[CPEO-BIF] "Springfield [Missouri] City Council considers groundwater monitoring wells near old Litton Systems plant"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

To address TCE pollution, Springfield City Council considers groundwater monitoring wells near old Litton Systems plant in northwest Springfield
Defense giant Northrop Grumman is working with the City of Springfield to set up three new groundwater monitoring wells. The plan is to check for pollution from the old Litton Systems plant by the Springfield-Branson National Airport.

By Gregory Holman
KSMU - Ozark Public Radio (MO)
August 8, 2023


TCE. It stands for trichloroethylene. In the 20th century, the toxic chemical was used to clean circuit boards manufactured at the old Litton Systems plant near Springfield-Branson National Airport — and until 1980, it was disposed of in lagoons and pits on the Litton property.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources says it’s been involved in cleaning up the site since 1979. Northrop Grumman bought out Litton in 2001, and the Springfield plant closed in 2007.

Last year, an investigation by NPR Midwest Newsroom and St. Louis Public Radio found that as early as 1993, state authorities and Litton Systems knew that TCE had contaminated not just company property, but groundwater in the surrounding community. According to Midwest Newsroom, a 1993 EPA report found that Litton had dumped more than 190 million gallons of wastewater into those lagoons and pits.

But the problem wasn’t widely known — and some nearby property owners weren’t notified — until the issue became public when TCE was detected at a nearby tourist attraction, Fantastic Caverns, in 2018.


…

For the entire story, see
https://www.ksmu.org/news/2023-08-08/to-address-tce-pollution-springfield-city-council-considers-groundwater-monitoring-wells-near-old-litton-systems-plant-in-northwest-springfield

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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