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The ATSDR has delivered yet another report concluding that a contamination site poses “no apparent public health risk.” Just toss it in the pile. Feel free to roll your eyes. (For those who don’t know, ATSDR is notorious for producing these reports)
There is “no apparent public health risk” at the North Brunswick Township High School and its surrounding areas associated with the soil contamination found in 2003, according to a preliminary public health assessment.
Last Thursday, township officials and representatives from the New Jersey State Department of Health and Senior Services and the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry held a meeting to discuss the remediation project that resulted from the expansion of the high school in 2003. The primary concern for the school, Veterans Park, Judd Elementary School, a PSE&G easement and six nearby residences was arsenic in surface soil, lead in settled dust and tetrachloroethylene (TCE) [sic] in groundwater.
In July 2003, waste material consisting of pharmaceutical and laboratory wastes, glass vials, bottles and an unidentified dark brown material were uncovered near and within the Oval area of the high school, which is where the current auditorium sits. It is believed that the site was used as a municipal dump between the 1940s and 1960s. Approximately 9,200 cubic yards of waste materials and soil were excavated and removed, according to the report.
Since that time, officials said 54 soil samples and 18 interior surface samples were taken from the high school, and 10 interior surface samples were collected from Judd, with follow-up tests conducted. The high school perimeter and football field, as well as the neighboring park and residences at block 143, lots 94.01 and 95.01 were also examined.
Although remediation is still needed at Veterans Park and efforts will continue to oversee and limit any possible groundwater and vapor contamination, the report states that there are no cancer or noncancer health risks associated with the project.
We note that the story seems to confuse TCE and PCE. It is not clear which of these is the contaminant of concern referenced above. No matter which it is, residents were reportedly suspicious of the report’s findings:
One parent claimed his son “lived in the dirt” for 18 years as an athlete and developed a brain tumor, although he is not positive there is a correlation. A student noted that the epidemiology report is only calculated through 2001, but statistics may have changed through 2008. Another person mentioned that the cancer rates should be evaluated specific to the area surrounding the high school and not broadened out to the general population, since any health effects will involve North Brunswick.
Also, residents are concerned that there could have been inhalation of chemicals since the investigation and remediation phase began, and that sites that have not been remediated, such as the high school perimeter, the overused football field and Judd school, could have contaminants in the soil that become disturbed and loosened as time goes on. One parent is concerned that no additional testing was done at Judd before the current expansion and renovation project began.
Read the full story in the North Brunswick Sentinel (NJ).
Update: Strangely, the report above fails to mention that ATSDR conducted a separate public health assessment re: exposure to Arsenic and TCE at 3 nearby residences in 2005 (yeah, we confirmed the contaminant is TCE and not PCE). They reported TCE contamination in groundwater at levels up to 140 ppb, TCE in indoor air in homes at levels of 12μg/m3, and arsenic dust that coated indoor air surfaces. They concluded that past exposure posed a public health hazard and, at the time, ongoing exposure posed an indeterminate public health hazard.
We suspect we’re going to be hearing more on this story. As always, we’ll try to keep you psted.
A story posted on the TimesLedger website describes NY State Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan’s appeal to the state to better inform local communities about potentially toxic neighborhood sites. Her concern appears to stem from recent discovery of contamination found to be migrating from under the Swingline Stapler building in Queens.
It reminds us that we have yet to post the original news of the migration, which broke in December:
State Department of Environmental Conservation officials are conducting tests at eight to 12 buildings within a one-block radius of the former stapler factory, which closed in 1999 and housed the Museum of Modern Art while its Manhattan location was being renovated from 2002 to 2004.
The groundwater and soil beneath the building is tainted with the common industrial pollutant and carcinogen trichloroethylene, known as TCE, according to DEC regional citizen-participation specialist Arturo Garcia-Costas.
In October, the DEC found that the degreasing solvent – which has also been linked to nerve damage and birth defects – may have spread, so a new round of tests began immediately.
[...]
