From the December 12, 2004 issue of the SUN
By Christine Steele
SUN Staff Writer
A North Railroad Avenue toxic waste plume that contaminated two Española city wells is slated for cleanup by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Robert Knowles said the contamination was discovered in 1989 during routine testing of the wells by the state Environment Department. Knowles is an environmental health scientist with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga.
Jon Goldstein, a spokesman for the state Department, said both wells were disconnected within a few weeks of results showing their contamination.
The site — called the North Railroad Avenue Plume — was listed as a federal Superfund site on Jan 19, 1999, said Mike Huber, the Department's project manager overseeing plume clean-up.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency's Web site, Congress established Superfund in 1980 to locate, investigate and clean the nation's worst toxic waste sites. There are 1,245 sites on the EPA's National Priorities List and 56 proposed sites. New Mexico has 13 designated Superfund sites.
An EPA fact sheet describes the plume as an underground pocket contaminated ground water that spreads over 58 acres at a variety of depths. Approximately 280 million gallons of ground water are affected. The plume begins 3/4 miles south of 113 North Railroad Ave.
Origins
The contamination was caused by former owners of Norge Town Laundry. Over an extended period they dumped dry cleaning fluids, containing the chemicals tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, commonly referred to as PCE's and TCE's, into a lint trap. The chemicals eventually seeped into the ground.
Studies are still being done to determine the effects drinking water contaminatd with PCEs and TCEs, Knowles said. Some probably effects include low birth weight babies and children born with cleft palates, he said. A study at the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejune showed women over 35 who ingested the chemicals were four times more likely to have smaller infants, Knowles said.
The greatest concern, he said, is that no one can determine how long the contamination might have existed prior to 1989.
A time line showing the site history shows the Norge Town Laundromat beginning operations in 1970. Therefore, anyone who drank city water between 1970 and 1990 could be at risk.
The EPA reports state that people could also have been contaminated by inhaling the vapors or through skin contact with contaminated water.
Knowles said the public health assessment prepared by his agency in Sept. 2003 stated that soil and vapor exposure are minimal because the contaminant is quickly diluted by the outdoor air.
Daniel Valario, an environmental health researcher, is someone who may beg to differ.
"There is always a potential risk for something coming out of the ground," he said of the contaminants.
Valario is with the community group El Rio Arriba Environmental Health Association. The group got a grant to study the issue and held community meetings to raise awareness of the plume and its effects.
"The city didn't seem very concerned about it," he said. "To us it is a health issue."
Valario said growing up 20 to 30 years ago his cousin used to get rashes whenever she was out playing in the mud.
"People have been getting sick here for a long time but it is hard to make a connection because no health study has been done," he said.
Valario also said the population of the area has changed.
"People have died and moved away and there is no one left to study," he said.
Spreading
Knowles said the plume boundary crossed from the city line onto Santa Clara Pueblo. He said 12 private drinking wells on Santa Clara land were not impacted but should be monitored. Testing should be done at least annually, Knowles said, but the Department may do it more frequently.
Also, the flow of the plume was headed toward the Rio Grande, he said. Tests determined that the plume had reached the river but the levels of PCE's and TCE's detected were negligible.
"As far as I know there has been no impact to the Rio Grande at this point," he said.
He said private wells in the area were uphill from the plume but no new private wells should be installed.
Clean Up
Huber, the Department's project manager overseeing clean up of the site, said he expects clean up to begin in March. He said the process could take years and will run into the millions of dollars. He said 90 percent of the funding for the project comes from the federal government with the remaining 10 percent from the state. He said the amount of money available is being kept confidential so as not to inflate bidding on the project, which has yet to happen.
The clean up process — called enhanced in-site bio-remediation — involves injecting chemicals into the ground that enhance the natural degradation of the contaminant, Huber said.
"There is actual solvent in the ground and the first phase is to pump surfactant into the ground and extract both the surfactant and the mobilized contaminant out," he said. "That gets rid of the source of the contamination and then what you have left to deal with is the ground water contamination."
There are several different ways that ground water contamination is treated, Huber said, depending on how deep the contamination goes.
One way to address it is to create a biocurtain, a bacteria and nutrient lined trench, he said. As ground water flows through the covered trench the bacteria and nutrients work to decontaminate the water by breaking down the toxins, Huber said. The material gives the bacteria an electron to break down the contaminant, he said. Engineers will do field testing to determine what material will enhance the the natural bio-remediation, he said.
The final step, Huber said, is to decontaminate the soil. That process, called soil-vapor extraction, involves an elaborate vacuum system used to draw out any remaining chemicals in the ground.
"Throughout this process we will monitor the ground water and soil vapors," Huber said.
"You are going to see a lot of construction. You'll see drill rigs. We'll tear up asphalt and put in pipe," he said.
He said most of the construction will be behind Norge Town Laundry. Huber said a series of public meetings will be held before the clean up begins with at least on one in Española and one in Santa Clara Pueblo.
