[CPEO-BIF] AVX Corp. TCE migration, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Reports show AVX kept pollution migration secret since 1981

By David Wren
Myrtle Beach Sun News (SC)
February 24, 2011
Consultants hired by AVX Corp. in Myrtle Beach warned the  
manufacturer starting in June 1981 that cancer-causing chemicals it  
had dumped into groundwater at its 17th Avenue South facility were  
migrating to adjacent property, city and private wells and the Pee  
Dee aquifer, but the company chose to keep that information secret,  
according to evidence and testimony presented during a civil trial here.

When AVX finally did tell state regulators in 1995 about  
contamination at its property, the company downplayed the extent of  
the problem and told regulators that the pollution was confined to  
its own site despite evidence to the contrary.

Reports showing AVX’s knowledge of the migrating contamination were  
included in about 1,500 documents the company had tried to keep  
secret. A federal judge, however, ruled last year that AVX had to  
turn over the documents to Horry Land Co., an adjacent Myrtle Beach  
property owner that is suing the manufacturer over the pollution.

Horry Land discovered high levels of tricholorethylene, or TCE, in  
the groundwater at its site across the street from AVX. Although  
Horry Land discovered the contamination in 2006, the previously  
secret reports show AVX knew the pollution was migrating toward the  
land 25 years earlier. Dennis Oldland -- the environment and safety  
manager for AVX -- said the company did nothing to determine how much  
pollution was migrating to other properties, including the Horry Land  
site.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.thesunnews.com/2011/02/24/2001378/reports-show-avx-kept- 
pollution.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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