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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.
Read more.
EPA recently added twelve new contamination sites to its Superfund list. TCE is a known contaminant of concern at at least five of the twelve sites. These five TCE sites include:
Read more here. For new readers arriving here in search of information about TCE contamination at these sites, welcome.
Late in February, the Palladium-Item (IN) reported:
Springwood Lake [in Richmond, Indiana] will remain closed to area fishermen for at least a year and could be closed well beyond that, Richmond park board members were told Thursday.
The reason is contamination, including cancer-causing heavy metals, found in sediment on the lake’s floor during testing over the past few years. State officials also believe that contaminants continue to seep into the lake from industrial sites past and present above the lake on the city’s northwest side.
Some believe that area may include old industrial dump sites.
State officials told Richmond Mayor Sally Hutton and city park department board members that tests found contaminants including lead, PCBs, cadmium, chromium, cyanide, arsenic and trichloroethylene (a solvent) in the sediment.
[...]
“We do know there is historical contamination (in the lake) and we know there is a need for more investigation,” said IDEM spokeswoman Amy Hartsock. “There has not been a fish consumption advisory issued for the lake at this time, but we do support the city’s decision to close the lake to fishing.”
This is a first for us. We’ve never heard of Trichloroethylene being discovered in sediments below a lake. We’re not saying it doesn’t happen, just that it’s the first we’ve heard this kind of story. It raises a number of questions for us:
- What levels of TCE were discovered in the sediment?
- If the sediment contains TCE, does that mean the lake water contains TCE?
- If the lake water contains TCE, is the lake itself a source of toxic TCE vapors (that is, is TCE evaporating from the lake and contaminating the air?)
- And of course, from where did this TCE come?
Note: We recognize there are other toxins involved here and don’t mean to suggest they are unimportant. But as readers know, we have a very narrow focus.
We’ll keep you posted as we learn more. Meantime, you can read the full story here.
Can trees help us remediate TCE? This story comes from today’s Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN):
Purdue helping to remove pollutants using poplars
January 14, 2008
The news
Purdue University researchers and Chrysler LLC are collaborating on a project using modified poplar trees to eliminate pollutants from a former oil-storage facility near Kokomo.
In laboratory experiments, the trees have been shown to be capable of absorbing trichloroethylene, or TCE, and other pollutants. The pollutants are then turned into harmless byproducts.
The study
Richard Meilan, a Purdue associate professor of forestry and natural resources with Purdue’s Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center and the Center for Tree Genetics, co-authored a study published last fall that showed poplar cuttings could remove 90 percent of TCE from a solution in one week.
The trees are called transgenic poplars because they have an inserted gene that aids the breakdown of TCE and other environmental pollutants.
TCE is the most common groundwater pollutant on Superfund sites and causes various human health problems when in the water or air.
The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The process
Meilan believes the poplars will be able to absorb the TCE from the site with their roots. Peter’s Pond was contaminated by oil stored there in the 1960s. The oil is now within 10 feet of the surface, easily reachable by poplar roots.
There is concern by some that the inserted genes could escape the trees and invade other natural tree populations, but Meilan said he’s trying to make sure that isn’t the case by removing the trees before they reach sexual maturity.
“It is legitimate to be concerned about transgenic plants, but we are taking comprehensive steps to ensure that our transgenes don’t escape into the environment,” Meilan said.
The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, IN) reports:
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed that an area of groundwater in Terre Haute be added to a federal priority list to clean it up before contaminants enter the city’s drinking-water supply.
The EPA proposed the contamination site be added to its Superfund National Priorities List, which would assist in funding and cleanup.
The site contains contaminates tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene.
The chemicals are being detected at a low level in the city’s drinking water, said EPA remedial project manager Jena Sleboda.
The water supply isn’t in immediate danger and the cleanup is being initiated as a preventive measure, she said.
The contaminated groundwater site is about 600 feet long by 160 feet wide, under I. Gurman Container & Supply Corp. at 800 N. Third St.; and Bi-State Products, a now-vacant property that operated at 118 Elm St. from the 1930s to 1980 first as a petroleum storage facility and then as a used oil storage business.
[...]
