[CPEO-BIF] Vapor mitigation challenges in Ithaca (NY)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Residents pushing for remediation

JENNIE DALEY
Ithaca Journal (NY)
June 1, 2005 

ITHACA -- Tuesday was the second time engineers had to come out to Janet
Snoyer's house to fix the problems in her basement. 

First, it was for the whining fan with a repetitive clicking. Tuesday it
was for the water pooling in her basement. These troubles began in
January when Environmental Consulting Strategies, on behalf of Emerson
Power Transmission, installed a remediation system in her basement to
reduce the amount of soil gas vapors escaping into her home. 

Snoyer lives downhill from the former Morse Chain site, which Emerson
now owns. Last fall her house was tested for any chemicals that could
have leaked from the plant to her home, particularly trichloroethene, or
TCE. TCE was used by the factory decades ago to degrease chains and is a
suspected carcinogen that can affect neurological functions. Indoor air
test results showed levels of TCE in her basement just above the state
Department of Environmental Conservation's 5 parts per billion limit. 

Due to these numbers, Emerson offered her a remediation system.
Installing that system took almost two weeks of work and resulted in one
new concrete slab, a number of rubber barriers and a PVC-pipe system
that sucks vapors out of the soil and vents them to the outdoors. 

Troubles in the system 

It was the rubber barriers that caused Snoyer's troubles. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20050601/localnews/2148058.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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