ACCO, the company that operated the Swingline factory from 1952 to 1997, entered into the state’s voluntary cleanup program in October 2000 after an unlined pit used to dump chemical waste was discovered during federal closing procedures.
In 2004 the DEC investigated the actual footprint of the factory, but not until this year did it complete tests in the areas around Swingline.
Read the full story from December here. We’ll try to keep you posted as we learn more.
According to the Star Tribune (MN):
[EPA w]orkers are testing the air inside 40 homes and businesses in St. Louis Park after chemical vapors were discovered in the soil under their basements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.
Those properties were among more than 200 homes and businesses that were checked for potential risk from underground solvent contamination.
[...]
Each of the 40 properties will be visited by a mobile lab, [EPA's "on-scene coordinator, Sonia] Vega said. Technicians are going room to room in the homes, using special hoses to pump air into the lab to see whether the vapors are present in high concentrations. They will also leave 24-hour sampling canisters in each building to test the air in the basement and first-floor levels.
The main chemicals of concern, trichloroethylene and perchloroethylene, have been used for decades as industrial degreasers, metal cleaners and dry-cleaning fluids. Long-term exposure to them at certain levels has been linked to cancer, liver problems and other adverse health effects, according to state health officials.
[...]
The properties being tested are on both sides of Hwy. 7 near Wooddale Avenue. By last week, workers had pulled air samples from beneath the basement floors of 184 residences and 29 commercial or industrial buildings.
Vega said the vapors measured beneath the 32 homes and eight commercial buildings ranged from slightly above health guidelines to more than twice what is considered safe. The buildings with the higher vapor concentrations in their soils were clustered, Vega said, but she could not provide more details until the test results are completed and mapped.
Read the full story here. In a previous article, the Star Tribune posted a map of the evaluation area:
See below for the Star Tribune’s previous coverage of this story:
According to the Press & Sun-Bulletin (NY):
A second wave of legal claims seeking damages from IBM Corp. related to pollution in Endicott has been filed in state Supreme Court in Binghamton, bringing the total to more than 240 plaintiffs, with more on the way.
The 82-page document representing 151 property owners and residents was filed electronically late Friday afternoon by Philip Johnson, an attorney with the Vestal law firm of Levene Gouldin & Thompson. Johnson is part of a team of seven law firms representing more than 1,000 clients in the massive toxic tort case against IBM seeking more than $100 million in damages for a range of hardships related to the pollution. They include cancer and other illnesses, property devaluation, loss of business, medical expenses and related monitoring, and hassles of dealing with the pollution.
The first wave of claims, representing 94 plaintiffs, was filed early last month.
Read the full story here.
This report was released some time ago. If you are interested in or concerned about vapor intrusion, it’s a great read. Though the report is directed towards New York state lawmakers, it has implications for us all. We may highlight some of the insides another time, but for now…click on “Final Report” to jump to the report website:
Vapor Intrusion of Toxic Chemicals:
An Emerging Public Health Concern
Final Report
January 2006
Assemblyman Thomas P. DiNapoli, Chairman
New York State Assembly
Committee on Environmental Conservation
Or click here to download the PDF directly.
Re-tests for TCE in the air in Ithaca’s South Hill have been delayed due to last week’s fire.
To better protect people from TCE , we must (amongst other things) eliminate the difference between the standard of protection for our workplaces and the standard of protection for our homes. The standard of protection for TCE in the air is an example where the difference between protection at work and home is intolerable.
For those who don’t know, the safety of the air in your workplace is governed by standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The air in your home is governed by guidelines established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In too many cases, OSHA’s standards for the workplace are drastically less protective than EPA’s guidelines for homes.
Just how much more TCE does OSHA allow in workers’ air? At least several hundred thousand times more than EPA allows in their homes.
The result? Workers are being poisoned…and OSHA is allowing it.
In a March 2007 paper entitled “Regulating Vapor Intrusion: What Standards Should Apply,” the authors highlight this disparity in a handy table:
TCE Standards or Guidance Levels for Indoor Vapor Concentration
For those who don’t know, the OSHA standard above was set based on 1967 standards and has remained the same to this day. With all we have learned about TCE’s dangers since 1967 – including that it causes cancer and other significant diseases/health problems – workers remain as exposed and at as much risk of TCE-induced disease as workers of nearly 40 years ago.