Mick Hans of the EPA said a 60-day public-comment period is part of the proposal process and he strongly encourages participation. The government considers the feedback from the community before it decides the proposal’s fate.
The government updates the EPA’s Superfund National Priority List twice a year, and it may take six months to two years to get the proposal approved.
[...]
Debbie Gurman, owner of Gurman Container, inherited the business more than two years ago after her husband died, she said.
Gurman said the business does not contaminate groundwater, because its operational procedures have changed.
Gurman said her husband’s grandfather started the business, and it operates in accordance with federal and state regulations. “We have absolutely nothing to do with this,” she said. The business began in 1922. “That’s the thing. The people who were here during the years aren’t here anymore. They didn’t know about this, because there wasn’t regulations back then. … I know everything is fine. We are not contributing to contamination … .”
Gurman’s attorney, Mike Schopmeyer, said, “The company has extended a great deal of money to conduct other tests, which have revealed the source of the plume is likely from another property, not Gurman.”
The EPA stated that from 1940 to 1970, Gurman Container’s standard operational procedure was to open a drum and dump its contents onto the ground and rinse remaining contents into the sewer.
It stored petroleum products and solvents for cleaning parts before distribution, and waste oils were stored in large above-ground tanks, according to the EPA. As for Bi-State Products, “Site contaminants have been detected in the surface and subsurface soils and in the shallow groundwater monitoring wells beneath Bi-State Products,” the EPA stated.
Roger Swafford of Indiana American Water said the company has been working with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management on this cleanup for 23 years.
[...]
–Comments may be e-mailed to: superfund.docket@epa.gov
–Comments may be sent by U.S. mail to: U.S. EPA Region 5, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604
Read the full story.
The Kokomo Tribune (IN) reports:
For the first time since December 2000, there are signs of human activity at the former Continental Steel main plant site. Workers in white protective suits, wearing protective rubber gloves and boots, are busy analyzing core samples from the contaminated ground.
[...]
June 8, the EPA announced it would spend $3 million on Continental Steel this year to build infrastructure for the eventual dredging of the site’s highly contaminated creekbeds. Designated as a “new start,” by the EPA, the Continental Steel site was officially placed into the ranks of priority cleanups.
To complete the main plant project, work is expected to proceed in three phases:
- The scientists currently on-site will use core-sample analysis to map out a grid on the site, showing the areas with the highest contamination of carcinogenic volatile organic chemicals in the soil. In particular, they’ll be looking for concentrations of trichloroethylene, which was once heavily used as an industrial degreaser.
- The scientists will use the grid information to determine how and where to set up a heat vapor extraction system. The system will pump heat into the ground, which will force the volatile organic chemicals into a series of vacuum wells. The toxic fumes will be drawn out and disposed of.
- Once the volatile organic chemicals have been cleaned up, engineers will cover the entire site with a thick layer of topsoil and clean fill. The “cap” will protect the public from the contaminants still remaining in the ground, such as lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Unlike the volatile organic chemicals, those contaminants are considered unlikely to migrate into the groundwater or upward through the soil.
Read more.
…to keep people safer from TCE, please encourage them to contact:
Jody Milanese (millaneese) in Congresswoman Sue Kelly’s office at 202-225-5441
The Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN) reports:
Some thought the story of Camp Wapi-Kamigi ended in 1997 when Girl Scouts of Treaty Line Council sold the property because the camp’s drinking water was contaminated.
But for Dr. Jeff Quillen and his family, the story is beginning. Quillen has re-opened the camp south of Hagerstown to the public, hoping more memories are made there. He not only believes it’s safe for people to be on the property, he and his family and two resident caretakers live there.
“My family cooks with, drinks and bathes with the same water people will be using,” Quillen said. “It’s monitored quarterly and should there be any mess up we would know it immediately.”
[...]
In 1994, contamination by chromium, a suspected carcinogen, and trichloroethylene was discovered in the aquifer providing the camp’s drinking water. The contaminants were suspected to have come from the nearby former Dana Corp. plant.
[...]
Providing safe water has been one of the camp’s main issues. Contaminated wells have been abandoned and filled in.
Quillen said the contamination is 20 to 30 feet below the surface and unless someone digs that deep, it doesn’t affect what happens on the surface.
Read the full story.
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