The documentary details the history of the TCE contamination from the Behr Dayton Thermal Plant in the the McCook Field neighborhood in Dayton, OH.

In today’s news, residents are asking EPA for new [...] No related posts.]]> Residents, organized as a group called the Behr VOC Area Leaders (BVOCAL), have released the following documentary on YouTube called “This our Neighborhood”:

The documentary details the history of the TCE contamination from the Behr Dayton Thermal Plant in the the McCook Field neighborhood in Dayton, OH.

In today’s news, residents are asking EPA for new widespread testing of indoor air in the neighborhood to rule out risks of exposure by vapor intrusion. So far, EPA has not agreed to the testing. In what appears to be yet another dubious, knee-jerk, party-line denial from federal agencies, Stacey Coburn, the U.S. EPA’s project manager for the site, has stated that “she doesn’t believe anyone’s health is at risk from the plume” despite reports of nearby groundwater contamination levels exceeding 900ppb of TCE and previous confirmation that dangerous levels of TCE have already poisoned indoor air in certain homes.

Meantime, a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the contaminated community who apparently disagree with EPA’s empty reassurances.

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The Rochester Board of Education has scheduled a special session to question state health and environmental officials about a factory-turned-schoolhouse whose owner has asked that it be declared a brownfield.

Board President Malik Evans stressed that the purpose of the meeting, slated for July 14 at 6 p.m. [...] No related posts.]]> As reported in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

The Rochester Board of Education has scheduled a special session to question state health and environmental officials about a factory-turned-schoolhouse whose owner has asked that it be declared a brownfield.

Board President Malik Evans stressed that the purpose of the meeting, slated for July 14 at 6 p.m. at the board’s downtown headquarters, is to learn more about the toxins at the site and not to take action on the Rochester School District’s future use of the building.

The district last year signed a 15-year lease on the building at 690 St. Paul St. [map], a former Bausch & Lomb factory, where it temporarily housed School 33 this school year and plans to have School 14 and the new Dr. Walter Cooper Academy share space for the next few years.

Evans said the board was unaware of any contamination concerns when it authorized the lease, noting that the site hosted a charter school between 2000 and 2005.

[...]

Word of the meeting comes two weeks after the board rejected by a vote of 5-to-2 a motion that sought to pull students out of the space immediately and stop the two schools from moving in this fall.

[...]

Environmental tests of the site conducted last summer revealed traces of trichloroethene [a/k/a Trichloroethylene] in the air, soil and groundwater.

Read more.

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Nearly five years after toxic chemicals were found moving toward a middle school, the company causing the contamination has a plan to clean it up.

Wayne Metal Protection, 1511 Wabash Ave. [see map], reported polluting the soil and groundwater to Indiana’s voluntary cleanup program in the fall of [...] No related posts.]]> The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, IN reports:

Nearly five years after toxic chemicals were found moving toward a middle school, the company causing the contamination has a plan to clean it up.

Wayne Metal Protection, 1511 Wabash Ave. [see map], reported polluting the soil and groundwater to Indiana’s voluntary cleanup program in the fall of 2004, but consistently missed state deadlines for investigating the extent of the contamination and forming a cleanup plan. The metal-plating company sits a few hundred feet away – and uphill – from Memorial Park Middle School, and the plume of contamination extends toward the school.

[...]

Decades of metal coating at the site have left the soil and groundwater contaminated with chlorinated solvents, which move easily in groundwater and then evaporate as a gas up through the soil.

The chemicals Wayne Metal Protection found in the soil and groundwater – tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene – have been linked to numerous health problems including spontaneous abortions, menstrual disorders, altered sperm structure and reduced fertility, miscarriages and developmental problems. They have also been connected to kidney and liver problems, can affect the nervous and immune systems and have been linked to kidney, liver and cervical cancer, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

In addition, the company later reported it had found cyanide, arsenic, lead and chromium at the site, as well as vinyl chloride, which is so dangerous the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says there is no safe level of exposure.

Though the firm has submitted a plan, it will still need technical review by IDEM and a public comment period, a process that could take several more months.

