Cleanup at Aircraft Manufacturing Site Enters Final Stages

The contamination story on a 26-year-old site is winding down to what could be the final public comment period. The site, called the Boeing Wichita Site in Wichita, Kan., now has a draft Corrective Action Decision that tells what remediation will finally close the book on pollution left over from years of airplane construction, according to this report.

The site at 3801 Oliver St. and the surrounding area was home to aircraft manufacturing beginning in the 1930s. In 1985, Boeing noticed contamination while it was performing an environmental investigation. Originally, the source of the contaminants was suspected to originate solely at a Cessna plant nearby. But as more test wells were drilled, it became apparent the pollution was widespread. Next, private water wells came up contaminated in the 31st and Clifton Street area. The primary contaminants detected were tetrachloroethene (PCE); trichloroethene (TCE); cis-1, 2 dichloroethene (cis-1, 2-DCE); vinyl chloride (VC); benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene(s) (BTEX); and chromium, according to Kansas Department of Health and Environment documents.

To its credit, Boeing took an aggressive and active part in the investigations and remediation over the years, no doubt helping to prevent the site from falling under the Superfund program for lack of cleanup funds. The company currently operates “179 recovery wells, 195 monitoring wells and 9 air stripper sites.” It installed a “300-foot long by 30-foot deep groundwater interceptor trench to recover off-site groundwater contamination immediately upgradient of two springs ... at the northwest edge of the site,” and installed “more than a dozen air-strippers to remove TCE dissolved in recovered groundwater which is then discharged to the Arkansas River through a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit or is treated at the Spirit Industrial Waste Treatment Plant (IWTP) and recycled for use in the Spirit plant.”

Besides continuing the air stripping operations, remedial action will also include bio-remediation in place and the maintenance of permeable reactive barriers to mitigate further spread of existing soil-based contamination. In cases where it’s necessary, remedial soil removal and disposal will be on the cleanup agenda.

by: Duane Craig

Vapor Intrusion Sampling Continues in Clearfield

By: Duane Criag

Since the discovery of a plume of groundwater contamination in Clearfield, Utah, 168 homes have been sampled for indoor chemical vapors, according to an article in the Standard-Examiner. Every year since 2003, a certain number of the 300-350 homes in the area have been sampled for the vapors.

From the end of World War II into the 1960s, nearby Hill Air Force Base disposed of trichloroethylene, or TCE, and tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, onsite, leading to a plume of groundwater contamination that covers approximately 142 acres. There are two levels of groundwater affected—the shallow level is contaminated with TCE and PCE, while the deeper level is contaminated with just TCE.

The base monitors the situation and does the testing, and it recently assured the residents that there is nothing to be concerned about because the groundwater that is affected is not used for drinking. The major concern, according to the government, is the potential for vapor intrusion when the vapors from the chemicals make their way through cracks in foundations and into the airspace of the homes. Surprisingly, according to the city manager, many people don’t have the testing done.

The base is supposed to choose a cleanup option by February 2014.

Wisconsin Residents Say Company's Efforts Are Too Little Too Late

By: Duane Craig

As far back as 1994, people living near the Madison Kipp Corporation in Madison, Wisc., have complained about health concerns such as eye/nose/throat irritation, metallic taste in the mouth, bronchial and asthma symptoms, headaches, nausea and stomach aches, according to this early report by an official of the Madison Department of Public Health.

Beginning in 1997, the department did a two-and-a-half-year study but found the symptomatic complaints didn't have the consistency necessary to warrant a health study in the community. Investigations into soil contamination around the Kipp property were started in the mid 1990s, and soil vapor sampling began in 2003.

In May 2011, residents near the plant found out that tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, that had been spilled in the past at the company's property was entering their homes as a vapor, according to this report in Madison Commons. A Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources hydrogeologist said the incidences were found in the 100 block of South Marquette Street. Three homes were involved, and they registered indoor air levels of the chemical totaling 1,080 parts per billion, 470 PPB and 305 PPB. PCE indoors at concentrations above 6 PPB is considered to be a problem.

