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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.
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.
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.”
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.
Recently, the Dayton Daily News (OH) reported the Behr Dayton Thermal Products Plant has been proposed to EPA’s National Priority List (NPL) for clean-up:
Groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the Behr Dayton Thermal Products Plant is severe enough to merit putting it on the National Priority List of the U.S. EPA’s Superfund program, federal officials said.
The list represents the highest level of urgency for cleanups in the nation.
If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approves later this year, an effort to cleanup groundwater at the site would rank among five others in Montgomery County on the National Priority List.
There are 22 active Superfund sites in the county where work is being planned or is under way.
Priority sites are considered the worst in the nation in terms of hazard and are eligible for cleanup using Superfund Trust money. The Behr project is still in the investigational stages, which typically can take two years and cost millions, officials said.
So far, the contamination has led to the closure of McGuffey Elementary School, 1032 Webster St., and the installation of air evacuation systems in 100 homes affected by indoor air fumes from the groundwater, which is tainted with the degreaser trichloroethylene — TCE — and other organic chemicals.
It’s unknown when the school will reopen. A handful of homes that have dirt basements still have indoor air contamination slightly above strict exposure levels. In the Superfund program, those responsible for the contamination fund the cleanup.
According to documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News, federal investigators believe four industrial businesses could share responsibility: Gem City Chemicals Inc., Aramark Uniform Services, Chrysler, and Behr Dayton Thermal Products.
Aramark didn’t return a call for comment. Gem City declined comment.
In a follow-up article, the Daily News also reports that a survey of local cancer incidence is planned:
Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County is launching a cancer incidence survey among residents near the Behr Dayton Thermal Products plant, where groundwater pollution has prompted regulatory action to address indoor air quality.
Mark Case, director of environmental health for the agency, said Monday, March 10, that the survey could take up to a year and is being conducted with the Ohio Department of Health.
The survey will examine medical records and compare cancer levels in the neighborhood with overall cancer levels in the county, state and nation, he said. “By comparison, you get a sense whether something is out of line or not,” Case said.
The Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System will be tapped for data, he noted. All diagnosed cancer cases in Ohio are supposed to be reported to the system. The area will include the census tract of the Behr plant and residential neighborhoods where 100 or so indoor air vapor abatement systems have been installed.
A similar survey was performed in 2005 in Kettering neighborhoods near the former Gentile Air Force Station. Residents of the Wiles Creek neighborhood there complained about pollution from the former Defense Electronics Supply Center. The survey found no abnormalities.
Case acknowledged that a cancer survey could have some limitations.
“We don’t know how long the vapors have been in people’s homes,” he said.
The exact chronology of Behr plant pollution is unclear. Former plant owner Chrysler has said it discovered TCE, or trichloroethylene, contamination in 1996, but it wasn’t until Ohio EPA tests in 2006 that hazards to homes were suspected.
Cancer can develop over decades and take the form of many different types of tumors, Case said. In its Ninth Report on Carcinogens, the federal National Toxicology Program determined that TCE is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that TCE is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.
In a related development, a community outreach survey sponsored by the Environmental Sustainability Research Group at the University of Dayton will examine health problems in the area. A public meeting on the survey could occur in April, a spokeswoman said.
Though the meetings announced in this article have since passed (the article was originally dated March 10), this Rochester Democrat & Chronicle article highlights 3 separate site clean-ups that are under way:
Costly taxpayer-financed plans to address toxic-chemical contamination in residential pockets of northeast Rochester and central Brighton will be detailed at separate public meetings this week.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday evening to discuss a $1 million proposal to remove tainted soil and take other steps to address contamination at a now-closed business at Fernwood and Portland avenues in northeast Rochester.
The DEC first learned in 2000 that Preferred Electric Motors had spilled solvents and other potentially harmful materials in the course of its work refurbishing electric motors. Trichloroethene (TCE), tetrachloroethene (PCE) and other solvents are contaminating groundwater near the former business, prompting the state to install ventilation systems in two homes to guard against the build-up of toxic vapors.
The proposed cleanup would remove about 450 cubic yards of contaminated soil and include steps to speed the degradation of solvents in the groundwater. The floor of the building, which is contaminated with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), would be cleaned and sealed.
The building was purchased three years ago by a Greece carpet company that stores product there, according to the DEC.