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Prior to 1950, [TCE] was known as dangerous and poisonous in occupational settings involving sustained exposure to high concentrations of TCE, but specific adverse health effects resulting from [...] No related posts.]]> Clark v. United States, 660 F. Supp. 1164 (1987), summarizes mid-1900’s knowledge of TCE’s danger, unfitness for consumption, and the need to prevent it from poisoning water supplies:

Prior to 1950, [TCE] was known as dangerous and poisonous in occupational settings involving sustained exposure to high concentrations of TCE, but specific adverse health effects resulting from chronic exposure were not generally understood. Prior to 1950 it was generally known that TCE was not fit to consume and that it should not be in a water supply. The defendant [Air Force] was or should have been aware that substances such as TCE should not be in a water supply.

[...]

Prior to 1950, it was common knowledge that groundwater could be polluted and that the pollution could travel great distances from the site of the original contamination. Further, it was generally known prior to that time that percolation, a process by which substances disposed of would leach into the underlying groundwater, could occur and that groundwater needed to be protected from deleterious leachates.

The appropriate standard of care in waste disposal in the 1950s was to treat TCE as a hazardous substance in disposing of the contaminant so as not to pollute groundwater.

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The Walt Disney Co. has been sued by several groups of plaintiffs for dumping wastewater and contaminating Polliwog Park and the surrounding area with Chromium 6, TCE, and PCE.

As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other [...] No related posts.]]> View Larger Map

The Walt Disney Co. has been sued by several groups of plaintiffs for dumping wastewater and contaminating Polliwog Park and the surrounding area with Chromium 6, TCE, and PCE.

As their attorneys shuffle between four similar lawsuits that allege the Walt Disney Co. has for decades contaminated groundwater with cancer-causing chromium 6 and other toxic chemicals, stories of ill health from the plaintiffs are beginning to emerge.

In the latest lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court by the Sacramento-based firm Kershaw Cutter & Ratinoff LLP on behalf of 16 people with strong ties to the Rancho District, the plaintiffs claim Disney dumped wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium from its on-site cooling systems down the centerline of Parkside Avenue, toward Parish Place and across Riverside Drive into the so-called Polliwog, an 11-acre parcel near the studio’s Imagineering facilities.

“The water, without warning, would rush down like a flood,” said resident Bob Bell, who in 1945 paid $25,000 for his home at the corner of Parkside Avenue. “Water hopped the curb and flooded the streets for hours on end.”

The contamination was recently brought to light by Environmental World Watch, a party to one of the lawsuits. EWW claims that Disney has dumped air cooling water and the chemicals into curbside drains every day for the past 21 years.

Plaintiffs are seeking compensation for property damage caused by the contamination. No word yet whether any personal injury claims have been filed.

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During the last 20 years, Tallevast residents say dozens of their neighbors have died prematurely. Others are still fighting cancer and beryllium-related health issues.

But a draft Florida Department of Health report on the community blighted by more than 200 acres of polluted ground water found just four cases of cancer.

The [...] No related posts.]]> Last week’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) reports:

During the last 20 years, Tallevast residents say dozens of their neighbors have died prematurely. Others are still fighting cancer and beryllium-related health issues.

But a draft Florida Department of Health report on the community blighted by more than 200 acres of polluted ground water found just four cases of cancer.

The report could hardly be more different from a survey by residents that showed about 90 cases of cancer or beryllium-related diseases in the mainly black community.

DOH officials who met with the neighborhood group FOCUS on Monday agreed that their numbers, based on a state database and figures from a local hospital, were wildly off the mark. They also admitted they had studied the wrong ZIP code.

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Although Tallevast has a post office, most Tallevast residents live in a Sarasota ZIP code.

“That’s one of the problems of dealing with a statewide database,” said Randy Merchant, a DOH administrator. “It’s hard to get a handle on what is happening in so small an area.”

The results left community leaders upset that state officials had not worked more closely with them to ensure errors like this did not happen.

“We’re angry,” said Wanda Washington, vice president of FOCUS. “We’re just not sure what road to take. No one ever came into the community to do a study. If you are doing it from behind a desk, you’re going to miss a lot.”

FOCUS’ figures on incidences of cancer came from a door-to-door survey quizzing families about their medical histories.

The community of about 80 homes sits above more than 200 acres of polluted ground water left behind by the former American Beryllium Co., which built parts for nuclear warheads for the federal government for nearly 40 years.

State officials said they will likely get an epidemiologist to conduct a similar door-to-door survey.

The cost would be about $125,000, they said.

State Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said if the DOH cannot fund it he will look for other funding sources.

