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

Mississippi's Chemfax Site Set for Next Round of Cleanup

By: Duane Craig

Through the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. taxpayers helped Gulfport, Miss., complete an emergency cleanup of the Chemfax industrial site at Three Rivers and Creosote roads. The bill was about $1.5 million, according to this report at SunHerald.com.

Now, the cleanup needs to be taken to the next level to prevent contamination from reaching Bernard Bayou, and Mississippi will have to carry the financial ball from here to completion. The state says it is waiting for a final cleanup plan before determining the funding.

The work is estimated to include removing 18,000 cubic feet of soil contaminated with base neutral acids, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. That requires digging down from 4 to 10 feet at a cost of about $2.5 million. After the contaminants are removed, the groundwater will have to be monitored for 100 years.

Benzene in air 180 times EPA health-based benchmark

Chemfax made petroleum hydrocarbon resins using a paraffin wax blending process. Water used in the process was stored in a pond, and the pond had an overflow drain going to a drainage ditch. Air sampling in 1990 turned up high levels of "benzene, toluene, xylenes, ethyl benzene, and styrene. The concentrations of benzene detected in the air were over 180 times EPA's health-based benchmarks. Other contaminants were also found in air samples significantly above upwind sample concentrations," according to EPA documents.

Fears of tainted water well up in western Colorado

October 11, 2009 - Denverpost.com - Ned Prather can't forget that awful drink of water.

Tests would show the water from a spring he has drank from for decades was heavily contaminated with a carcinogenic and nervous system-damaging chemical stew known as BTEX — benzene, toluene, ethylbenzine and xylene. BTEX and other volatile organic compounds come to the surface in the production water from oil and gas wells.

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