On Thursday, another group of state officials will convene a meeting in Brighton to discuss a proposed $3.7 million plan to address a complicated PCE contamination problem underneath a section of Brighton just southeast of the Twelve Corners.
The solvent contamination there first came to light during investigation of a 2003 petroleum spill at a service station at the corner of Brooklawn Drive and Monroe Avenue. Officials first pointed the finger at Carriage Cleaners, at that same intersection, as the source of the PCE, a common dry-cleaning solvent.
Then last year, DEC said they had found high levels of PCE in soil and groundwater near a former Speedy’s Cleaners just across Monroe Avenue from the other two businesses. It also was identified as a likely source of the solvents. Vapor ventilation systems had been installed in at least 11 structures to address petroleum vapors. PCE vapors prompted installation of systems in three residential and one commercial building.
As part of its long-term cleanup plan, the environmental agency now proposes to install systems that would extract both air and groundwater from below the surface for treatment to remove any solvents. About 720 cubic yards of tainted soil also would be excavated.
Both central Brighton and northeast Rochester are served by public water, meaning no one should be drinking the contaminated groundwater. But in recent years, officials have recognized that solvents can evaporate underground and rise through the soil — and can, in some cases, the vapors can accumulate inside homes or businesses above.
Both TCE and PCE may cause cancer or other serious health problems in people exposed to high levels. The affects of low-level exposure are less clear — but the DEC and the state Department of Health have given special attention in recent years to possible intrusion of solvent vapors.
Both cleanup projects would be paid for with money from New York’s Superfund, which finances work at hazardous waste disposal sites when the responsible parties do not step in. The DEC’s written cleanup proposals, provided by the agency Friday, indicated that companies judged responsible for the Rochester and Brighton contamination have declined to pay for the work. The DEC may pursue legal action against them to recover its costs, the proposals said.
Residents of the neighborhood affected by the petroleum and PCE spills in Brighton filed a civil suit in 2004 against the companies that owned the service station and the two dry cleaners, as well as the town of Brighton.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Alan Knauf, could not be reached for comment late Friday. But a January letter from Knauf in the case file in U.S. District Court said the plaintiffs had reached a settlement agreement with all the defendants except for Speedy’s.
The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (NY) recently reported this news:
Barring a flood of public comments, state environmental officials could decide early next month on a cleanup option for a site in northeast Rochester where soil and groundwater are contaminated with toxic solvents.
And judging by attendance at a public meeting on the site Tuesday evening, a flood of further comments is unlikely. “It’s sad in the neighborhood — there’s just no interest,” said Sue Buehner, one of two or three citizens who attended the meeting in the library at School 36.
The session focused on problems at 42 Fernwood Ave., a small commercial building where Preferred Electric Motors reconditioned motors from the early 1950s until the business closed eight years ago. In the process, the company spilled or dumped toxic solvents, including trichloroethene, or TCE.
After an anonymous tip about leaking chemical drums in 2000, state Department of Environmental Conservation officials found solvents in soil and groundwater.
They also discovered very high levels of TCE vapors infiltrating a neighboring rental home, and health officials ordered that it remain unoccupied until a system was installed to pull the potentially harmful vapors from the soil.
The DEC paid for removal of soil and an underground storage tank in 2001. In more recent years, state officials returned to the area to test a dozen structures for vapors, and installed a ventilation system in one home.
Now the agency has proposed a permanent cleanup that would involve removal of more tainted soil, capping that area with asphalt, cleaning the building’s floor and placing material underground that would promote degradation of the remaining solvents.
The work would cost $1.1 million. “It blows my mind that they’re going to spend $1 million to do what they’re going to do,” said Buehner, whose home abuts Preferred Electric’s former property.
During the session, she asked DEC and state Department of Health officials several questions about how much contact they’ve had with residents since the contamination was found.
“We tried to inform the surrounding community as best we could,” responded Melissa Menetti, a public health specialist.
After the meeting, Buehner said she was pleased that so many experts — about 10 — were present to answer questions. She and her husband John, who also attended, said they were assured Tuesday that their home would be tested for TCE vapors next year.
A formal cleanup decision likely will be made in April, said Valerie Woodward, the DEC project manager. Work would start in one to two years.
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reports that the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to take over clean-up of TCE resulting from a FUDS (Formerly Used Defense Site):
The Army Corps of Engineers will apparently “do the right thing” when it comes to taking responsibility for treating one source of Cheyenne’s drinking water for trichloroethylene, or TCE, which is a result of Cold War-era nuclear missile maintenance east of Cheyenne.
