Nevada residents Taking Chemical Cleanup Into Their Own Hands

October 17, 2008 - It's a potentially dangerous chemical living right underneath dozens of homes, and so far no one responsible has cleaned it up. For years, Eyewitness News has been following the case of that plume in the Paradise Palms neighborhood. Friday, neighbors decided to take control of the fight.

The state says there are chemicals in the groundwater that could cause liver and kidney damage. The neighbors say their property values have bottomed out and the people responsible are either nowhere to be found, or they're pointing fingers at everyone else.

"You can't smell it, you can't touch it, you can't taste it, you can't feel it," said Pete Voggenthaler.

He's talking about perchloroethylene, or PCE, the human-created chemical that has seeped into the groundwater for at least eight years. Once it evaporates it becomes a vapor that get inside people's homes, and it got there from Al Phillips Cleaners, now bankrupt and bulldozed.

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