|
Groundwater Plume Closes Town's Only Well Oak Grove Village, a tiny Missouri community of 382 people, has lost its sole drinking water well because of toxic chemical contamination. At a cost to the town of more than $300,000, Oak Grove has been purchasing water from a neighboring community for most of the last decade.(1) But now the town is being forced to develop its own water supply-an expensive undertaking for such a small community. Oak Grove may lose its current source of water by the end of 2002 if neighboring Sullivan decides to cut Oak Grove off, as it has indicated it may do.(2) Moreover, the contaminated groundwater plume threatens neighboring municipal wells, located just four miles from the Oak Grove Village Well site, which serve more than 6,000 people.(3) Congress intended the Superfund cleanup program to help communities like Oak Grove, and the EPA proposed the Oak Grove well site for its priority cleanup list in September 2001. However, the Superfund Trust Fund is nearly out of money, and it's unclear if the town will ever receive help.(4) One option Oak Grove is now considering is treating the existing water by removing the trichloroethylene (TCE), one of the harmful pollutants currently in the water, and then chlorinating it. Another option under consideration is drilling a new well. Unfortunately, finding TCE contamination in the new water source is a likely scenario, according to Dan Daugherty, a Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) representative from St. Louis.(5) "We don't have a cost estimate on the new well at this point," says Oak Grove trustee Ken Hayes, "and we're going to have to pay the cost until we find the responsible party who contaminated our well-if we ever find that party. Right now we're just trying to do all we can to get that hole punched in the ground and supply our own water."(6) The Missouri DNR first discovered high levels of TCE and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) during routine water sampling of the well in June 1986.(7) It is not clear how these industrial solvents came to pollute the groundwater that provides Oak Grove with its drinking water. Drinking small amounts of TCE over a long period of time may cause liver and kidney damage, impaired immune system function and impaired fetal development in pregnant women.(8) The Department of Health and Human Services has determined that PCE may reasonably be anticipated to cause cancer.(9) After the initial detection of TCE in 1986, sampling by Missouri DNR continued quarterly until October 1990. The well was shut down from July 1991 to September 1992 because TCE and PCE concentrations exceeded the screening concentration for cancer and the EPA's safety standards for drinking water.(10) During this time, Oak Grove purchased its water from the neighboring town of Sullivan, but the well reopened in September 1992 and service from Sullivan was discontinued. After further sampling, the well closed again in January 1994 due to high concentrations of TCE and PCE, forcing Oak Grove to rely on its neighbor's water supply once again. Since this final closure, the well has been capped and only opened as a sampling point for testing.(11) It is uncertain whether the town of Sullivan is willing to continue supplying Oak Grove with water past the end of 2002. The contamination at Oak Grove must be cleaned up if the community is to get back on its feet and become self-reliant again. Given the tiny community's fiscal constraints, the only real solution is for the EPA to provide the funds needed to clean up the site. Even the smallest town deserves access to a clean, safe drinking water supply. Since it is not known who caused the pollution, Oak Grove is counting on the Superfund to ensure that the town has water that is safe to drink. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
||||||||||