Paul Johnston, public affairs officer for the Omaha district of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps is charged by the Department of Defense to administer the FUDS (formerly used defense sites) program.
That means taking care of a range of sites, “from missile sites to old training grounds to WWI and WWII bombing ranges and old munitions storage; the whole gamut,” Johnston said.
But right now, the city is paying the $20,000 a year it takes to remove the TCE from the water before it arrives at residents’ taps.
It also paid $600,000 for the aeration basin that removes the chemical when it was first found in 1998, Jane Francis, geological supervisor at the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said.
“Our first priority is safe drinking water,” Bud Spillman, manager of the water treatment division of the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, said in a news release. “We can remove the TCE at the treatment plant and do not allow any water contaminated with TCE to be piped to town.”
But before the water from the newly-acquired Belvoir Ranch can be sent to Cheyenne, the aeration basin at the treatment plant will need to be increased, according to a BOPU news release.
“The cost to increase capacity at the aeration basin is a cost that Cheyenne’s residents shouldn’t have to pay,” Spillman said in the release.
[...]
The Army Corps has been studying the contamination in Cheyenne for the last seven years, Francis said.
They’re making slow progress in trying to find out how long the contamination plume is, she added. It is the position of the department that there is one large plume of TCE that is a result of the chemical being used at the Atlas No. 4 missile site.
Johnston said there are two areas of contamination. One is obviously because of the work at the missile site.
The Army Corps is taking full responsibility for that site, he said, and taking steps to clean it up.
But there is a 2- to 3-mile stretch where there is no contamination, and the TCE picks up again about 10 miles from the missile site. The source of the contamination at that site isn’t clear to the Army Corps, Johnston said.
Working with the Environmental Protection Agency and BOPU, “all of us cannot find a firm link between the two contaminated areas,” he said.
That’s as of yet, anyway. In June, Johnston said the Army Corps plans to have more people out in the field doing studies to determine the source of contamination for the second plume.
If it is found that the water is also contaminated because of the missile maintenance, the Army Corps will take full responsibility and clean it up, he said.
Read the full story here.
Toxic TCE vapors are entering homes in Dayton. Though EPA is on the case, they’ve run into a few complications:
Efforts to make homes safe from contaminated groundwater fumes near the Behr Dayton Thermal Products plant, 1600 Webster St., have run into problems at as many as 10 homes.
And the effort to clean indoor air contamination at a nearby school is ongoing, authorities have said.
TCE fumes have migrated from the soil into the homes, businesses and schools, creating potentially hazardous vapors.
In homes that have dirt basement floors, those floors must be sealed for the air evacuation systems to work properly, said Mark Case, director of environmental health for Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County.
Levels of contamination in the problematic homes have reportedly dropped below 10 ppb. That’s still 25 times the Ohio Department of Health’s exposure limit of .4 ppb.
Read the full article in the Dayton Daily News.
A story in today’s Columbia Basin Herald (WA) announced a Wednesday-night meeting in Moses Lake, WA where EPA was scheduled to present their clean-up plan for a massive groundwater contamination site. Sorry we posted this news so late, but it gives us the opportunity to tell you more.
The site is known as the Moses Lake Wellfield Contamination Superfund site.
According to today’s article, the TCE contamination has persisted (and, we assume, migrated) for about 50 or so years.
In a press release earlier this month, EPA previewed their plan:
A comprehensive cleanup plan for the trichloroethylene (TCE)-contaminated groundwater at the Moses Lake Wellfield Contamination Superfund site has been issued for public review by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The site is located just north of Moses Lake and includes the Grant County Airport, the former Larson Air Force Base, and areas south of the airport.
“This cleanup plan takes steps that will protect human health and the environment and restore groundwater quality,” said Lori Cohen, EPA’s Associate Director of the Office of Environmental Cleanup.
The groundwater and soils at the site were contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and other hazardous substances by operations of the former base and industrial activities associated with the aircraft industry. Approximately 1000 acres of groundwater are contaminated with TCE above health based standards and several contaminated soil waste areas are scattered throughout the site. The proposed cleanup is expected to cost about $31 million. TCE is an industrial solvent that was commonly used at this site for stripping paint from airplanes, washing airplane parts, and cleaning missile components.