Indoor PCE levels at problematic levels

Kipp used PCE to clean materials and products until 1987 and stored it in tanks outside. Those tanks were vented to the ground. The company has been working with the neighborhood to install filtration systems where needed, and in mid-October 2011, Kipp said it had a cleanup plan in mind that included in-home mitigation systems for any homes affected by PCE vapors. It was also considering setting up a soil vapor extraction system on its property to remove the vapors from contaminated groundwater, according to this report in Madison.com. According to this report in the Wisconsin State Journal, the company was also considering removing the soil from the yards of two homes that backup to the plant and adding clean backfill.

Some residents and one legislative state representative weren't happy with that and wanted all contaminated soil removed and replaced with clean soil. Residents wanted to know that in the very near future their children could play in their yards without facing the dangers of high levels of contamination.

In late October 2011, seven families sued Kipp for failing to clean up its contamination. They claim that contamination has devalued their properties, and they want some compensation for that. They also want the contaminants cleaned up for good, and they want Kipp to pay punitive damages for taking so long to deal with the issue.

In the meantime, Wisconsin's DNR referred the issues associated with the contamination to the state's justice department to enforce the deadlines for the cleanup.

Madison Kipp, located at 201 Waubesa St., makes precision machined components found in engines of all types and used for other applications such as the lawn and garden industry. The company also has other Madison operations at 2824 Atwood Ave., and 166 South Fair Oaks Ave. and Sun Prairie, Wisc. operations at 1655 Corporate Center Drive.

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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City, CVS Sparring With State Over Bozeman, MT Superfund Site

September 14, 2010 - Twenty-one years after perchloroethene, a dry-cleaning fluid and suspected carcinogen, was discovered under the Hastings Shopping Center, there still isn't a plan to clean it up.

The city of Bozeman and CVS Pharmacy are responsible for cleaning up the Superfund site, dubbed the Bozeman Solvent Site. But the two say a state regulatory agency overseeing the remediation is dragging its heels. And they're prepared to take the state to court if the process doesn't speed up.

"The city and CVS will no longer accept management behavior from the (Montana Department of Environmental Quality,) which does nothing more than provide lengthy delays and abusive, arbitrary demands, while imposing unreasonable costs upon the taxpayers of the city of Bozeman and CVS," states an Aug. 31 letter to MDEQ from attorneys representing the city and CVS.

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Hazardous Chemical Found in Spring Water in Salt Lake City, UT

August 18, 2010 - Residents living near East High School have noticed a slight oil sheen on the spring water near their homes for more than a month. Now the health department says the water has tested positive for a hazardous chemical.

Health officials say they don't know how long the chemical has been in the spring water in this area -- or where it came from.

Salt Lake City has determined that some private springs contain perchloroethylene (PCE), primarily in the areas from 700 South to Michigan Avenue and 1100 East to 1300 East. The drinking water is safe but recommends using municipal water rather than groundwater for any food cultivation.

For further questions, contact Salt Lake Valley Health Department at 801-313-6700. The levels are low, but they wanted to warn residents about the contamination.

Employees from the Salt Lake Valley Health Department (SLVHD) are hitting every house in the neighborhood between 700 South and Michigan Avenue and 1100 East to 1300 East. They're warning residents about a toxic chemical found in the springs near their homes.

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Residents Skeptical of DuPont's Bid for Permit Change in Pompton Lakes, NJ Cleanup

August 6, 2010 - DuPont has asked the state to alter a key permit for its cleanup of contaminated groundwater in Pompton Lakes, a move that some residents and environmentalists say could reduce the public's oversight of DuPont's cleanup efforts.

The permit is tied to a pump-and-treat system that DuPont installed in 1998 to remove the toxic solvents PCE and TCE from groundwater under the company's property and halt its spread as a contaminated groundwater plume under neighboring homes.