“I’ve committed myself to help see that that happens so that the question can be answered and a more accurate picture developed,” Galvano said.

Residents in Tallevast have asked Lockheed Martin, the company responsible for the cleanup of the site, to pay for them to move. They have also filed several lawsuits against Lockheed and other companies that operated at the site seeking damages for health issues and falling property values.

Lockheed became the owner of the Tallevast site after the company acquired the former Loral company in 1996. It shut down the plant and sold the property, but not before discovering soil and ground-water pollution on and around the site.

In 2000, Lockheed notified county and state officials of the pollution, which included trichloroethylene, or TCE, a compound linked to liver and kidney cancer and other ailments.

Residents, who were not informed for almost four more years, continued to use well water. Their homes were switched to the county drinking water system in 2004.

FOCUS leaders said they would welcome state officials’ repeating their survey.

“We think the state will be better at it,” Washington said. “You need to put your feet on the ground and come out here and collect that information.”

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Drinking water supplies for tens of thousands of people near three active Superfund sites in the Bountiful and Woods Cross areas have been at risk or even polluted because of groundwater contamination.

The pollution is so bad that the federal government decided to join state regulators in directing long-term cleanup efforts [...] No related posts.]]> The Deseret Morning News (UT) reports:

Drinking water supplies for tens of thousands of people near three active Superfund sites in the Bountiful and Woods Cross areas have been at risk or even polluted because of groundwater contamination.

The pollution is so bad that the federal government decided to join state regulators in directing long-term cleanup efforts of those sites.

Business owners who bought property in the affected areas, but were unaware that sources of contamination within the Superfund sites were beneath them, are expected to pay for removal of tainted soil and old polluting underground tanks that were put in long before they came along. Federal funds for cleanup are available for Superfund sites if they are active on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List, but some property owners still pay.

Utah Division of Drinking Water director Ken Bousfield said last week that water suppliers in Bountiful and Woods Cross are, based on the most recent tests, providing clean drinking water. Bousfield also is aware of the plumes of contaminated groundwater in those areas and how test results can change.

“That’s why you monitor,” he said.

The EPA lists at least 14 active Superfund sites in Utah that are among the worst hazardous waste sites in the country. Two sites in the Woods Cross and Bountiful areas are active due to three plumes of groundwater polluted by chemicals used in the past by dry cleaners, automotive garages and other industry.

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A third Superfund project on the EPA’s active National Priorities List is called the Intermountain Waste Oil Refinery site, located in Bountiful in the area of 995 South and 500 West. That site, listed in 2000 as a federal priority, has been deemed by the EPA as “under control” in terms of risk for human exposure to the chemical pollutants.

At one time, however, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and EPA were looking into whether those who rely on the so-called East Shore aquifer for drinking water — about 68,000 people — were “potentially affected” by a release of dichloroethylene into the aquifer.

Woods Cross public works director Scott Anderson follows state and federal testing regulations, which call for sampling of two wells every three years. He said municipal drinking water in his city is safe, serving about 7,400 people.

“Safe as anywhere else in the country,” Anderson said. “I think it’s very safe.”

Still, Woods Cross shut down one of its four drinking water sources, which supplied half the city, due to contamination by tetrachloroethylene, which the EPA said consistently was above the Cancer Risk Screening Concentration. Karla Scott can see the well from her home, where someone representing Woods Cross showed up about five years ago asking to test her water.

“He said it was OK,” Scott said. “You just go on with your life and don’t worry about it.”

If she wanted to, Scott could take a water sample for testing to the Utah State Health Lab, which sometimes takes special individual cases on, or to the private Chemtech-Ford Laboratories in Murray. The state lab does rigorous testing for water utilities throughout Utah.

Anderson said a test in 2004 showed that one of the three remaining active wells in Woods Cross turned up traces of trichloroethylene (TCE), but not at a level unacceptable by federal standards.

Bousfield said that in a few past isolated cases elsewhere in Utah, contamination has been so bad in drinking water supplies that people could actually smell chemicals in the water. When that happens, he added, there is a potential for an immediate health risk.

“It’s such a rare occurrence,” he said, unable to come up with a specific example over the phone. “I’m sure they do exist.”

