The McCook Daily Gazette wonders. See here for our previous coverage of TCE contamination in McCook.

According to this press release from U.S. EPA and U.S. DOJ:

WASHINGTON, March 31 /U.S. Newswire/ - Dravo Corporation (Dravo), Desco Corporation and Desco Corporation d.b.a. Marshalltown Instruments, Inc., (Desco) have agreed to perform an interim cleanup action and pay $7.3 million to resolve their liability for certain cleanup costs relating to the contamination of the Colorado Avenue Subsite of the Hastings Ground Water Contamination Superfund Site, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today.

The consent decree, lodged today in U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska, requires defendants to pay $7.3 million to the federal Hazardous Substances Superfund — the fund used by the EPA to clean up hazardous waste sites. The defendants will also continue to implement and complete implementation of several components of an interim remedy for the Colorado Avenue Subsite and pay EPA's costs of oversight.

This settlement concludes a lawsuit that alleged that the defendants were liable for EPA's costs for investigative and cleanup actions in response to hazardous substance contamination of soils and groundwater. The contamination was allegedly caused by a manufacturing facility formerly owned and operated by Dravo and later Desco. Under this settlement and earlier enforcement actions, parties responsible for the pollution at the Colorado Avenue Subsite have contributed a total of approximately $15.8 million in cleanup work and cash reimbursement.

For more info, download the EPA's fact sheet (PDF, 52K) re: the Hastings Ground Water Contamination site.

...to keep people safer from TCE, please encourage them to contact:



Jody Milanese (millaneese) in Congresswoman Sue Kelly's office at 202-225-5441

More from the GAO Report, as promised. Please bear in mind:

· 85% of the sites below were discovered 15 yrs ago or more
· over 60% of the potentially eligible sites and over 35% of all sites below report no clean-up activities

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Table IV.1: Sites Classified as Awaiting an NPL Decision in Each State, by Eligibility for Listing and Status of Cleanup Progress
+
Table VI.1: State Officials’ Assessments of States’ Financial Capabilities to Clean Up Potentially Eligible Sites

State	Number of sites classified as awaiting an NPL decision	Number of sites unlikely to become eligible for the NPL	Number of potentially eligible sites with some cleanup activities	Number of potentially eligible sites with no reported cleanup activities	Number of sites for which no surveys were received	State officials’ assessment of state’s financial capability to clean up potentially eligible sites
Alabama	25	10	7	8	0	Very poor
Alaska	28	14	8	6	0	Excellent
Arizona	34	16	10	8	0	Excellent
Arkansas	4	3	0	1	0	Good
California	a 189	64	51	74	0	Fair
Colorado	30	12	10	6	2	Very poor
Connecticut	290	74	98	118	0	Poor
Delaware	1	1	0	0	0	Excellent
District of Columbia	a 1	0	0	1	0
Florida	269	74	85	110	0	Fair
Georgia	74	39	8	27	0	Poor
Guam	2	2	0	0	0
Hawaii	17	12	4	1	0	Fair
Idaho	16	5	5	6	0	*
Illinois	207	95	43	69	0	Fair
Indiana	54	21	15	18	0	Very poor
Iowa	33	29	4	0	0	Very poor
Kansas	37	28	4	5	0	Very poor
Kentucky	20	15	2	3	0	Good
Louisiana	10	6	4	0	0	Poor
Maine	56	28	17	11	0	Poor
Maryland	20	8	4	8	0	Other b
Massachusetts	a 201	11	19	171	0	Fair
Michigan	50	22	18	10	0	Excellent
Midway Island	1	1	0	0	0
Minnesota	17	6	6	5	0	Good
Mississippi	9	4	1	2	2	Very poor
Missouri	91	73	7	11	0	*
Montana	11	2	7	2	0	Very poor
Navajo Nation	14	0	0	14	0
Nebraska	a 36	16	4	15	1	Very poor
Nevada	12	8	3	1	0	Poor
New Hampshire	42	24	9	9	0	Poor
New Jersey	172	60	49	63	0	Good
New Mexico	15	7	6	2	0	Very poor
New York	a 192	135	15	41	1	*
North Carolina	57	18	21	18	0	Poor
North Dakota	4	2	1	1	0	Poor
Northern Mariana Islands	1	0	1	0	0
Ohio	79	25	23	31	0	Very poor
Oklahoma	7	4	1	2	0	Very poor
Oregon	29	7	6	16	0	Fair
Pennsylvania	73	35	18	20	0	Excellent
Puerto Rico	16	3	4	9	0
Rhode Island	121	14	23	84	0	Poor
South Carolina	45	32	8	5	0	Good
South Dakota	8	6	2	0	0	Other b
Tennessee	102	51	19	32	0	Poor
Texas	21	18	1	2	0	Poor
Utah	48	17	8	16	7	*
Vermont	30	16	5	9	0	Poor
Virginia	22	8	2	12	0	*
Washington	28	11	8	9	0	Fair
West Virginia	11	7	4	0	0	Other b
Wisconsin	53	34	8	11	0	Excellent
Wyoming	1	1	0	0	0
Total	3,036	1,234	686	1,103	13