The proposed cleanup plan calls for:
- pumping out the most highly contaminated water and treating it to remove TCE;
- cleaning up the contaminated soil areas by removing soils contaminated above safe levels;
- restoring the groundwater to its highest beneficial use as a drinking water source; and
- requiring local land use restrictions such as changes to local ordinances, zoning, and property easements to protect the public from contaminated groundwater and soils until cleanup work is completed.
In 1988, TCE contamination was found in three of the City of Moses Lake drinking water supply wells on the base. TCE contamination was also discovered in the Skyline Water System wells located south of the base. Since that time, EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) have been investigating the contamination and cleanup options at Moses Lake. Between 1989 and 1993 the City fixed the three contaminated wells on the former base by deepening the wells. In 2003, the Corps constructed a replacement water supply well for the Skyline Water System. Continued testing has shown that the City and Skyline wells continue to provide reliable, clean drinking water to the community. The Corps and EPA continue to test a representative set of wells (up to 80) at the site. Based on this sampling, five homes have had whole-house filters installed at their wells to remove TCE from the water.
The safe level for TCE in drinking water is set at 5 parts per billion (ppb). The contaminated groundwater at this site contains TCE concentrations above 5 ppb and some areas contain TCE as high as 80 ppb. The primary risks for people who drink water containing TCE in excess of 5 ppb over many years are the potential to experience liver problems and an increased risk of getting cancer.
Though we haven’t been able to dig through much of it, EPA has links on its website to a whole treasure trove of documents related to the Moses Lake site, including the proposed clean-up plan [PDF, 26 pp., 148K] that was presented tonight. According to EPA’s website, the following people are available to answer questions about the site:
General Information
Suzanne Skadowski, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator
206-553-6689 or toll-free at 1-800-424-4372
Technical Information
Dennis Faulk, EPA Project Manager
509-376-8631
Technical Information
Marcia Knadle, EPA Hydrogeologist
206-553-1641 or toll-free at 1-800-424-4372
As always, we’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
Over the weekend, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (NY) reported extremely high levels of TCE in soil and groundwater in Gates, NY:
After a four-year investigation, the DEC found high levels of trichloroethene (TCE) in soil and groundwater at Buell Automatics, 381 Buell Road. A toxic volatile organic compound used as a solvent in dry cleaning and removal of grease, trichloroethene in large amounts can cause health symptoms similar to those of alcohol intoxication, beginning with headache, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmias and liver and kidney problems.
The tainted groundwater flowed 200 feet southwest, toward the Comfort Inn, 395 Buell Road, the report said. DEC officials performed a vapor intrusion analysis near and around the hotel. The site is not near a residential area.
[...]
DEC officials conducted investigations between March 2002 and September 2006 to evaluate geologic and groundwater conditions on- and off-site. The investigation included sampling and chemical soil analysis from more than 60 soil borings, 19 groundwater wells and indoor air from buildings at three adjacent properties.
The DEC testing showed TCE levels for the soil at 820 parts per million and groundwater at 15 parts per million, both much higher than standard numbers.
Read the full story here.
According to EPA’s recent press release:
Release date: 01/25/2008
Contact Information: David Deegan, (617) 918-1017
(Boston, Mass. – Jan. 25, 2008) – The U.S. District Court in Massachusetts on January 9 entered a settlement agreement (Consent Decree) for the 850 acre Groveland Wells Nos. 1 and 2 Superfund site in Groveland, Mass [see map].
Settling with the United States, on behalf of EPA, is Groveland Resources Corp. and Valley Manufacturing Products Co.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Settling Defendants will pay 100 percent of the Net Sale or Net Lease Proceeds in the event their property on the Site is sold or leased to reimburse the United States for costs incurred at the site. The Settling Defendants will also be required to impose certain deed restrictions or institutional controls on the Site in order to protect EPA’s cleanup actions at the site.
The Groveland Wells Site is located within a residential area in the southwestern part of the Town of Groveland. Valley Manufactured Products Co. manufactured screw products as well as metal and plastic parts from 1963 until 2001. The site is contaminated primarily with trichloroethene (TCE) which was used to clean (degrease) finished parts. TCE was released into the ground from a variety of sources including, underground storage tanks, underground disposal systems and intentional dumping. The Groveland site was added to EPA’s National Priority List in September 1983. EPA has been conducting cleanup actions at the site that address the contamination in the soil and groundwater.