The solvents have been linked in studies to certain cancers, and last winter a state study found elevated levels of those cancers among residents in the neighborhood above the contaminated groundwater plume, though the state could not conclusively link the higher levels to the plume.

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DEP Announces More Limerick, PA Well Pollution

August 5, 2010 - The state has sampled the wells of nearly 80 homes in the northeast section of the township in recent months after samples from 21 wells were found to be contaminated with dangerous chemicals.

Tuesday night, residents of that area packed the Board of Supervisors meeting to hear officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection explain how they found out about the contamination and what they intend to do about it.

The area of contamination, which the DEP has labeled the Landis Creek project, is roughly bounded by Ridge Pike to the south, Sunset Road to the west, Graterford Road to the north and Township Line Road to the east.

It is separate and distinct from a contamination problem that made headlines earlier this year in the southern portion of the township. Two local businesses — Teleflex and the former Stanley Works tool plant — are believed to be the source of that previously revealed contamination.

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Maryland Event Explores Possible Detrick Link to Cancers

July 11, 2010 - About 150 people gathered Saturday evening to learn more about cancer cases in Frederick and the possibility that a 1992 contamination problem at Fort Detrick's Area B is connected to the illnesses.

Randy White, a Florida pastor, started the Kristen Renee Foundation after one of his daughters died at age 30 from a brain tumor. His other daughter developed stomach tumors, and his ex-wife is fighting renal cell carcinoma. The three women lived on Lake Coventry Drive from 1995 to 2005, just tenths of a mile from the edge of Area B.

White said the goal of his foundation was originally to help those with cancer, but when doctors told him that his family's cancer cases were not genetic, he started a quest to find the cause of their cancers and fix the problem before more people got sick.

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Lawmakers demand action on New Jersey cancer cluster

December 13, 2009 - New Jersey federal lawmakers are asking the U.S. environmental agency to review whether a DuPont pollution treatment project in Pompton Lakes is adequately protecting residents from harm by contaminants.

In June 2008, DuPont and the state Department of Environmental Protection reported that two chemicals, PCE and TCE, that had migrated from a closed company-owned munitions factory were sending toxic vapors up through soil beneath some 430 homes and potentially into their basements.

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Study planned to measure dry-cleaning fluid vapor levels in Montana homes

November 5, 2009 - The city of Bozeman and CVS Pharmacy plan to study whether vapors of a dry-cleaning fluid suspected of causing cancer have migrated from a Superfund site at the Hastings shopping center into nearby homes.

But city officials and environmental experts say residents shouldn't be alarmed about the indoor air tests for PCE, also known as perc. The study is part of ongoing testing at the West Main Street site.

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Former textile mill in Michigan leaves PCE behind

July 28, 2009 - Residents of Cowpens, Michigan filed a lawsuit alleging that their properties, including wells that once provided drinking water, were contaminated by a textile mill that operated nearby from 1969-90. Water in underground spring tests have tested positive for tetrachloroethylene - also know as perchloroethylene, or PCE.

PCE is a man-made chemical used for dry cleaning fabrics and metal degreasing. Exposure to the chemical can cause dizziness, headaches, nausea, difficulty in speaking and walking, unconsciousness, cancer and death.

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Dry cleaners leave a toxic legacy in Illinois

July 26, 2009 - For decades, one of the nation's most widely used dry cleaning solvents was billed as a marvel of modern chemistry that could safely remove dirt and stains from clothing.

Shops sprang up to take advantage of the chemical, perchloroethylene, also known as PCE or perc. People became familiar with the sharp odor of clothes freshly removed from plastic wrap, a sign that perc was used to clean them.

But over the years, with little if any notice to the public, the often sloppy use of perchloroethylene has poisoned hundreds of sites in Illinois.

