Ann Arbor Expands Chemical Contamination Investigation From Former Argus Camera Factory
By JARON SCHNEIDER
PetaPixel
April 3, 2025
The city of Ann Arbor, Michigan is expanding its ongoing chemical contamination investigation that has been linked to the former Argus Camera manufacturing facilities. Despite their closure in 1963, dangerous levels of TCE have been leeching out from the former factory into the surrounding neighborhoods.
…
Argus Camera was a US-based camera maker that was located in Ann Arbor, Michigan until 1963. It went out of business in 1969. Argus owned two properties (called Argus I and Argus II) which were used for camera and lens manufacturing from the 1930s through the 1960s. After Argus went out of business, the Argus II facility has only been used for storage while the Argus I building is still used for commercial office space.
In 2006, industrial solvents, including trichloroethene (TCE), tetrachloroethene, cis-1,2-dichloroethene, carbon tetrachloride, and vinyl chloride were identified in soil and groundwater on the Argus II property. These chemicals can move through the ground and walls by what is known as vapor intrusion. By 2018, it had been established that TCE had migrated north of the property and towards residential areas. Ann Arbor installed mitigation systems, which are similar to the ones used on radon, at three residential properties. As the problem persisted through to 2022, additional sub-slab gas sampling and indoor air sampling was added to asses for the contaminants.
…
For the entire article, see
https://petapixel.com/2025/04/03/ann-arbor-expands-chemical-contamination-investigation-from-former-argus-camera-factory/
—
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)
_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/brownfields-cpeo.org
|