[Durham INC] Reply from NIS? State investigating 11 chemical spillsites in Durham (Herald-Sun)

[RW Pickle]

Saw them drilling well points at the old Nu-Tread Tire Co. (now Accent
Hardwoods on Washington?; across the street caddy cornered from the Scrap
Exchange) on Monday setting up monitors for that site...

RWP
27 Beverly

> At last nights INC meeting Councilman Mike Woodard reported that he has
> requested additional information on the locations and what the plans are
> from a State perspective.
>
> Several participants agreed, this is more than just a Durham problem.
>
> Criagie Sanders offered the services of INC (venue and information
> distribution) if needed to assist in 'getting the word out'.
>
> Those in attendance all agreed this was the best course of prudent action
> to
> take.
>
> Mike Shiflett
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Schelp" <bwatu at yahoo.com>
> To: <inc-list at DurhamINC.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:33 AM
> Subject: [Durham INC] Reply from NIS? State investigating 11 chemical
> spillsites in Durham (Herald-Sun)
>
>
>>
>> Any news from Neighborhood Improvement Services about when they might
>> post
>> the list of 11 chemical spill sites in Durham that the State is
>> investigating?
>>
>> many thanks,
>> John
>>
>> ****
>>
>> Date: Sunday, June 21, 2009, 9:13 AM
>>
>> Below is an article from [Sunday's] Herald-Sun that contains some
>> troubling information about the State not informing neighborhoods of
>> several chemical spills in Durham.
>>
>> Can Neighborhood Improvement Services please post the list of 11
>> chemical
>> spill sites in Durham that the State is investigating?
>>
>> with appreciation,
>> John
>>
>> ****
>>
>> Contaminants force church to move
>> By Ray Gronberg, Herald-Sun, 21 June 2009
>>
>> State and city officials closed a West Club Boulevard church in May
>> after
>> learning that the building it was using, a one-time dry cleaning store,
>> is
>> the source of a chemical contamination.
>>
>> An inspector from the city's Neighborhood Improvement Services
>> Department
>> condemned the building at 1103 W. Club Blvd. on May 11 on the grounds
>> that
>> fumes of a chemical called perchloroethylene were evident inside the
>> structure.
>>
>> The chemical, also known as tetrachloroethylene, perc or PCE, is a
>> common
>> dry cleaning solvent. Regulators consider it a "probable carcinogen,"
>> said
>> John Powers, head of the special remediation branch of the N.C.
>> Department
>> of Environment and Natural Resources' Superfund section.
>>
>> The order displaced the congregation of the Word of Faith Christian
>> Community. Condemnation means a building cannot be rented out until
>> repairs occur, said Rick Hester, acting assistant director of
>> Neighborhood
>> Improvement Services.
>>
>> The building's owner lives in Maryland and is aware of the order, Hester
>> said.
>>
>> Powers' office spearheads a statewide effort to clean up contamination
>> linked to old dry cleaning stores. It's working on the West Club site
>> and
>> has found there "some pretty high levels of contamination" affecting
>> both
>> soil and groundwater, Powers said.
>>
>> The plume of underground chemicals measures about 350 feet long by 190
>> feet wide and stretches north across Club Boulevard into the parking lot
>> of Northgate Mall, he said.
>>
>> Measured levels in groundwater clocked in at levels in the "tens of
>> thousands of parts per billion," which are high relative to the state
>> drinking water standard for the chemical of 0.7 parts per billion,
>> Powers
>> said.
>>
>> State regulators found and mapped the plume by doing a series of soil
>> borings and putting in monitoring wells.
>>
>> The chemical appears to be moving slowly -- the dry cleaner that used to
>> occupy the site was last in business in 1974 -- but analysts are eager
>> to
>> do "a little more investigation" on adjoining properties to the south
>> and
>> east to see if it can be found there, Powers said.
>>
>> The adjoining properties include another church -- the Triangle Family
>> Church on Watts Street -- and what Powers said were "at least three"
>> houses on the north end of Dollar Avenue.
>>
>> "The primary risk is just on the source property," Powers said. "If we
>> find the contamination hasn't migrated [to the adjoining properties
>> south
>> and east] that would close it off in that director and we feel everybody
>> else would be fine."
>>
>> State officials have been in contact with the former occupants of the
>> building and the adjoining property owners, but have not gone beyond
>> that
>> to notify the neighborhood. That's drawn criticism from an environmental
>> group, plus a posting by the group to at least one of Durham's many
>> activist e-mail lists.
>>
>> "We feel this is a neighborhood issue that extends much further than
>> those
>> property owners with land adjacent to the contaminated site," said Sue
>> Dayton, coordinator of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League's
>> N.C.
>> Healthy Communities Project.
>>
>> Dayton favors wider notification so residents can have a say in and
>> watch
>> over any cleanup effort. "There's no question the state is going to do
>> the
>> best they can to mitigate the site," she said. "However, there are
>> uncertainties involved here, especially when a plume of this magnitude
>> has
>> to be cleaned up."
>>
>> Powers said the state does in fact see to it that the site is cleaned
>> up,
>> using a combination of techniques. Possibilities include digging up the
>> contaminated soil and injecting it with "agents that help break down
>> contaminants in the ground," he said.
>>
>> Chemical cleanups in the past have also used pumps to extract
>> underground
>> chemicals, but that method isn't as much in favor these days because
>> "it's
>> been found a lot of contamination remains behind," he said.
>>
>> Cleanups take awhile, and require at least a year of groundwater
>> monitoring. The state program is working with 219 sites, 11 of which
>> including the Club Boulevard site are in Durham.
>>
>> The program began in 1997 but only has been going full speed since 2003,
>> Powers said. In the past couple of years it's graduated five sites with
>> lesser contaminations than the West Club Boulevard site's, and is poised
>> to finish with 10 more.
>>
>> Dayton was responsible for the e-mail posting and said her group would
>> like to meet soon with city leaders, the Inter-Neighborhood Council, and
>> neighborhood groups in Trinity Park, Walltown and Trinity Heights to
>> discuss the problem.
>>
>> Local real estate agent Ellen Dagenhart lives on Dollar Avenue a few
>> doors
>> south of the affected area and said Friday that before Dayton sent out
>> her
>> e-mail she'd known little about the matter.
>>
>> "I had heard off and on over the years that there was contamination, but
>> had no idea that it was to the extent detailed in the letter," she said.
>> "It's scary to think about something like that."
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Durham INC Mailing List
>> list at durham-inc.org
>> http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Durham INC Mailing List
> list at durham-inc.org
> http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
>


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