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

Whoops, TCE and PCE on the Move Again at Bennington Superfund Site

By: Duane Craig

A very deep trench is proposed to subvert the movement of contamination from a former landfill in Bennington, Vermont, according to this article in the VTDigger.org. The landfill is also a formerly active Superfund site with remediation completed in 1999, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Groundwater contamination found in Barney Brook

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, and tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, have escaped from the landfill which was previously capped and adorned with a soil vapor extraction system. Apparently the groundwater flow changed and some contamination has been found in a tributary to Barney Brook. For six years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the landfill was a dumping place for industrial wastes from local companies. Those wastes included polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, organic solvents and lead. These wastes were dumped into a lagoon that was not lined to prevent absorption into the soil.

In 1976, a system was installed to lower the groundwater beneath the landfill by carrying it away to an unlined, pond area. Ten years later PCBs, lead, arsenic, benzene and ethylbenzene were flowing into the pond, according to this EPA report.

The new trench will be 25 feet deep and 200 feet long. Because it goes down to impervious soil it is expected to catch the contaminants. The bottom of the trench will be filled with sand and iron shavings to break down the contaminants and stop their movement.

Former Textile Plant Reveals Deeper Little Secret

By: Duane Craig

Groundwater contamination at an old Texfi Industries plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, is now deeper than anyone thought, according to this report at WTVD-TV in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. At 30 feet, it's in line to potentially contaminate city water supplies that come from the nearby Cape Fear River. The contaminants are chlorinated solvents such as tetrachlorothylene.

Groundwater contamination threatens treated city water

Besides the river, another route of contamination could follow a path into a 14-million gallon tank that stores treated water for the city. So the plan is to dig a trench that would corral the toxic chemicals before they reach the tank. The city was briefed on this solution in April, but so far (as of August 6) there hasn't been a decision to begin the work, no doubt because of money. There is little left in a fund designated to deal with the Texfi contamination problem.

Texfi made millions on the polyester craze of the late 60s and early 70s. From leisure suits to mini skirts, polyester was humanity's answer to wrinkles. Problem was it was made from oil and tended to hamper the skin's ability to breathe. By the mid 70s people had moved back to natural fibers, or were beginning to try hybrids that blended polyester or rayon with natural fibers. Texfi didn't get it and continued to churn out polyester, loosing millions from 1974 through 1984, according to this background report in Entrepreneur.

During the heady years of profits there were 200 people working at Texfi's headquarters in Greensboro and the company had a weekend retreat complete with a half million dollar Tudor mansion and golf course where textile-weary executives could unwind. Then too, there was the expansion that allowed Texfi to circumvent suppliers like Celanese. The company built polymer plants in Asheboro and New Bern and then went public. Over the years it had operations at 13 plants, but by 1982 only eight were left and the company was bleeding red ink. A new CEO took over, slashed costs and continued the company's transition to blended fibers. Then it got into underwear, socks and even medical bandages.

The plant at Fayetteville was on Hoffer Drive and the operations there included dyeing textiles and finishing them. The chemicals were released from the plant operations, from tanks and from drains taking them into soil and groundwater. In a Texfi fact sheet from the North Carolina Division of Waste Management, the facility is listed as closed in 1999. Nearby are residential properties and the Fayetteville Public Works Commission’s P.O. Hoffer Water Treatment plant, sometimes called clear well. That facility is the one with the water tank awaiting a trench. In a recent news story officials have said there is no danger to the public water supply and that the possibility the chemicals might reach the river is "remote."

Texfi finally did go bankrupt in 1999 and the bankruptcy court set aside $942,000 for cleaning up this Texfi site. Today there is $173,000 of that money left.