[CPEO-BIF] High levels of TCE at CTS Asheville, North Carolina

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Off the chart: UNCA prof tracks CTS mother lode

By Susan Andrew
Mountain Xpress (Asheveille, NC)
September 21.2012

Editor’s note: Five years after Xpress broke the news of severe  
contamination at the former CTS plant in south Asheville (see "Fail- 
Safe?" July 11, 2007, Xpress) the story is far from over. The  
property was officially designated a Superfund site this year, and  
tests last month showed high levels of toxic chemicals still leaching  
from it.

A locked fence surrounds the little wetland on the Rice family’s  
property on Mills Gap Road; signs warn the curious away. To date, the  
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has spent millions of dollars on  
the problem, billing the company for the costs of testing, emergency  
water supplies for affected residents and a soil-vapor-extraction  
system intended to remove hazardous chemicals from surface soils  
around the former plant. But the full cleanup neighbors have demanded  
for years hasn’t even been designed yet, let alone begun.

And independent testing conducted last month by UNCA hydrogeologist  
Jeff Wilcox found trichloroethylene, a chemical degreaser used at the  
plant, at 11,000 parts per billion in the Rices' springs - thousands  
of times the 5 ppb legal limit for human contact.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mountainx.com/article/45676/Off-the-chart-UNCA-prof-tracks- 
CTS-mother-lode

--

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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