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NEWS

EPA expands tests for toxic air near old CTS plant

Clarke Morrison
cmorrison@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE – Larry Rice Jr.'s two young sons enjoy playing in the woods around the family's home, but he's been reluctant to let them outside since learning about the potential danger in the air.

Testing performed Tuesday is designed to determine if Rice's home and six other households near the former CTS plant on Mills Gap Road have unsafe levels of the toxic industrial solvent trichloroethylene.

Rice and his wife, Layka, have boys 7 and 8 that have lived their whole lives there.

"I'm kind of fortunate to be secluded here in the middle of the woods, and now it turns out to be a health risk," he said. "It's very discouraging."

Tuesday's air testing by representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency follows the voluntary evacuation early this month of 13 people the agency found at risk from TCE vapors near the Superfund site.

This round of testing is designed to determine how far the unsafe levels of the fumes extend from severely contaminated springs next to the old CTS plant and whether more families should be evacuated, said Samantha Urquhart-Foster, remedial project manager with EPA. The seven homes are on Concord Road, Clove Bud Court and Mills Gap Road.

Technicians placed tanks called summa canisters inside and outside the houses. The devices are to collect air for 24 hours before they are retrieved Wednesday and sent to a lab for analysis.

Urquhart-Foster said the results should be available next week. EPA will determine if it will recommend the evacuation of more homes. If the levels of TCE, a human carcinogen, are above the EPA action level, more air testing will be conducted at homes farther from the contaminated springs, she said.

This week's testing won't include homes in the nearby Hidden Valley subdivision southeast of the former CTS property, although the outside air will be sampled at the border of the property closest to the springs.

"We honestly don't think the air contamination extends out that far," she said.

Hidden Valley resident Kathy Eaton said she's concerned nonetheless.

"I don't think they should ignore us," she said. "At least give us peace of mind that we're out of the immediate danger zone.

"We're on city water, so we were never concerned about the water. But once they said it was blowing around in the air, I would like some assurance that the air quality in my backyard is OK. We don't know how far that bad air is circulating."

Urquhart-Foster said there are private environmental contractors that can be hired by residents to conduct air testing.

Air sampling also isn't planned this week at Southside Village, which is just west of the former plant property. Urquhart-Foster said testing conducted there on outside air in 2012 showed that TCE levels were well within safe limits.

She said vapor testing in the area around the springs in 2008 showed levels similar to what was found recently, but in 2011 the standards were tightened on the acceptable amount of TCE in the air.

Urquhart-Foster said it could be months before the TCE levels in the air around the spring are brought down low enough that the evacuated residents can return home, and officials still don't have a timetable. CTS was directed to determine what type of technology would work best and to perform the work.

There are methods for pumping out the contaminated water and treating it, but it could be difficult because there are multiple springs, Urquhart-Foster said.

EPA in 2010 conducted a study in which ozone was injected into the springs in hopes it would react with the TCE and bring the levels down, but it didn't work, she said.

CTS, based in Elkhart, Indiana, manufactured electronic components at the plant for more than three decades before shutting it down in 1986.

The former plant site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List in 2012, but officials say it will be at least 2016 before groundwater cleanup begins.