[CPEO-MEF] EPA Orders TCE Air Sampling at MEW

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

In what may be a precedent-setting action of enormous national
significance, U.S. EPA has ordered the private responsible parties at
the Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW) Superfund Study Area in Mountain
View, California (yes, my backyard) to sample both indoor and outdoor
air for volatile organic contamination. The decision appears to be based
upon research showing that trichloroethylene (TCE) is more toxic that
previously believed. Earlier this year the Navy agreed to sample indoor
air at nearby military housing areas that were formerly part of Moffett
Naval Air Station. Worried about public exposure to TCE off gas, the
city of Mountain View has canceled plans to place an Interim Senior
Center on the site, part of which graces the cover of an EPA brochure on
successful Superfund Redevelopment.

Since plumes of TCE, the universal solvent, are found beneath hundreds
(thousands?) of military bases, other federal facilities, and private
sites across the U.S., EPA's apparent new stand could lead to extensive
new sampling and even additional remediation at a large number of sites.

See
http://www.mv-voice.com/thisweek/2002_10_04.mew.html
http://www.mv-voice.com/thisweek/2002_10_04.sncentr.html
http://www.mv-voice.com/thisweek/2002_10_04.edit.html
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peninsula/4187334.htm

Lenny

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Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 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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