Why is the air at work hundreds of thousands of times less safe than the air at home? How many people are poisoned by TCE at work to this day because of this disparity?
Of course, TCE is just one example of a chemical where workplace protection standards are outdated. Over at The Pump Handle, a blog that bills itself as a water cooler for the public health crowd, we learn that Beryllium is another example.
In a post entitled “Why do OSHA Standards Remain the Same, Even When the Science Changes?” David Michaels describes his look at outdated workplace exposure standards for Beryllium. Any of this sound familiar?
In a 1947 report, entitled Public Relations Problems in Connection with Occupational Diseases in the Beryllium Industry, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) asserted that the ability of the US government to produce nuclear weapons was threatened by the high incidence of severe health effects associated with exposure to beryllium, a metal vital to weapons production. In response, the AEC established a workplace exposure limit that dramatically reduced beryllium disease incidence. This limit is known as the “taxicab standard” since it was determined by two AEC scientists working in the back seat of a taxi on their way to a meeting.
Over the next several decades, however, increasingly powerful evidence accumulated that Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD), a progressive and irreversible inflammatory lung disease, was associated with exposure to levels below the “taxicab standard,” and by the 1990s, scores of workers employed in the production of nuclear weapons had been diagnosed with CBD.
Attempting to prevent strengthened government regulation, and to avoid negative publicity that would discourage use of the metal, the beryllium industry waged a concerted effort over decades to counter the accumulating scientific evidence of beryllium’s toxicity. The industry relied on expert services provided by a major public relations company and a leading ‘product defense’ firm. Eventually, when the scientific evidence became so great that it was no longer credible to deny that workers developed CBD at levels permitted by an out-dated standard, the industry responded with a new rationale for delay: that more research was needed to determine the best standard.
The industry’s efforts have been, for the most part, successful. While each year brings new studies linking CBD with beryllium exposures below the current standard, the “taxicab standard” remains the limit enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in private sector workplaces. New CBD cases have been reported recently in metal recycling facilities. US civilian nuclear weapons workers have greater protection than private sector workers; in 1999 the Department of Energy issued strengthened beryllium regulations, reducing the workplace exposure level that triggers protective action by a factor of 10.
The lessons from this case study for public health policymakers include:
- The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence. The lack of CBD cases in the 1950s should not have been seen as proof the standard was adequate.
- The interpretation of scientific data by those with financial incentives must be discounted. Industry scientists defended the “taxicab standard” long after it was correctly recognized as inadequate by independent scientists.
- In particular, work by scientists employed by firms specializing in product defense and litigation support must be seen for what it is: advocacy, rather than science. This study illuminates the practice of “manufacturing uncertainty,” the strategy used by some polluters and manufacturers of hazardous products to prevent or delay regulation or victim compensation.
- To best protect public health, we must consider the hazards associated with a toxic material through the entire life cycle of the product.
As posted in this morning’s Press & Sun-Bulletin (NY):
State lawmakers will again introduce legislation requiring landlords to notify tenants who live in polluted buildings, after similar measures were vetoed by two administrations in 2006 and 2007, the bill’s sponsor said.
The latest incarnation of the bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Donna A. Lupardo, D-Endwell, is being drafted with help from the office of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Lupardo said Friday. Spitzer supports the intention of the bill but vetoed it last August, saying it was not comprehensive enough and in some instances too vague.
Lupardo said she is “optimistic” the bill will become law because of Spitzer’s involvement, but noted the governor’s draft still has to pass muster with her and its sponsor in the Senate, Thomas W. Libous, R-Binghamton.
“Ultimately, I think this will make it an even better bill,” Lupardo said.
Read the full story.
The Northwest Herald (IL) has created an outstanding multimedia presentation that tells the story of the McCullom Lake cancer lawsuits. And boy, what a way to tell the story!