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PCE leaves a toxic legacy in Burlington, VT

June 7, 2009 - Few Burlingtonians may remember Park Cleaners, a dry-cleaning business run out of the old Blinn House on 151 South Champlain St. in 1958.

The business lasted only one year at the site, but its brief time there was long enough to create a troublesome underground chemical contamination plume that today stretches from the aging, paint-chipped building almost to the shores of Lake Champlain.

The culprit: tetrachloroethylene, or PCE for short, a chemical widely used by dry cleaners and apparently discharged into the soil by Park Cleaners’ employees. The chemical can cause headaches and dizziness in the short term and, potentially, cancer later on.

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Utah well closed after discovery of PCE contamination

June 4, 2009 - Officials in North Salt Lake, Utah, closed a well that supplies as much as 15% of the city's drinking water after two tests found the dry cleaning chemical perchloroethylene in the water, according to this article that cites a report by The Standard-Examiner of Ogden, Utah.

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Groundwater contamination found in Milford, CT

June 4, 2009 - Three test wells dug Wednesday at the Robert Treat Apartments will determine the extent of groundwater contamination from a long-closed dry cleaner.

Test wells on the dry cleaner's property and at the Treat Apartments have found elevated levels of a common dry-cleaning solvent, said Dennis Schain, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The perchloroethylene -- also known as tetrachloroethylene, PCE, and PERC -- was found at both locations recently, Schain said, and the new wells dug Wednesday are to locate the extent of the plume. Test results will likely be available in a month, he said.

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Camp Lejeune vets suffer from drinking water contamination in North Carolina

May 31, 2009 - Camp Lejeune, a sprawling Marine base on the North Carolina seaboard, is the site of what some scientists call the worst public drinking-water contamination in the nation's history. Its water wells were tainted with cancer-causing industrial compounds for 30 years, ending in 1987.

An estimated 500,000 to 1 million people — including Marines and family living on base housing — drank, bathed and cooked using that fouled water.

Among the chemicals detected in high concentrations at Camp Lejeune are a metal degreaser, trichloroethylene (TCE) and a degreaser and dry-cleaning agent called tetrachloroethylene (PCE).

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San Antonio's Toxic Triangle Residents Still Seek Justice

May 26, 2009- It’s been more than two decades since plumes of toxic chemicals were discovered seeping from the former Kelly Air Force Base into the soil and groundwater under the surrounding neighborhoods. More than 20,000 homes sit above these plumes in an area residents have come to call the “Toxic Triangle” because of higher than normal rates of cancer and birth defects.

Residents of the Toxic Triangle who have watched neighbors and family members sicken and die believe those chemicals — primarily trichloroethylene (TCE), a degreasing agent, and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a paint stripper and dry-cleaning chemical — are the cause of the area’s high incidences of liver, kidney, and other cancers.

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Dry Cleaning Chemical Leaves Contamination in California's Valley

April 21, 2009 - Cities around the Valley are wrestling with a legacy of environmental contamination: a chemical used for decades by dry cleaners. Now suspected of causing cancer, the chemical has permeated underground water and soil. Cleanup is necessary, but expensive, and there's no easy way to pay for it.

Federal and state environmental agencies, alerted by high levels of the chemical in drinking water wells, dug six test wells last month near existing and former dry-cleaning businesses. The Environmental Protection Agency and California's Department of Toxic Substances Control were hunting for a plume of perchlorethylene -- called PCE -- used as dry-cleaning fluid since 1934 that started turning up in Valley water wells in the 1970s.

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Drinking water contamination in Crestwood, Illinois

April 19, 2009 - For more than two decades, the 11,000 or so residents in this working-class community unknowingly drank tap water contaminated with toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems, a Tribune investigation found.

As village officials were building a national reputation for pinching pennies, and sending out fliers proclaiming Crestwood water was "Good to taste but not to waste!," state and village records obtained by the newspaper show they secretly were drawing water from a contaminated well, apparently to save money.

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