"Since I've moved here, I've been very sick."

Peggy Bland lives roughly two miles from the Marietta Eramet plant. She and a group of concerned Neighbors for Clean Air have allied with Ohio Citizen Action to outline their concerns with the valley's air.

Southern Ohio Citizen Action Director Ruth Breech says, "We really felt we needed to put it in one document that everyone could understand, whether you're a citizen, an engineer at the plant , or an EPA regulator."

That document released Thursday is called the Citizen's Audit of Eramet Marietta. It's based on information from the EPA, Eramet reportings and testing done on their own.

Breech says, "We did our first round of sampling and at the eight locations that we sampled, all eight had the presence of manganese. These are people’s homes in Washington and Wood County."

Manganese, chromium and ammonia were all found during testing.

Breech says dangers associated with manganese could be brain damage in children and a Parkinson-like disease in adults. However, it's the lack of research done on all these chemicals and elements that a local environmentalist says keeps the particles in the air.

Marietta College Professor Dr. Eric Fitch says, "There are certain levels of control that Eramet has to follow and they've done a fairly good job of that over the years. The question is, are the standards appropriate. Should they be releasing any of these materials in the environment?"

Dr. Fitch says Eramet does release the particles as part of their manufacturing, but he says the company isn't to blame for all the problems associated with industry output.

"It's one among many, but its product emissions are certainly affecting people in the neighborhood adjacent to the plant."

Eramet officials say some of the material in the report appears to be factual, but most is flawed.

They say they do sometimes meet with concerned residents or groups, but they says it's not likely they'll discuss Thursday's report with the neighbors because of what they call false accusations.