They include video interviews with plaintiffs and with attorneys for both sides, map of the contamination area, documents associated with the lawsuit (including an important expert report from Redpath’s Dr. Sidney Finkelstein that we will highlight at another time) and more.
For those interested in McCullom Lake, the causal connection between brain cancers and TCE/vinyl chloride/chlorinated solvent exposure, and legal actions for personal injuries caused by chlorinated ethylenes, we highly recommend you check it out.
Warning: The title of the presentation is “Coincidence or Cluster?” We believe this is a poorly-chosen title and it does not properly reflect the main issue in these suits. The main issue, as we understand it, is whether or not the defendants’ chemicals caused the individual plaintiffs’ cancers. Whether McCullom Lake’s cancers can be considered a cancer cluster is a red herring. So please ignore the overly simplistic title, but do check out the presentation.
With TCE testing continuing in Union and Endicott, the Press & Sun-Bulletin (NY) reports:
Analysis of the samples suggests no more work is necessary in “Area Seven,” with approximate borders of Country Club Road to the south, Twist Run Road to the north, Nanticoke Avenue to the west and Robinson Hill Road to the east.
Lab technicians collected samples on public rights of way near parcels that raised suspicion because of unknown dumping or the possibility of dumping in years past. They included cemetery property owned by St. Mary’s Orthodox Catholic Church at the corner of Taft Avenue and Newell Road, and a dump on Twist Run Road identified as a “sanitary refuse disposal area” in a DEC summary of the sites.
The DEC has divided the Town of Union and the village into seven areas to map out pollution from trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent once used extensively in circuit board assembly and other industries.
The state will continue work in evaluating five of the areas, including a neighborhood around Badger Avenue and June Street where high concentrations of TCE have been found underground.
Tests showed no evidence of pollution requiring further study in “Area Three” — west of Oak Hill Avenue, south of Pine Street, north of Franklin Street and east of Nanticoke Avenue, according to the report.
Read the full story here.
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.
The Express Times (Easton, PA) has this report about TCE migrating away from a Hellertown Superfund site:
Contaminated soil at the former Champion Spark Plug factory on Main Street is covered with a cap under a layer of asphalt, but federal officials want to determine if any chemical gases from the property made their way into nearby homes.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to test two residences over the next few months for the presence of trichloroethylene (TCE), one of the chemicals that entered the soil and groundwater at the site between 1930 and 1976.
Read the full story here.
From Friday’s Midhudsonnews.com:
East Fishkill – The New York Vapor Intrusion Alliance has been formed with members across the state. It was spearheaded by Debra Hall, an East Fishkill resident who has been fighting for clean water and clean air after her house was found to be contaminated.
The group’s primary purpose is public awareness of the problems surrounding vapor intrusion, said Hall.
“We basically want people to recognize vapor intrusion, know that it’s a real health problem, and there needs to be legislation that is going to protect people for it,” she said. “Now that we know that it’s here, who knows how long people have been breathing in vapors with TCE and PCE and all these other chemicals that volatize?”
Hall and members of the group will be meeting with state lawmakers and DEC officials next week to push for legislation that would require landlord notification when dealing with environmental investigations and testing, and a private well testing law.
UPDATE: There’s more on the NYSVIA in this Dec. 29, 2007 Ithaca Journal article:
Broome County, with more than 700 properties affected in Endicott, the Town of Union, Vestal, Binghamton and Hillcrest, is among the largest stakeholders in the TCE regulatory process, said Bruce Oldfield, a Hillcrest resident and Broome Community College professor. He is co-chairing the group, called the New York State Vapor Intrusion Alliance, representing citizens groups from nine areas throughout the state. Debra Hall of Hopewell Junction in Dutchess County, is a co-chair.
TCE has also been detected in parts of the South Hill section of Ithaca.
Coalition members plan to meet with lawmakers in Albany in January, Oldfield said. They are pushing for simple and uniform rules that prohibit trichloroethylene (TCE) in indoor air.