5th South Plume

One of two large plumes of polluted groundwater in the Bountiful and Woods Cross areas, defining one Superfund site, is bad enough that seven of 26 domestic wells in the affected area are believed to have been contaminated by chemicals at concentrations that exceed acceptable federal levels. The potentially cancer-causing chemicals connected to that site are perchloroethylene (PCE) and TCE.

The EPA calls those two plumes the Bountiful/Woods Cross 5th South PCE Superfund Site, a place the EPA has assessed as “Human Exposure Not Under Control.” Mario Robles, the EPA’s project manager over the 5th South site, federally listed as a priority in 2001, said last week that cleanup of those plumes migrating under about 450 acres could take about 15 years.

“Really, nobody knows — it could be more, it could be less,” Robles said on the phone regarding a remediation time line.

So far, the plume contaminated with PCE has made its way into two residential drinking water wells, with one homeowner accepting the EPA’s offer of being hooked up to municipal water without charge. The other homeowner, Robles said, is opting to rely on filters for clean drinking water, preferring its taste over city supplies.

“The issue is if they change it often enough,” Robles said about the filter. “We explained the risks to them.”

The remaining five of the seven affected domestic wells are used primarily for irrigation, and Robles said there is not a risk of human exposure to the polluted groundwater around those wells. State regulators don’t keep track of water quality in private wells.

The two plumes, located roughly in the area of 500 South and 800 West in Bountiful, are slowly moving west, and the area of impact could spread, increasing the potential for future exposure from ingesting contaminated groundwater or by inhaling vapors as people use the groundwater for irrigation, according to the EPA.

Robles said that as soon as next month the EPA will decide whether soil near the Bountiful Family Cleaners, in operation since the 1940s but under different ownership, is contaminated enough with PCE to warrant removal and replacing. If that happens, the current owners of the cleaning business may have to cover some of those costs. PCE has been a preferred chemical used by dry cleaners for decades, dating from long before more strict disposal standards for PCE were put in place.

Ronald Bangerter bought the business in the 1960s and now owns it with his eight sons. One son, Bryce, said he hopes Bountiful Family Cleaners won’t have to pay any more than the $100,000-plus it already has spent during the past six years on legal fees and to look for pollution under the property.

“Sleepless nights, gut-wrenching, worried, what’s going to happen to the business,” is how Bryce Bangerter describes those six years. “We’ve run a clean ship since the ’60s.”

Prior to Bangerter’s family owning the business, waste went into a septic tank that drained into a field. But it’s unknown, Bangerter said, if the tank is still underground.

Until cleanup of the two 5th South plumes begins, the EPA is checking eight monitoring wells around the 400-acre PCE plume and 13 monitoring wells around the 50-acre TCE plume to watch how and where they move. The EPA believes the TCE plume has not impacted any wells.

The EPA’s plans for cleanup of the two plumes includes drawing the groundwater out, cleaning it and putting it back into the ground. Another method being considered involves adding nutrients into the polluted groundwater to speed up a natural degradation process.

Five Points Plume

A second Superfund site in the area, which is known by the EPA as the Five Points PCE plume, is a third plume of contaminated groundwater. It is located in the area of approximately 1500 South and State Highway 106, and received its active Superfund priority listing just last year.

The EPA’s on-scene coordinator, Duc Nguyen, said Your Valet Dry Cleaners owner Jim Patterson paid just under $100,000 last year to remove 43 cubic yards of contaminated soil and an old 1,000-gallon underground tank that Patterson said was leaking “bad gasoline.” The irony is not lost on Patterson that he had to pay for removal of a contamination source that wasn’t even linked to the dry cleaning industry.

“We pretty much feel confident that we removed the source of contamination,” Nguyen said.

Excavation stopped, however, partly because of so many underground utility lines and the area’s proximity to busy streets. And Woods Cross shut down one of its four drinking water wells because of consistently high amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals showing up in tests. The EPA said that migration of the plume is likely to increase contamination in wells over time.

Nguyen added that the EPA does not yet know the size of the Five Points plume west of Patterson’s business, located just up the hill from Karla Scott’s home of 40 years. Although there is one old monitoring well a block away, and the EPA will be installing new monitoring wells in the coming year, at this point it’s unknown what the impacts are from that plume, which the EPA said contains PCE.

Patterson recalled two other dry cleaners near the old Five Points Mall that possibly could be held accountable for the Five Points plume, but he said they are no longer in business. Patterson bought his Bountiful location in 1963. The money he spent on testing and clean-up is not covered by insurance, although the expenses do qualify as a tax write-off.

