[CPEO-MEF] Atlas Missile plume, York, Nebraska

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Water contamination reaches 4 1/2 miles from missile silo

Plume being tracked by experts as it nears city of York

By Melanie Wilkinson
York News-Times (NE)
October 25, 2006

YORK -- The Atlas Missile Site 10, five miles west of York, was taken 
out of operation in 1964, only four years after its construction. What 
was left behind besides an empty silo, however, is groundwater 
contamination.

Travis Hagemann and Sam Wulf with Peterson Drilling out of Kearney 
worked yesterday to install a test well on Road L, just north of the 
railroad tracks. They are under contract with Kemron Environmental 
Services, in its investigation regarding the groundwater contamination 
coming from the old Atlas missile silo. It appears the contamination 
plume has now reached 4 1/2 miles -- much farther than what was 
originally expected.

Several years ago, the investigation by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers 
began with a remedial investigation and feasibility study completed in 
2002. Their findings -- Trichloroethene (TCE), a chlorinated solvent, 
was used at the site as a degreaser to clean out the residual fuel in 
the fuel lines. The release of TCE to the environment during the 
operation of the missile silo has resulted in TCE concentrations in 
groundwater that exceed the regulatory standard for protection of 
drinking water, which is five parts per million (ppm).

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.yorknewstimes.com/stories/102506/localnews_badwater.shtml

--
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
http://www.cpeo.org

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