheatley, director of operations and development for the housing authority.
Afterward, the authority will begin land surveys, title surveys and appraisals. Once all that is done, Wheatley said the authority will then approach homeowners and offer to buy the homes based on the appraisals.
The homeowners say they want the replacement values on their homes - the cost of replacing their homes in another area of the city. The housing authority plans to offer the fair market value - what the home could expect to bring if sold on the open market.
Wheatley said the authority will contract for two independent appraisals on each of the homes. Those appraisals will be analyzed by a third appraiser who will come up with an offer for the homeowners.
He estimates it could take as long as a year until the homeowners are moved.
``The people in those neighborhoods will not be penalized because of Abex conditions,'' Wheatley said. ``The majority of the homes are new and are in good shape; the prices would be set like they were in any other similar neighborhood. I'm confident that folks will be able to buy a comparable replacement home.''
Avis said the three-story stucco home will be impossible to replace because she and her husband built it with their own hands. They have a large yard anchored by a swimming pool and a landscaped courtyard. ``I want to be able to replace what I got,'' she said. ``I want the same amount of land and the same amount of square feet in the house.''
For the Riddicks, the odyssey that began in 1992 has seemed like a slow process. But as they have begun wading through red tape and learning the maze of bureaucracy, they now say a year doesn't seem like so long.
``I've learned to be patient,'' Charlie Riddick said. ``I started off like a freight train, just to hit a lot of brick walls along the way. Now I'm going more with the flow, but that's not as easy for some others.
``There are mostly senior citizens who live here in these two blocks,'' he said. ``This is not as frightening to us as it is to them. I've watched my parents age rapidly from the stress of all this.''
Charlie Riddick grew up on Henry Street. His parents built a home there in the '50s. They never realized they had built a home on an old Abex dump. They never worried about their children taking short cuts through the pile of debris around the old foundry. The effects of lead contamination weren't known back then.
Then, in the late 1970s, the foundry closed its doors and the housing authority began a rehabilitation project, knocking down row houses near the factory and buying up most of the land - including the Riddicks' former home.
Once the authority cleared the property, the city began selling the lots again. It looked so good that Charlie bought his parents' former lot. His parents, Arnez and Charlie Sr., had already purchased the lot next door.
Arnez spent much of her retirement working in her garden cultivating lima beans, string beans, and carrots. Then she learned that she had been tilling poisoned dirt and that her digging was contaminating the air around her home.
The soil wasn't killing her plants, but breathing in the dust from the soil could be harmful, so she had to give up her garden.
``I felt like I had been betrayed,'' said Riddick, 71, who had planned on living out her retirement at the large brick home.
Charlie said he's since gone back and taken a hard look at the deed to his land. He said it contained a clause relieving the city of any responsibility for subsurface contamination - making him suspicious that the city knew about the contamination when it sold the land.
It is that sense of betrayal that makes the present process so scary.
``I'm hopeful that they'll do the right thing,'' he said. ``What brought the stress was the dishonesty from the beginning. I'm leaning toward believing it wasn't an intentional thing. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
The Riddicks have struggled for justice since their land, near the
Abex foundry, was declared toxic. Now they have hope for a fair
settlement - and a new start.
Living near lead-contaminated land....
A sign warns of contamination, upper left, at the old Abex foundry
in Portsmouth. When the foundry was still operating in the 1930s and
'40s, workers buried waste from the plant on surrounding grounds.
...forces families to start anew
Residents such as Avis and Charles Riddick Jr., left, received a
shock in 1992 when the EPA told them they were living on
lead-contaminated land. ``Our dreams were shattered,'' Charles
Riddick said.
by CNB