“You don’t get much of a sympathetic ear, because you own the land, and who owns the land pays,” Patterson said. “If I could go back on who had the tank, I might seek recovery from them.”

Even though the Five Points plume got its official EPA priority listing last year, Patterson has been dealing with state and federal officials for about nine years, drilling and testing to see where and what type of contamination existed. It is all a result of a drinking water test years ago that found unacceptable levels of PCE present.

Your Valet now says on its Web site it is the first dry cleaner in Utah to offer a new process called GreenEarth Cleaning, which instead of PCE uses a silicone-based cleaning solution developed by General Electric in the 1990s. It is a modified liquid silicone similar to what’s found in cosmetics, shaving creams and deodorants that “will not pollute our water, soil or air.”

Patterson said only one of his six locations still needs converting to GreenEarth, at a cost of about $15,000. There’s no law that says he has to make the conversion, but it’s something he said he’s doing in good conscience.

“There’s not a lot more that I can do, short of tearing up the intersection and knocking the building down,” he said. “It’s expensive, and we’ve done what we can do. I hope it’s over.”

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The Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water site in Aberdeen, North Carolina has been proposed for addition to EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites. It is one of six hazardous waste sites to be proposed for addition to the NPL, while twelve sites nationally are being added to [...] No related posts.]]> According to this recent EPA press release:

The Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water site in Aberdeen, North Carolina has been proposed for addition to EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites. It is one of six hazardous waste sites to be proposed for addition to the NPL, while twelve sites nationally are being added to the list.

The Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water site is about 1 acre in size and located on highway Route 211 in Aberdeen, Moore County, N.C. Powdered Metal Products (PMP) manufactured precision machine parts at the facility from 1980 until 1995. The operation utilized a trichloroethene (TCE) dip-vat as part of the manufacturing process. During the investigation of ground water contamination at the Geigy Chemical Corporation NPL site in 1990, which is located just on the other side of State Route 211, TCE, lead and pesticide contamination was detected in numerous private wells along Crestline Lane and Route 211. Investigations have identified contaminated soils in the vicinity of the former TCE dip-vat utilized by PMP as the source of TCE contamination in the ground water.

In a follow-up article in The Fayettville Observer (NC), we learn:

Trichloroethene also was detected in the town’s municipal water supply wells No. 5 and No. 9, according to an EPA report [PDF]. The level of the chemical exceeded the federal Safe Drinking Water Act maximum contaminant level.

The report said the town took the wells offline for some time and is now blending water from those wells with water from other municipal wells to reduce the trichloroethene levels.

The EPA provided municipal water supplies to 56 residences and businesses in the area, according to the agency.

Read the EPA press release here. For the full Fayetville Observer article, see here.

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People living in and around a special economic zone in Cuddalore are “2,000 times more” likely to be affected by cancer than the normal population, says a report prepared for the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. In a normal sample population, cancer occurs in one person in a million. But in and around [...] No related posts.]]> Thaindian News reports:

People living in and around a special economic zone in Cuddalore are “2,000 times more” likely to be affected by cancer than the normal population, says a report prepared for the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. In a normal sample population, cancer occurs in one person in a million. But in and around the State Industries Promotion Corp of Tamil Nadu known as SIPCOT industrial park nearly 300 km south of Chennai, two in every thousand are likely to have cancer, say anti-pollution campaigners.

The Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has prepared the report.

The study confirms the decades-old complaints by local residents that pollution from the chemical factories in the park is worst at night, especially in the village of Eachangadu.

The NEERI submitted the report in August 2007 to TNPCB without any public information. It came to light after an RTI plea by the local environment watchdog, Community Environment Monitoring (CEM).

[...]

The NEERI study found that areas near Shasun Chemicals, and the village of Eachangadu, were the worst affected.

Risk levels near Asian Paints and Tagros Chemicals are also high, the report said.

According to the report, children, elderly and the infirm were the most vulnerable. NEERI attributes this to “air transport of pollutants”.

Levels of Benzene – a chemical that causes blood cancer among children – were 125 times higher than safe levels.

Other carcinogens like chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride and trichloroethylene were 881, 553, 32.5 and 21.8 times respectively higher than acceptable levels, the NEERI report said.

