When Fantastic Caverns went public with concerns about chemical pollution from a Springfield industrial site, property owners with wells nearby flooded state regulators with requests for free water well testing.
The first 35 free water well samples have been tested, and DNR reports that five of those had the chemical, though at levels below the EPA’s maximum allowable limit for human exposure in drinking water.
"The department is mailing sampling results letters for the first 35 wells sampled to property owners this week," said Valerie Wilder, DNR Superfund section chief.
DNR so far has collected samples from 145 private drinking water wells; seven wells were sampled on Nov. 15; 28 wells on Nov. 19; and 110 wells Dec. 3-4.
"The Department will be resampling any well with a detection of TCE in January to verify the results," Quinn added.
Before these latest water well tests, DNR previously tested more than 70 private drinking water wells in the area and found 13 with detectable levels of TCE, including one well that showed TCE slightly above the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level of five parts per billion.
According to DNR, a public well system known as the County Squire Village well (a public well serving 189 people located 1.5 miles east of the Litton site) had a detection of TCE in 2010 of 0.5 parts per billion TCE, and then again in 2016 of 0.71 parts per billion.
Both levels are below EPA’s limit for drinking water and there has been no treatment system added to remove the contaminant.
However, Fantastic Caverns has begun drilling a series of vent holes near the show cave in hopes of catching TCE vapors before they reach the public areas.
Quinn, at DNR, said carbon filtration systems and reverse osmosis systems are effective at removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including TCE, from drinking water.

In fact, the majority of some 90 million people who live in the Punjab areas of Pakistan and India drink and cook with untreated well water that they collect themselves from privately-owed wells on their properties.
The main contaminant of the well water in this region of South Asia is arsenic—high levels of which can cause a range of illnesses, including cardio-vascular disease for adults and impaired cognitive function in children.
In the study—which was published online in Science of the Total Environment in November—Columbia University earth scientists partnered with Southeast Asian research professors and students to test more than 30,000 water wells in nearly 400 Pakistani and Indian villages.
They found that nearly a quarter of all the tested wells contain more than 10 micrograms per liter of arsenic, the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) threshold in safe drinking water.
Fortunately though, the study found that 87 percent of households with a high-arsenic well live within 100 meters (or about 330 feet) of a private well that meets the WHO guideline for arsenic.
“If it’s 500 meters away instead of 50 meters,” he said, “that makes a big difference.” The students advised Punjab households with unsafe well water to switch to neighbors’ wells that are considered safe based on the test results.
“‘We hope you can [get along] with your neighbor so you can use their well.’” When the researchers returned to five of the Pakistani villages a year later, about two-thirds of the 150 surveyed households with high-arsenic wells claimed to have switched to a neighbor’s safe well.
In a previous test involving some 12,000 villagers’ wells across 60 Bangladesh villages, about 60 percent of households surveyed also made the switch to safe wells.
The testing campaign closest in magnitude to this kind occurred between 2000 and 2005, when Bangladesh’s national government tested nearly 5 million wells—an effort that convinced approximately 10 million local villagers to switch to safe wells.
And the only way to do that, is to actually test them all.”

Public health officials in Mandera county have declared 13 wells unsafe and contaminated.
Only one well is operational.
The officials said the shallow wells are likely to have been contaminated by surface runoff following heavy rain that has pounded the region over the past month.
“We…have written to all hotel owners and done public sensitisation to prevent a repeat of 2016, when a cholera outbreak claimed lives in this region,” he said.
Some 894 cholera cases were reported in Mandera East in April 2016 alone and 20 people died Yussuf said well owners have not put up water treatment tanks.
He said the department has enough chlorine and water vendors have no excuse for selling untreated water to consumers.
Yussuf said only three well owners have complied with hygiene rules, which include having a toilet and water treatment tanks.
The deadline lapsed on Tuesday.
Health campaign Water scarcity in Mandera has led to private individuals transporting water by donkey carts and water bowsers.
Nema officer Fatuma Maalim said Mandera lacks a liquid waste treatment plant.