In 1997, the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin, a source of drinking water to tens of thousands of San Bernardino County residents, was found to be contaminated by TCE and perchlorate. According to EPA, “the contamination has forced the closure of numerous public drinking water supply wells and caused hardships for Rialto, Colton and neighboring areas dependent on the basin for their drinking water.” Ever since, the City of Rialto has attempted to treat the contaminated wells, remediate the perchlorate and TCE, and also recover costs for its efforts from a number of potentially responsible parties (PRP’s).
In a 2005, when EPA granted the affected cities more than $400,000 towards the cost of clean-up, the San Bernardino Sun (CA) explained why this money was “just a drop in the bucket”:
It costs more than $1 million to install perchlorate filters on a well, and about $500,000 a year for maintenance.
…
Fontana Water Co. General Manager Mike McGraw said the city spent about $3 million to set up treatment for two contaminated wells.
…
[Colton] has spent more than $4 million to date treating three wells for perchlorate, Medina said. He wouldn’t rule out a rate increase.
…
Rialto is suing the Department of Defense and 42 of its contractors, as well as fireworks manufacturers, for perchlorate contamination. One defendant, B.F. Goodrich, gave $4 million to the cities and district.
Rialto has spent about $7.6 million on legal fees and cleanup. It is treating two of its wells for perchlorate contamination.
Fast forward to 2008. After spending nearly $20 million trying to “hold dozens of suspected polluters responsible,” Rialto has just fired their city attorney (Bob Owens, who allegedly was quarterbacking Rialto’s strategy for recovering costs from other polluters) and is facing significant uncertainty as it prepares to determine what’s next.
Meanwhile, on the City of Rialto’s website, in addition to tracking the latest clean-up/lawsuit news and developments, the following declaration appears:
The City will continue to provide the citizens of Rialto with clean, safe, and affordable drinking water. It will also pursue parties that are responsible for the perchlorate pollution to pay for the clean up of the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin. It will repay Rialto’s ratepayers for the costs incurred in forcing the polluters to clean it up.
Henry Garcia, City Administrator
As always, we’ll try to keep you posted.
EPA and North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) discovered TCE approximately 3/4 mile to the northeast of the contamination at the former CTS plant on Mills Gap Road in Skyland, N.C. According to the official press release:
Of the 66 wells sampled, one active well showed the presence of Trichloroethylene (TCE) in excess of EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL), the level established to be protective of human health. The well is located approximately three-fourths of a mile northeast of the site. The sampling also detected trace quantities of cis-1,2-Dichlorethylene, a breakdown product of TCE, below the MCL. EPA provided bottled water to the affected residence and re-tested the well in question. The second set of sampling confirmed the presence of TCE at the level indicated by the original testing.
NCDENR also identified all active residential wells in the immediate area of the contaminated well. On January 8, 2008, NCDENR tested eight wells not previously tested during the November and December sampling events. Of the eight wells, one well, located immediately east of the contaminated well, contained TCE below the MCL. No contaminants were detected in the other five wells.
The Asheville Citizen-Times (NC) adds:
The latest round of testing came in response to state testing in August that found levels of the industrial solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, in areas around the former plant had not significantly decreased as a result of cleanup efforts at the site, which removed more than 1,600 pounds of the solvent from soil underneath the building in a little over a year of operation.
On the Citizen-Times’ comments page, Representative Charles C. Thomas calls the developments here “a true tragedy.” Not only does he claim this represents “a dereliction of duty on the part of state and federal government of the highest order,” but he firmly states, “Those who are responsible must be held to account.”
Speaking of being held to account, according to a previous press release, EPA and NCDENR also conducted some sort of vapor intrusion study in December. If they are prepared to answer questions about it tomorrow night (as they say here), why no mention of the vapor intrusion study results in the press release or news?
REMINDER: EPA will hold a public meeting to discuss the activities at the Mills Gap Groundwater Contamination site on Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 6:30 p.m. at the Skyland Fire Department (9 Miller Road, Asheville, N.C.). EPA, NCDENR, Buncombe County Health Center,and ATSDR will all be present to answer questions and explain que paso.
At Thursday’s meeting, NYS DEC reported findings of “unusually high” levels of TCE in the ambient air outside South Hill homes in Ithaca:
Emerson found levels of trichloroethylene, or TCE, at levels ranging from 1.2 to 29.5 micrograms per cubic meter in ambient air outside homes downhill and north of its factory on South Hill.
