We recently posted an article about ongoing tests for TCE contamination in Tallevast, FL. In the very same story, environmental attorney Shawn Collins offers this advice on the requirements for effective mapping of contamination plume boundaries:

Nothing less than a picket fence of monitoring wells spaced 25 to 50 feet apart will accurately define the plume, said Collins.

Collins reached a $16.9 million settlement in 2004 for 1,400 clients whose drinking water was contaminated by TCE traced to the nearby Lockformer Co. In another suit against the company, Collins won a $10 million class-action jury award in 2002 for 186 other families in LeClerq, Ill. whose drinking water was contaminated by a second plume near the Lockformer plume.

He also secured a $7.2 million settlement in 2003 for Anne Schreiber, who spent 11 years of her childhood in the LeClerq, Ill., area. Collins proved Schreiber was exposed to TCE as a child, which caused her to develop Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma later in life.

In the Lisle case, almost all of the families relied on drinking-water wells for their needs, Collins said. Testing all of those wells for TCE exposure gave a good representation of what toxins were underground, he said.

The Tallevast situation warrants similar blanket testing, Collins said in a recent phone interview.

Collins warned that TCE can form slugs or pools of high concentration. If a well is drilled outside of that pool or slug, it may not pick up the true level of the toxin in the ground.

"Unless you have established that picket fence of monitoring wells, you cannot say where the boundaries lie," Collins said.

Finding those boundaries is of paramount importance, said Collins. The answers, he added, are obtainable.

"Whether it is Lisle or Bradenton or Dayton, Ohio, the direction of the groundwater is known," said Collins. "The speed is known. You can determine fairly accurately how long it has been in the ground and you can determine the concentrations and movement through the community's groundwater. The company and the government owe it to the people to find these things out."