IN City Finds Groundwater Contamination

September 28, 2010 - Terre Haute officials are concerned about soil and groundwater contamination recently discovered on the city’s near-north side.

Earlier this year, city officials hired an environmental consulting firm to test the soil and groundwater around a vacant lot at 301 N. 12th St., formerly the site of Chicago Towel Co., a dry-cleaning operation. The test results showed higher-than-permitted levels of tetrachloroethylene, also known as perchloroethylene or PCE, a chemical used for dry cleaning and metal degreasing.

High concentrations of PCE can cause dizziness, headache, nausea, difficulty speaking and walking and even death, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"This is a first for us," Pat Martin, Terre Haute City Planner, told the Terre Haute Board of Public Works and Safety at a board meeting Monday. "We don’t have a script for this."

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IN Family Blames Toxic Site for Illness

July 11, 2010 - Kathryn Mbwelera stands in her front yard, despite the blazing heat, pointing across the street to where the ground is filled with poison.

"Nobody’s going to make me believe I’m not at risk and that I haven’t been at risk," Mbwelera says. “The health risks these chemicals pose – we’ve experienced them all."

The chemicals are chlorinated solvents that are in the soil and groundwater beneath the former Wayne Metal Protection plant, a defunct metal plating company at 1511 Wabash Ave. on the east side of the city near Memorial Park.

The contamination has spread northeast from the shuttered plant, toward Memorial Park Middle School; Mbwelera’s house is immediately north of the plant.

The chemicals move easily in groundwater, and their vapors can move upward through soil into homes and buildings.

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Badly tainted groundwater irks residents in Indiana

October 30, 2009 - Manganese, sulfur and iron in the groundwater have residents in the Prairie Creek Run neighborhood asking for a connection to Elkhart’s public system, according to an October 28 article in local newspaper The Elkhart Truth.

The square-mile neighborhood, referred to in the article as “an island with water problems,” was known for years as the lower income Sawmill District. The neighborhood is close to industrial activity to the north.

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Old meth lab poisons dream home in Indiana

October 24, 2009 - The headaches, muscle aches and breathing problems began shortly after she moved in, but Julie McCoy Sabatino was slow to blame her house for making her sick.

She was shocked to realize she should: Methamphetamines had been produced in the house, just months before she bought it.

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Arsenic found in Posey County, Indiana residents' well water

July 20, 2009 - Dozens of Posey County residents who rely on private wells for water are finding it may not be fit to drink.

Residents who live along Lower Mount Vernon and Bluff roads just received tests results that show high levels of arsenic in their water.

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Arsenic found in Posey County, Indiana residents' well water

July 20, 2009 - Residents in Posey County, Indiana have received test results that show high levels of arsenic in their well water. The health department is working on finding the source for the arsenic contamination, which can cause paralysis and death when ingested over a period of time.
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Pfizer cleans up PCB contamination in Terra Haute, Indiana

April 14, 2009 - A cleanup effort by Pfizer Inc. became necessary following the breach of a dam upstream on the company's property in Terra Haute, Indiana. An estimated 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment, top soil and debris has been removed so far from the property along Jordan Creek.

Pfizer expects to complete the initial cleanup of ground contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, by July. One resident said that the removal process is in his front yard, and that he and his wife may have to move out of their home for a week of two, once work gets closer to their front door.

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Residents of contaminated town in Indiana win enviro grant

April 13, 2009 - The town of Pines, Indiana is contaminated with coal ash from Northern Indiana Public Service Company's Michigan City generating facility that the utility stored for three decades at the Yard 520 landfill.

Coal ash contains contaminants, such as boron and molybdenum, and leaked from the landfill into groundwater. Today, the dark gray mass covers streets, driveways and back yards across the town and officials say that people are being exposed to contamination 360 days a year.

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Indiana property owners foot bill for meth lab cleanups

April 4, 2009 - Indiana's methamphetamine epidemic is leaving property owners stuck with the cleanup bill long after the meth labs have been dismantled by police.

An Indiana law that took effect two years ago says the cost of cleanup falls to property owners even though they likely had nothing to do with cooking the illegal drug.

That tab, said Phil Ball of Aegis Environmental Inc. in Greenwood, can run anywhere from $5,000 to $35,000.

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Indiana Residents fear for their health

February 8, 2009 - It's been five years since Peggy Richardson was able to rinse her Thanksgiving turkey under the running tap. Five years since she could wash fresh fruit without first filling up a tub with water from a bottle. Five years since she was able to shower without worrying whether contaminated water from the showerhead will harm her body.

Richardson hasn't been able to drink or cook with her tap water for the past five years because her well is contaminated with boron and molybdenum.

She lives less than half a mile from Yard 520, a landfill owned by Brown Inc. For three decades, NIPSCO stored coal ash from its Michigan City generation station there. The ash was left over from coal burned to produce electricity.

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Indiana homes tested for PCE contamination

December 17, 2008 - Standard Register is working with four additional northside residents whose homes showed some levels of perchloroethylene in the air, whether in living spaces or crawl spaces.