Morse Chain, the site’s previous owners, used degreasing solvents containing volatile organic compounds like TCE until the late ’70s.
Of 12 locations tested, eight showed unusually high results, said Karen Cahill, regional engineer with the DEC. Of the 12, four were from areas in the Phase 5 investigation area, near the police station, and eight were near homes with mitigation systems installed.
John Criscitello lives at 401 S. Cayuga St. in one of those homes. He has a mitigation system in his house to pull TCE out from under his basement sub-slab and send it into the outside air, where it is supposed to dissipate.
The ambient air reading outside his home was 25 micrograms per cubic meter. The indoor air measurement that the state Department of Health considers unsafe is 5 micrograms per cubic meter. Emerson mitigates homes with indoor air readings at 0.8.
Levels this high in outside air are virtually unheard of.
According to this report in the Ithaca Journal (NY), DEC’s immediate next step is to retest “to see if those numbers are real or not.”
Chris Francescani of ABC News’s tough-sounding Law and Justice Unit reported Thursday on the FUDS clean-up project. FUDS stands for Formerly Used Military Defense Sites:
In 1986, when the Department of Defense established the FUDS program, the Army was charged with going back through all available military records to determine when and where the D.O.D. caused contamination, via unexploded munitions, or chemical contamination through the use of compounds now known to be carcinogens, such as trichloroethylene, known as TCE, which was widely used to degrease fighter jets and missiles during the Cold War.
More than 9,000 sites were identified, according to Addison D. ‘Tad’ Davis, the Army’s deputy assistant secretary for environment, safety and occupational health. He said that at least 2,700 sites around the country have been identified as needing a cleanup…
While much of the article focuses on the impact of unexploded munitions, a portion of it addresses TCE:
Another problem the military faces is detecting chemical contamination. Sites that were tested and rendered safe 20 years ago are being revisited, in light of more advanced scientific information.
[...]
“[I]n the past 10 to 15 years, TCE was found to be a carcinogen, so TCE is now very much a priority,” [Davis] said.
(Yeah, yeah we know. TCE has been a known poison for decades, but this is not the time to quibble with the man’s sense of history. He agrees its remediation is a priority, that’s what matters here.)
How did all this happen? So glad you asked:
“How it happened is very simple,” said Candice [a.k.a. "Candy"] Walters, a spokeswoman for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which has been tasked by the Department of Defense with surveying and cleaning up the sites.
“Since the American Revolution on forward, the U.S. military has trained it’s troops to fights wars. And part of that training is training with live ammunition,” which, Walters said, included firing ranges, aerial bombing, and even cannon practice.
The military bought, rented or leased thousands of stateside properties over the years, she added.
“At the end of the wars, there wasn’t a need to have the [military training] installations anymore, so they closed them down and either gave them back to the property owner, or back to the state or county.
“They did what was environmentally acceptable at the time, which was, they dug a patch and buried them,” Walters said. “They’d sweep up what they could see on the ground, and collect and dispose of them underground.
“What they tried to do when they gave back the land was to say that, in some cases, there could be unexploded ordnances underground. But much of this was farmland, forests, places where no one ever thought people would ever build a housing project there.”
We have been saying for some time that states must follow in New York’s and New Jersey’s footsteps and re-open old, previously-thought-closed site investigations to account for landscape-changing knowledge (like our evolving understanding of vapor intrusion risk). Nice to see the military at least taking steps in this direction.
Read the full ABC report here. For an interactive map to find the closest FUDS site to your hometown, click here.
The East Valley Tribune (AZ) reveals:
The investigation into last week’s drinking water scare in parts of Scottsdale and Paradise Valley has expanded to include Motorola, potentially leaving the electronics giant open to federal fines, environmental officials said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Arizona American Water Co. — the private utility with whom Motorola contracts to treat groundwater pumped from a local Superfund site — is considering what to do with up to a half-million gallons of potentially contaminated water in a reservoir underneath its treatment plant.
[...]
Motorola is one of four companies charged with dumping TCE into Scottsdale’s groundwater supply beginning in the 1950s. Motorola hired Arizona American to pump and treat that groundwater, and could be held responsible for mishaps, Takata said.
A few things about this story make us wonder:
As always, well keep you posted if we learn more. Meantime, read the full story here.
