TERRE HAUTE — Fifty years ago, about 30 dry cleaners did business in the city of Terre Haute. City officials are now cleaning up the mess some left behind.
The latest case is at South Ninth Street and Margaret Avenue, where South Side Cleaners once stood. After buying the land to widen Margaret Avenue, city contractors found solvents in the groundwater below the site and now are trying to learn whether those toxins traveled off site.
Just south of the site are a few homes and businesses using wells for their drinking water, according to residents of the neighborhood who spoke to the Tribune-Star Monday.
South Side Cleaners has not operated at the site since the late 1990s, said Pat Martin, chief city planner. The chemicals found in the groundwater are typically used in dry cleaning operations and have been discovered at other former dry cleaning sites in the city in the past few years, he said.
Martin will talk today with Cardno ATC, an Indianapolis-based testing company, about going door-to-door in the neighborhood as part of its work at the site. The city hired the company Monday to do more groundwater and soil testing as a first step in a plan approved by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
People living or working in the neighborhood told the Tribune-Star on Monday that officials had not notified them of the potential contamination. Asked why residents were not immediately informed of the potential problem, an IDEM official told the Tribune-Star in an email Wednesday that, “when there is no information indicating that the public is at risk, as in the case with currently available information pertaining to this site, IDEM does not make an announcement.”
Asked why the first step is not simply to test the well water at nearby homes, Barry Sneed, an IDEM spokesman, stated in the email that officials must first determine whether people are using wells in the nearby area. “Presently, we do not have evidence that wells are present and if they are for potable use,” Sneed wrote. Another state agency keeps track of well usage in the state, Martin noted.
The chemicals found in the groundwater at the South Side Cleaners site are tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene and cis-1,2-dichloroethene. According to data provided by the city, water samples taken at the site exceeded state allowable levels of each those toxins.
• Tetrachloroethene (PCE) is permitted up to 110 micrograms per liter. Testing found up to 187 micrograms per liter at the site, according to test results provided to the Tribune-Star Wednesday.
• Trichloroethene (TCE) is permitted up to 9.1 micrograms per liter and was found at concentrations ranging from 5.7 to 25.5.
• Cis-1,2-dichloroethene (CIS-1,2-DCE) is permitted up to 70 micrograms per liter and was found at concentrations ranging from 7.3 to 83.
The city will be paying Cardno ATC $13,908 for its examination of the site, according to the contract approved Monday.
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