The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed that an area of groundwater in Terre Haute be added to a federal priority list to clean it up before contaminants enter the city’s drinking-water supply.

The EPA proposed the contamination site be added to its Superfund National Priorities List, which would assist in funding and cleanup.

The site contains contaminates tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene.

The chemicals are being detected at a low level in the city’s drinking water, said EPA remedial project manager Jena Sleboda.

The water supply isn’t in immediate danger and the cleanup is being initiated as a preventive measure, she said.

The contaminated groundwater site is about 600 feet long by 160 feet wide, under I. Gurman Container & Supply Corp. at 800 N. Third St.; and Bi-State Products, a now-vacant property that operated at 118 Elm St. from the 1930s to 1980 first as a petroleum storage facility and then as a used oil storage business.

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Mick Hans of the EPA said a 60-day public-comment period is part of the proposal process and he strongly encourages participation. The government considers the feedback from the community before it decides the proposal’s fate.

The government updates the EPA’s Superfund National Priority List twice a year, and it may take six months to two years to get the proposal approved.

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Debbie Gurman, owner of Gurman Container, inherited the business more than two years ago after her husband died, she said.

Gurman said the business does not contaminate groundwater, because its operational procedures have changed.

Gurman said her husband’s grandfather started the business, and it operates in accordance with federal and state regulations. “We have absolutely nothing to do with this,” she said. The business began in 1922. “That’s the thing. The people who were here during the years aren’t here anymore. They didn’t know about this, because there wasn’t regulations back then. … I know everything is fine. We are not contributing to contamination … .”

Gurman’s attorney, Mike Schopmeyer, said, “The company has extended a great deal of money to conduct other tests, which have revealed the source of the plume is likely from another property, not Gurman.”

The EPA stated that from 1940 to 1970, Gurman Container’s standard operational procedure was to open a drum and dump its contents onto the ground and rinse remaining contents into the sewer.

It stored petroleum products and solvents for cleaning parts before distribution, and waste oils were stored in large above-ground tanks, according to the EPA. As for Bi-State Products, “Site contaminants have been detected in the surface and subsurface soils and in the shallow groundwater monitoring wells beneath Bi-State Products,” the EPA stated.

Roger Swafford of Indiana American Water said the company has been working with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management on this cleanup for 23 years.

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--Comments may be e-mailed to: superfund.docket@epa.gov

--Comments may be sent by U.S. mail to: U.S. EPA Region 5, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604