[CPEO-BIF] "IBM toxic pool defies cleanup," Endicott, New York

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

IBM toxic pool defies cleanup
A remedy for a concentrated pool of solvents directly under the manufacturing site where at least 1,500 people still work may take years to find.

by TOM WILBER
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin (NY)
April 5, 2015


ENDICOTT – After 35 years, IBM Corp. contractors have stanched the flow of industrial solvents into a commercial and residential district in the heart of the village, but they have yet to find a solution for the source of the problem at the company's former flagship manufacturing plant.

Officials recently reported that efforts to intercept and remove the subterranean flow of hazardous chemicals coming from the industrial complex - now owned by Huron Real Estate Associates - have been successful. Consequently, health risks to a nearby neighborhood have been eliminated.

Yet they have no remedy for a concentrated pool of solvents directly under the manufacturing site, where at least 1,500 people still work. It may take years before a proven remedy is found, according to Alex Czuhanich, an engineering geologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, although the agency has no timetable for the project.

The pollution, discovered in 1979, includes trichloroethylene (TCE) and other solvents used as industrial degreasers that have been linked to maladies ranging from cancer to birth defects. IBM used vast quantities of the solvents to manufacture printed circuit boards during the company's heyday from the 1950s through the 1970s.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/local/2015/04/05/ibm-tce-issues/25302109/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
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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