a California, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and Nebraska did not respond to surveys. For these states, the data in table IV.1 are based on EPA’s survey responses alone and, for that reason, may be less reliable than for states having responses from both EPA and states. New York provided responses to only a few questions in our survey.

b “Other” indicates that the respondent was uncertain about the state’s financial capability.

* State officials in Idaho, New York, Missouri, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming declined to participate in [the] telephone survey.

On Monday night, a consultant presented to the McCook City Council. Here are the highlights, as reported by the McCook Daily Gazette:

- Dextra Group, consultants for Northrop Grumman, is responsible for the cleanup site
- Dextra is continuing the clean up using air stripping towers and is conducting a pilot study to help expedite the cleanup efforts.
- A bioremediation program is also proving to be successful, Batsel told the council. The process injects molasses into the groundwater, increasing the growth of natural bacteria that destroys TCE.
- Dextra has been in contact with [the couple who lost their home to TCE contamination] in an attempt to do a complete study of their home.
-Dextra received approval from the NDEQ to begin using two extraction wells, one of which is on the [displaced couple's] property, to increase the clean up efforts
- Members of the public were not allowed to comment during the one-hour presentation.

As always, we'll welcome your comments. Or you can just read the full story.

In an update to this report on the upcoming McCook City Council meeting this Monday, the McCook Daily Gazette makes very clear that officials don't want your input at this meeting (hard to know if you're even really invited, the way this is worded):

Officials emphasize, however, that Monday's presentation is for members of the McCook City Council and the public will not be provided a forum to air their concerns at that time.

Well, glad we got that straight.

A McCook couple has been run out of their home by trichloroethylene (TCE) after being advised that TCE causes neurological problems, including tingling of the phalanges, just like the couple had been experiencing. According to the report:

The Carman's, who purchased their home southwest of the [TRW contamination] site in 1997, said they discovered the problem when they decided to drill a well in 2002 to irrigate the lawn and orchard around their home. That well, which resulted in a call from the representative of the company, showed 680 parts per billion of TCE contamination , compared to a 5 ppb allowable level.

After they learned about the problem, the Carman's told the Gazette, they visited a specialist in California who confirmed varying degrees of neurological effects in three members of the family, ranging from tingling to numb fingers and toes. Their son may have received the most exposure because of his basement bedroom, the Carman's said.

...Meanwhile they have taken air samples in the home which showed up to 134 micrograms of TCE per cubic meter of air. Nebraska has no standard, but the Colorado standard is 1.6 micrograms of TCE per cubic meter."

Read the full article. Thanks to CPEO for the tip.

The McCook Daily Gazette (NE) has announced the city of McCook's regular City Council meeting on Monday, March 21, 7:30 p.m., in the Council Chambers at McCook Auditorium. The meeting will include:

...a report from Kurt Batsel of the Dextra Group, Consultants for Northrop Grumman, and John Gottula of the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality regarding the company's efforts to remove [trichloroethylene] TCE contamination at the TRW remediation site.

Read the full article

The McCook Daily Journal has published this timeline of the city's water contamination, starting in 1988. The timeline reveals the city of McCook is still dealing with this problem.

Update: Nebraska's Statepaper.com is also carrying the story.