It also has completed a second round of indoor air quality testing at Terre Haute North Vigo High School, and both times there was no detection of PCE within the school, the company said Wednesday. PCE is an industrial solvent.

This testing is part of the company’s continuing effort to proactively address the discovery of PCE in the groundwater near its former facility at 1251 N. Fruitridge Ave.

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PCE still a concern in Terre Haute, Indiana

October 28, 2008 - First, James A. Horrall learned he had high levels of perchloroethylene (an industrial solvent) in his well water.

Now, the Edgebrook subdivision resident is being told PCE vapors are in his home.

Standard Register already has paid to connect his residence to Indiana-American Water Co., and now, the company says it will install a vapor mitigation system in his home — as well as two other Edgebrook residences — that tested above recommended thresholds for PCE during recent air sampling.

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Relief on the way for Indiana homeowners affected by Geocel water contamination

June 27, 2008 - WSBT TV - After months of water worries for 100 homeowners on Elkhart’s north side, relief is on the way.

Last year, health officials discovered groundwater contamination in the Meadow Farms subdivision. The source was determined to be chemicals from the Geocel plant.

Geocel is now paying to hook up these homes to clean water and many people are relieved the work is finally being done.

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EPA to spend $21 million on cleanup of Superfund site that spans entire Indiana neighborhood

February 26, 2008 - A federal Superfund site spanning an entire neighborhood with lead-tainted soils will be cleaned up as part of $21 million project that could take up to five years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday.

Under the plan, the EPA will remove tainted soil from several hundred residential yards and commercial properties in the 141-acre Jacobsville Neighborhood Superfund site and replace it with clean soil. The tainted soil will be disposed of at a regulated landfill.

The EPA placed the site on its Superfund priority list in July 2004. Since then, the agency has conducted six rounds of soil testing.

It's not known how many people may have been affected by the contaminated soil, but EPA officials have said the risk of exposure is high.

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Nearby contamination has Indiana has residents concerned about their water

February 16, 2008 - Darlene Hendrix didn’t learn until early February that some residences northwest of hers had wells contaminated by perchloroethylene, an industrial solvent.

“It scares me because I’ve got my grandchildren living here. Nobody mentioned anything to us. You really don’t know what you’re drinking,” said Hendrix, who lives on North Fruitridge Avenue. “I just want to make sure everything is OK with our water and that it’s safe.”

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Center for Public Integrity posts portions disturbing—and purportedly suppressed—government report about environmental contamination

February 7, 2008 - The investigative group Center for Public Integrity this morning posted bootlegged portions of what appears to be a disturbing—and purportedly suppressed—government report about environmental contamination across the Great Lakes region. Six years in the making, the report assesses evidence of health-threatening contamination in 26 "areas of concern" covering parts of eight states, and it links contamination in many of those areas to high rates of infant mortality, other infant health problems, and adult malignancies, including breast, colon, and lung cancers.

The scientific evidence supporting those links is only circumstantial—the report describes geographic patterns of contamination and disease but explicitly makes no claims about causes or effects. Nevertheless, the number of people who might be at risk is staggering: The 54 affected counties have more than 9 million residents, including 230,000 whom the report deems particularly "vulnerable."

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Tainted wells have Indiana residents concerned

February 6, 2008 - Dawn Langer operates a day care at 3723 Plum St., across Lost Creek and south of some homes that have shown well water contamination on Terre Haute’s north side.

She stopped serving children well water as soon as she learned about an issue with groundwater contamination, and on Wednesday, she had her well privately tested.

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Contaminated wells lead Indiana city to hire attorney

February 6, 2008 - The Terre Haute City Council has hired attorney Bill Drummy to assist with its continuing investigation of contaminated wells on the city’s north side.

So far, seven residences with wells have tested high for perchloroethylene, an industrial cleaning solvent. That includes two new sites, based on recent water sampling. Also, several of those that tested high previously now show even higher levels of PCE.

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Terre Haute Indiana residents want safe drinking water

January 8, 2008 - Some north-side Terre Haute residents concerned about their well water have received the latest proposal from Standard Register outlining how it will provide a safe drinking-water supply to the area.

The company is offering to connect up to 25 properties to Indiana-American Water Co.

Also, it will provide a lump sum payment of $3,400 to 12 of those property owners to offset future water bills.

The affected homes are southwest of Terre Haute North Vigo High School. Five of them have wells that are contaminated with perchloroethylene, an industrial solvent.

Residents have mixed reactions to the latest offer.

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Elkhart Indiana Residents Worry About Contaminated Water

December 28, 2007 - People living in an Elkhart neighborhood are still recovering from the shock of learning that their well water is contaminated.

The Geocel Corporation says they are responsible for the contamination and are currently working to fix the problem.

Anyone with contaminated water has been given water filters and water pumps to make sure the water is clean.

Then in the spring the company will pay to hook up more than 100 homes in the area to city water.

But people who live in the Meadow Farms subdivision say, that's not good enough.

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