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.

The Associated Press reports:

Pollution has been found in 19 water wells on property owned by Hutterite families in the Deep Creek area, and environmental experts say the source appears to be a Cold War-era missile battery.

Three toxic chemicals [TCE, Perchlorate and NDMA] have been found in the wells west of Spokane near Riverside State Park, one a common military engine degreaser and the other two typically found in rockets such as those in Nike anti-aircraft guided missiles, Environmental Protection Agency officials said.

"The combination of these three chemicals is fairly unique," an EPA remedial project manager, Harry Craig, told The Spokesman-Review. "The only places that I've seen that is at rocket motor facilities" in California and at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado.

The agency reported the findings May 16 to the Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for the cleanup of military pollution. Corps spokesman Steve Cosgrove told the newspaper Wednesday a decision on cleanup is likely months away. Read the full story here.