Region 7 Iowa Kansas Missouri Nebraska Fact Sheet June 2004 Environmental Sampling Of Private Wells to Begin North Platte, Nebraska INTRODUCTION The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 will be in the North Platte community sampling private drinking wells the week of June 21, 2004. This sampling is part of a removal assessment that will look for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Prior to beginning the sampling effort, EPA will send letters to homeowners requesting access to their property for sampling. EPA is working closely with the state of Nebraska and the City of North Platte to conduct this effort. SUPERFUND PROGRAM Congress established the Superfund program in 1980 in response to growing concerns over human health and environmental risks posed by hazardous waste sites. Superfund locates, investigates and cleans up hazardous waste sites. Officials from EPA's Superfund Program and EPA contractors will be performing the activities the week of June 21. SITE BACKGROUND A Nebraska Department of Health public water supply sampling program (1988) initially detected volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination in some of the seventeen municipal wells that serve the City of North Platte. Since then, several VOCs have been identified in ground water samples collected during subsequent site investigations. The VOCs present at the site include tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE), 1,1,2-trichloroethane (TCA), styrene, and toluene. PCE is the only VOC to have been detected above its EPA Safe Drinking Water Act maximum contaminant level. In March 2002, EPA completed an Expanded Site Inspection to provide more conclusive information regarding the source properties of ground water contamination and to continue to evaluate the threats to human health and the environment associated with this site. As part of this investigation, EPA collected soil gas, soil, and ground water samples from these 18 potential source properties, and collected drinking water samples from 14 of the 17 North Platte municipal wells. The investigation results confirmed the detection of PCE in soil at one location, and that the ground water had been impacted by VOC contamination beneath the site. However, the 14 municipal wells that were sampled did not indicate any VOC contamination in them above the EPA Safe Drinking Water Act maximum contaminant level. ------- CURRENT INVESTIGATIONS EPA plans to focus the current sampling efforts on private wells, as opposed to the municipal wells that have been sampled in the past. This sampling is intended to find out whether or not the contamination found in the municipal wells previously has also occurred in private wells. FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information about this site, please contact: Beckie Himes Community Involvement Coordinator U.S. EPA 901 N. 5th Street Kansas City, Kansas 66101 Phone: 913/551-7003 or Toll free: 1-800-223-0425 himes.beckie@epa.gov ------- |