NEERI says “the results are a conservative estimate” as “most of the industries are not operating to capacity on days of sampling”.

“If all the industries in the study area function to the full capacity, it may be expected that concentrations of pollutants will increase three-fold,” the institute told TNPCB.

The Community Environmental Monitor website provides this table of the actual pollution levels discovered:

List of Chemicals Detected with Highest Levels Recorded

Name of Chemical	Highest Level (microgram/m3)	Location	Times above safe levels
Benzene	31.174	Asian Paints	125
Carbon tetrachloride	72	Tagros Chemicals	553
Chloroform	74	Shasun	881
Methylene Chloride	133	Tanfac	32.5
Trichloroethylene	24	Aurobindo Chemicals	21.8

Read the full story here.

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A dry-cleaning shop on busy U.S. 1 has been proposed as a federal Superfund site after tests found nearby soil and groundwater contaminated with hazardous chemicals.

An Environmental Protection Agency official said the site presents no immediate health risk, but Broward County’s pollution prevention chief said he isn’t so sure.

Flash Cleaners, at [...] No related posts.]]> The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

A dry-cleaning shop on busy U.S. 1 has been proposed as a federal Superfund site after tests found nearby soil and groundwater contaminated with hazardous chemicals.

An Environmental Protection Agency official said the site presents no immediate health risk, but Broward County’s pollution prevention chief said he isn’t so sure.

Flash Cleaners, at 4131 N. Federal Highway [map], polluted the ground with a variety of chemicals used in the dry-cleaning business, most likely through spills and disposal of waste through a septic system, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Tests of soil and groundwater found concentrations of several chemicals exceeding federal safety standards, including dichloroethene, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethylene and vinyl chloride.

Although the shop still takes in dry cleaning, it no longer processes it on site.

Barbara Schuster, project manager for the EPA, said there’s no immediate danger to public health. Eight drinking-water wells, serving Hillsboro Beach and other portions of northern Broward County, are within a mile of the site. But Schuster said there is little danger to the wells because they lie northwest or southwest of the site and the groundwater flows east, away from the wells.

Jeff Halsey, Broward County’s director of pollution prevention and remediation, said there is not enough information to determine how much danger is posed by the underground spread of hazardous chemicals. Among the possible health effects of these chemicals are liver and kidney damage, neurological diseases and cancer, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Until we can get an assessment done and know exactly where the plume is going, we’re going to be very, very concerned,” he said.

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The exact cause of the contamination is unknown, although environmental inspectors documented unsafe practices at the shop, according to EPA records. They found machinery and waste containers on a bare concrete floor without secondary containment. Wastewater from the dry-cleaning work was discharged into an on-site septic tank, which caused contamination of soil and water, according to the EPA.

The Superfund program, established after the discovery of thousands of tons of hazardous waste in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y., takes on the most serious contaminated sites. Under the program, the EPA tries to find the parties responsible for the pollution and make them pay for cleanup. Failing that, the Superfund pays, although its funds have dwindled since the expiration of a special tax on industries that pollute.

The owners of the shop, John and Susan Ferrel, say they didn’t cause the contamination and can’t afford to pay for cleaning it up. They bought the store in 1977 after working there for a year, and they’ve worked there ever since. They said they disposed of the waste properly and have been forced to pay for a preliminary environmental study because a state inspector found a small amount of dry-cleaning chemicals at the bottom of an unused machine.

“Because of that one thing, we spent a lot of money over the years trying to do what the county wanted and what the EPA wanted,” Susan Ferrel said, speaking from their home in Sebastian. “We just can’t afford this. It will take all our retirement.”

The EPA will conduct a study of the site and figure out a cleanup plan. Among the most likely options are digging up the soil and taking it to a landfill or pumping up the water and treating it to remove the contaminants. It is unknown what will happen to the business.

The one-story, peach-colored shop stands just back from the noisy traffic of Federal Highway. An American flag hangs in the window. A sign in the door states that it is closed Monday. Behind the shop is the Beacon Heights neighborhood, consisting of small apartment buildings and one-story houses.

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” said Bob Manko, standing on the porch of his house on Northeast 42 Street. “If there’s something bad there, it ought to be cleaned up.”

But he said he hoped a small business wouldn’t be harmed by having to spend an excessive amount, unless the cleanup is necessary.

“Common sense should prevail,” he said.

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.

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