[CPEO-MEF] Salt Lake City PCE plume

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

The article excerpted and linked below raises two issues.

1. There seems to be a perception that U.S. EPA's Superfund is
responsible for paying to remediate contamination released by a federal
agency, in this case the Department of Veterans Affairs. In fact, such
cleanup is supposed to be paid for from the budget of the polluting
agency. Superfund designation, in such cases, heightens EPA's regulatory
oversight authority, but the Fund itself is not established to clean
federal pollution. If it's not known whether federal agencies are
responsible for the pollution, then Superfund money, scarce as it is,
may be used to determine the source.

2. My view, based primarily upon living in a County with 29 separate
sites on the Superfund National Priorities List, as well as hundreds of
other contamination sites, is that the pollution, not the listing, is
what depresses property values. (In my area, Silicon Valley, it
sometimes holds down the rate of increase of property values.) At first,
a Superfund listing may bring publicity that undermines property values.
But over the long run more robust oversight leads to a perception, often
true, that the contamination is being addressed. That perception helps
bring property values back into line.

In cases, such as this Salt Lake City plume, where the contamination of
residential property is confined to underlying groundwater, the impact
of contamination on property values depends upon whether there is a
completed pathway. If there are private drinking water wells or a
likelihood of vapor intrusion, there is a greater potential health
impact and thus a larger influence on property values than if the risk
is limited to contamination of production wells, located off the
property, that serve a larger area.

Lenny

***

Who pays? Residents are leery of a Superfund designation

By Cathy McKitrick 
The Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
January 12, 2006

About 150 residents near 700 South and 1600 East met with Salt Lake City
Councilman Dave Buhler and a panel of experts Wednesday to examine ways
to clean up groundwater contamination threatening one of the city's
culinary wells. 

A pesky solvent used as a metal degreaser and in the dry-cleaning
industry - known as perchloroethylene (PCE) - has been detected in a
plume deep below the ground in an area bounded by 500 South and
Sunnyside Avenue (825 South), and Guardsman Way (1580 East) to a point
east of 1300 East. 

"There are two paramount issues," said Buhler. "Our drinking water must
and will be protected, with or without federal help, and the problem was
likely caused by one or more federal agencies, so it's appropriate they
pay the bill." 

Although further studies are needed to pinpoint the responsible parties,
dry cleaning operations at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center seem to be
a likely source. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3394116

-- 


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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