“There seems to be a wide discrepancy in how they (state health and environmental departments) approach these sites,” Oldfield said. “That is troublesome.”
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.”
Ok, well, not exactly. But we realized our old link to the map is no longer active. And we noticed lots of people arriving here while looking for a map of the plume/contamination area.
For now, this’ll have to do. It’s a map of the location of the offending IBM facility provided by NYS DEC:
Click the link or the pic for a better version at the source. If we find a better map, we’ll update it here.
David Wren’s excellent coverage of developments in Myrtle Beach, SC continue with this latest installment in the Sun News (SC). In it, we learn that South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) put too much faith in a polluter’s promises at the expense of public health:
S.C. officials told AVX Corp. as long as eight years ago to test for groundwater contamination at property adjacent to the manufacturer’s headquarters, but the state backed off after AVX said all contamination from its use of a toxic chemical had been contained on the company’s land.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control now knows that wasn’t the case, and agency representatives say they should have been more insistent on testing rather than being swayed by the electronics manufacturer.
On Tuesday’s meeting with the Myrtle Beach Town Council, DHEC geologist Carol Minsk sounded defensive:
DHEC asked AVX at that time to test groundwater on property across the street from the manufacturer, but AVX “made the argument that their [cleanup] system was effective,” Minsk said.
Results from test wells on the perimeter of AVX’s property showed little or no TCE contamination, Minsk said, and “logic would tell you the contamination wasn’t beyond those wells.”
Minsk said DHEC also was at a disadvantage because AVX did not tell state officials about the contamination until 14 years after the manufacturer first tried to clean it up.
“We didn’t know how much [TCE] had been spilled,” she said, adding that such knowledge might have prompted DHEC to order the off-site testing. “Based on the data we had, it showed the contamination was contained.”
[...]
Minsk said the evidence AVX presented at the time was convincing, but in hindsight DHEC made the wrong decision.
Yeah, like it’s hindsight that’s needed to realize blind trust in a polluter might be bad policy for a state agency. Give us a break.
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.
BusinessWeek’s Steve Hamm is starting to get it:
[T]he case [against IBM] already stands as a warning for communities and businesses elsewhere. During America’s industrial heyday, TCE was a commonly used solvent for degreasing machinery. Only in recent years has the vaporous form of the chemical been recognized as a threat. It could be present in thousands of former industrial sites, where TCE vapors can pool under foundations and seep into basements.
The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that such vapor pollution could be a problem in 852 of its Superfund cleanup sites. “We think this is a big issue that could affect communities’ health,” says Mary Mears, an EPA public outreach officer.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has identified the reduction of toxic air as a “top priority” for 2008:
The ministry’s agenda for 2008 focused on reducing pollution, especially air pollution, as well as assessing Israel’s contribution to global warming. According to the ministry, air quality in Israel is lower than the average for Western countries. To improve it, the ministry plans to adopt and enforce the European IPPC standard as well as adjust legislation to dovetail with government environmental policy. The Integrated Pollution and Prevention Control requires highly polluting industries to acquire a permit of environmental approval to operate. Finally, the ministry intends to set up filtering systems on electricity plants.
In a related story, the Post reports the Ministry is already making good on its commitment, announcing that 11 factories are under investigation for contributions to toxic air around Haifa Port:
The ministry tested the air quality around the port for 24 hours in June and then again in September. They found that the levels of benzene, chloroform, methylene chloride, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene were all too high. The above are all either carcinogenic or suspected of being carcinogenic. The 11 factories either use, store or sell the chemicals in question.
Shuli Nezer, head of the air pollution branch at the ministry, told the committee that more tests would be conducted in February to locate the sources of the pollution, which thus far remain unknown.
Committee head MK Ophir Paz-Pines (Labor) demanded that the factories suspected of releasing the chemicals be shut down until the leaks could be identified.
“We must close down suspected factories until it can be proven that they are not the polluters. It cannot be that in Israel in 2008 there is an occupation [the] price [of which] is human lives,” he declared.
Read the full stories here and here.
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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