TCE Cleanup at Kansas Missile Silo

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Officials Begin Cleanup Effort at Former Missile Silo

Associated Press
March 31, 2004

WAMEGO, Kan. - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started cleaning up
a former Cold War era missile silo after studies showed a toxic solvent
used at the site in the 1960s had seeped into the groundwater and
residential wells.

The solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, was used in the 1960s in the silo
near Wamego to clean rocket fuel lines and other areas. It worked its
way into the groundwater when catch basins sometimes overflowed, said
Brad Vann, a geologist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In recent years, the chemical may have escaped into the ground when
pipes or areas designed to hold the contaminant failed.

Exposure to large quantities of TCE can harm the nervous system and
increase the risk for leukemia, said Shawn Blackshear, of the Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8320846.htm

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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