According to The Ithaca Journal (NY):
Ambient air samples in some South Hill structures show higher levels of TCE than have ever been found since Emerson began testing ambient air in 2004, according to a letter from Emerson Power Transmission to some South Hill homeowners.
[...]
The state Departments of Health and Environmental Conservation will host a public availability session and information meeting Thursday in Ithaca Town Hall, 215 N. Tioga St. The availability session, 2 to 4 p.m., allows individuals to ask questions one on one. The public meeting will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
Read the full story here.
There’s a decades-old plume of TCE and PCE in Chico, CA that migrated nearly two-miles from its source and has contaminated residents’ well water for years:
The Skyway plume was discovered when area residents asked for wells to be tested because they were concerned a nearby tank farm might be leaking petroleum-based contaminants into their groundwater. Instead, unacceptable levels of chlorinated solvents were found and traced back to an operation that manufactured aluminum shower enclosures on Speedway Avenue from 1962 until 1976.
Preliminary tests revealed the contamination extends about two miles from its origin, flowing under Skyway and Cessna avenues and ending along Hegan Avenue near the Chico State University farm. [see map]
Just this week, ABB, the company being “held responsible for clean-up costs,” agreed to pay for 63 residential hook-ups to the water system run by California Water Service Company (a.k.a. Cal Water). Meanwhile, the investigation into the overall size of the plume continues.
Years ago, University of North Carolina (UNC) Hospitals and Department of Chemistry disposed of benzene, chloroform, methylene chloride and trichloroethylene by burying them underground in containers near Horace Williams Airport. Over time the contaminants leaked into the surrounding soil and groundwater. Now, UNC is taking steps to clean things up.
The University first committed to cleaning the area in 2003, when it signed a voluntary agreement with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The cleanup is expected to cost about $4.5 million and should be finished by the end of the summer. It will not affect the airport’s operation, said Larry Daw, an environmental specialist for UNC’s Department of Environment, Health and Safety.
[...]
UNC used the site from 1973 to 1979 to dispose of lab chemical waste generated by the campus and what was then N.C. Memorial Hospital. Although it has since been outlawed, burying waste was permissible under state laws at the time.
“It was a common practice in those days to dispose of waste in that manner,” Daw said. “After that time period, there were some new laws coming into effect.”
Read the full story in The Daily Tar Heel (NC).
From the EPA newsroom:
EPA to Hold Public Meeting for Mill’s Gap Groundwater Contamination Site in Skyland, N.C.
Release date: 01/14/2008
Contact Information: Dawn Harris-Young, (404) 562-8421, harris-young.dawn@epa.gov
(Atlanta, Ga. – Jan. 14, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public meeting on Thursday, January 31, 2008 regarding current activities at the Mill’s Gap Groundwater Contamination site in Skyland, N.C. EPA, North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and Buncombe County Health Center officials will provide information and answer questions about recent sampling related to the site and an enforcement update.
The public meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Skyland Fire Department, 9 Miller Road, Skyland, N.C. Community members interested in obtaining additional information are encouraged to contact Sherryl A. Carbonaro, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator, at (678) 575-7355.
The site is located off Mills Gap Road, approximately one mile east of Skyland, in Buncombe County, N.C. and consists of approximately nine acres of maintained grounds containing a large, single-story building. In 1952, IRC, Inc. (IRC) bought the land and constructed the building which was used for its electroplating operations. In 1959, IRC sold the property to CTS, Inc (CTS). From 1959 to 1986, CTS operated an electroplating facility at the site. In 1987, Mills Gap Road Associates (MGRA) purchased the site and is the current owner. Environmental sampling has indicated the subsurface beneath the former plant is contaminated with the chemical compound trichloroethylene (a.k.a. trichloroethene or TCE) as well as petroleum products. In 1999 TCE was discovered in nearby springs and one residential drinking water well. This past December, EPA and DENR commenced more extensive sampling that included expanded residential well sampling and vapor intrusion sampling at homes in close proximity to the site.
ATTENTION: A media availability session will be held at the Skyland Fire Department, 9 Miller Road in Skyland, N.C. from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 31, 2008. Officials will be available to answer media questions concerning current activities underway at the site. This arrangement will allow for the public to use the entire public meeting to get information and have their questions answered.
For a history of known contamination, testing, and clean-up efforts at the site from 1953 to September 2007, see this PDF timeline created by the Buncombe County Health Department.
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