|
|
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.
The Daily Press (Hamptons Road, VA) reports:
A cancer-causing industrial solvent has been found coursing in huge levels through the water table under Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.
One test showed the trichloroethylene, or TCE, at 18,000 parts per billion, or ppb. A follow-up test put it at 3,900 ppb.
By a quirk of geology, the water table drains into Indian Field Creek, which flows directly into the York River.
Years after those tests, the TCE level is now 800 ppb. But the landfill thought to be creating the pollution has yet to be entirely cleaned up, despite the off-the-charts sample data.
TCE is just one of many serious pollution problems at the secretive Navy base. More than 30 polluted sites have been identified, and about half have been cleaned up.
Read more here.
Or check out EPA’s NPL site narrative, ATSDR’s Public Health Assessment (can you guess the conclusion?), or Virginia DEQ’s site fact sheet [PDF, HTML].
The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, VA) reports:
The Piedmont Housing Alliance had to take its plans for an affordable-housing development in the Fifeville neighborhood back to the drawing board after a routine environmental survey revealed the groundwater is contaminated with an industrial-strength cleaning solvent.
While the chemical, trichloroethylene, isn’t concentrated enough to require extensive clean up, the housing alliance nevertheless volunteered to take steps to protect those most vulnerable to it: the construction workers who will build the development.
The chemical is in the water table, about 3 to 6 feet beneath the surface. Workers would only come in contact with it if they were digging a foundation.
To avoid this, Charlottesville architect Bill Atwood suggested building on top of the earth. Under his plan, concrete will be poured into a weight-bearing form called a “waffle slab.” It will seal off the exposed earth at the site, which is a small block bordered by Grove, King, Ninth and 10th streets.
“We decided the way to solve that problem, which will truly make this a one-of-a-kind project … was to put down a waffle-slab grid,” he said. “It’s one of the rare times in my career that we’re actually making the site safer.”
Read the full story.
It seems there is now a question about the amount that the state is willing to spend to reimburse four residents who acted to protect their homes (i.e. bought filters rather than waiting for the state to get around to it…) in Broad Run Farms:
THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT of Environmental Quality announced last month that it would finance filtration systems for the residents with TCE in their wells. Jeff Steers, regional director of the Northern Regional Office, had said the department, however, could not use the Virginia Environmental Emergency Response Fund for reimbursement purposes.
Steers said Monday that his department has since researched the matter and decided the state can reimburse the county government if the county pays for the reimbursement. Virginia will only cover the costs that we would have incurred had we done the installation, he said. Steers estimated the tally at $3,000 to $4,000. Homeowners have to present receipts to be compensated.
Read the full story.
…to keep people safer from TCE, please encourage them to contact:
Jody Milanese (millaneese) in Congresswoman Sue Kelly’s office at 202-225-5441
You may recall that the Loudoun County DEQ had offered to purchase filtration systems for those Broad Run Farms residents whose wells were contaminated and who hadn’t already purchased a system themselves. We were surprised by the DEQ’s seeming lack of imagination and strange policy promotion, claiming they were unable to reimburse those who had purchased a filter system already. At the time, we wrote:
[I]t seems to us, the DEQ could easily find a way to offer the very same assistance to each home owner, including the woman who has already taken steps to protect her home’s health. Whether the assistance is compatible with her $4,000 filter should be for her to decide. Otherwise, isn’t the DEQ merely paying people off for having remained exposed? Surely this can’t be the policy DEQ is trying to promote… can it?
Today we learned this encouraging news via Leesburg Today (Loudoun County, VA):
After contamination was found in the wells of some Broad Run Farms homes, the state Department of Environmental Quality agreed to pony up the money for water filtration units that will purify water for those residents.
The DEQ also agreed to reimburse those who had already purchased filtration units.
[...]
Board of supervisors Vice Chairman Bruce E. Tulloch (R Potomac) worked with the community on the issue. Any residents with questions about the contamination or the reimbursement for water filtration units may contact Tulloch at 703-777-0204 or send an e-mail to btulloch@loudoun.gov.
Read the brief report here.
The Loudoun Connection (Loudoun County, VA) reports:
The Loudoun County Health Department has offered bottled water to 22 Broad Run Farms homeowners with trichloroethylene (TCE) in their wells. The state Department of Environmental Quality pledged two weeks ago to pay for whole house filtration systems, estimating it would take about a month to put them in place. In a letter sent to residents last week, Health Director David Goodfriend said instillation could take four months or longer. He offered the water until the filtration systems are ready, based on a recommendation by the Supervisors’ Public Safety Committee.
Read the full story here.
Cause there’s one for sale in Loudoun County:
For sale: 148 acres between Broad Run Farms and Countryside. “Many acres of parkland for horseback, walks, bike paths, gardens.” List Price: $2.5 million.
One caveat: About 35 of those acres are the site of the Hidden Lane Landfill. Officials have identified it as the probable source of trichloroethylene (TCE), a carcinogen that has contaminated 22 wells in the Broad Run Farms community.
A developer put a contract on the property in February, the same month that the Loudoun Department of Health started testing wells to see if they contained TCE. The real estate listing also describes the landfill as “cleared by the EPA.” The Environmental Protection Agency put the property on the Superfund list in 1988 after receiving a complaint about a chemical waste at the site. It was removed from the list in 2003, because information available at the time did not demonstrate a significant potential for hazardous waste, Office of Solid Waste records show.
At the urging of county and state officials, Broad Run Farms residents are now gathering signatures to petition the EPA to take a second look. They want the federal agency to designate it as a Superfund, so the EPA will do the clean up and go after the people or business responsible for the contamination for payment.
[...]
Bruce Tulloch, vice chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said a developer had a contract on the property, with plans to build a housing development. He said he understood why the developer had backed off on the project after learning about the TCE contamination. “Anybody that would consider buying that landfill should get an examination from the neck up,” he said.
Read the full story.
|
|