PAVILLION — Three scientists say groundwater pollution in Pavillion is likely caused by gas seeping from inadequately lined gas wells, a porous geology and the dumping over years of up to 880,000 gallons of chemical effluent into 40 unlined pits.
The tainted water affects homes and ranches in the 12-square-mile Pavillion gas field where about 169 gas wells were drilled.
Activity that started in the 1950s increased in density and rate starting in 2000.
The scientists, two former federal Environmental Protection Agency experts and a hydrologist specializing in wells and pollution, spoke for almost three hours in an update of the decade-long, contentious investigation into Pavillion groundwater contamination and the tainting of domestic water wells.
They included some of the latest information provided by the DEQ to residents and conclusions expected to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The three sought to answer whether hydraulic fracturing, the disposal of petrochemicals in unlined reserve pits and the inadequate construction of gas wells polluted the 3,000-foot-thick Wind River Formation aquifer and/or individual domestic water wells.
The effects of the pollution continue to dog the community.
Their artesian well flows clean, supporting 240 head of cattle, 45 horses and seven people.
That’s done using steel casing or cement.
So instead of extending 1,000 feet deep, casing might extend only 100 or a few hundred feet, he said.

The two likely sources of pollution — contamination that includes methane gas and other petrochemicals — have affected the Wind River Formation drinking aquifer to the point it’s unlikely to ever be cleaned up, one scientist said.
The tainted water affects homes and ranches in the 12-square-mile Pavilion gas field where about 169 gas wells were drilled.
The three sought to answer whether hydraulic fracturing, the disposal of petrochemicals in unlined reserve pits, and the inadequate construction of gas wells polluted the 3,000-foot-thick Wind River Formation aquifer and/or individual domestic water wells.
“I think that helps explain a lot why we see so much methane in people’s water–supply wells.” A boom started in 2000 Gas drilling has been going on in the Pavillion area since the 1950s Spencer said.
Gas from those zones, and even from the deeper, targeted production zone, can move up the bore hole “then moves laterally out into that upper 1,000 feet of the Wind River [Formation],” he said.
That’s about 80 wells, 90 wells.
“The state has to make sure these wells are constructed in a manner that safeguards the water and I don’t believe that has happened,” Wireman said.
He could not say definitely that fracking impacted domestic water wells, however.
Investigations and cleanup continues at some of the unlined pits.
The probe is to use shallow monitoring wells to calculate what might have spread from some of the unlined pits to nearby domestic water wells.

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Dozens of Suffolk homeowners are being urged to use bottled water after a toxic chemical was detected in their water wells.
The Suffolk County Health Department announced Thursday that PFOS, a chemical commonly found in firefighting foam, was detected in wells in East Patchogue.
MORE: State sets aside $200 million to battle water pollution, contamination Although there were no detections of PFOS above health guidance levels in the public water, the Suffolk County Water Authority has taken the wells out of service.
The county says health officials plan to sample private wells in the area at no charge to homeowners as a precautionary measure.
Health experts say the chemical may cause cancer and other illnesses.
Gerhard Porsche and his wife, Maria, have lived in East Patchogue for more than 50 years.
They told News 12 that the neighborhood has had “plenty of cancer cases.” The county says it plans to test an estimated 58 properties in East Patchogue and South Medford that are served with a private well.
News 12 has reported that Wainscott, East Quogue and Westhampton Beach were also tested after the discovery of chemicals in the water.
The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is providing free bottled water to residents who live in the private well testing area.

A Chinese company has discovered a natural water source in Kajiado with a capacity to supply over 1700 cubic metres per hour.
The water, which began to ooze from an underground aquifer three months ago, has already formed a stream stretching 100km downstream.
The area has no seasonal rivers and access to water has been a major challenge.
Purified and supplied China Communication Construction Company Deputy General Manager Guo Ging now says his company will build two 800-cubic-metre-capacity tanks that will act as storage for the water which will then be purified and supplied to homes.
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Residents say the water source is a miracle and a blessing to many.
“We have been surviving on limited water supply or digging deep in our pockets to get water at an additional price.
“The water has already been directed to the community Oloshoibor Mega Dam for distribution and local consumption.
“Livestock community troughs will be put up along the water stream to aid locals,” Lenku said.

Several Main Street residents have been without water for months, despite the fact there is no drought in town or the surrounding area.
"We basically have to conserve all the time," said Benoit.
"We’ve taken trips all summer to the laundromat, and we can’t even flush that often because we’re afraid to."
Josh Manning, the general manager for the Hampstead Water Company, said the first step to bringing the water pipeline into the town and ultimately into people’s homes is a formal request of service.
Manning also reiterated Morse’s estimation of turn on cost for water return for Main Street.
"It’s going to be about 18-24 months for that whole process to happen, reliant on the additional sourcing company," said Manning.
Later, Main Street resident Deanna Anthony took the stage, voicing her concerns of no water in her home on Main Street.
Anthony has been spearheading the effort to bring water access back to Main Street.
Her well went dry three months after she moved into her Hampstead home.
"People were saying, ‘It’s not just you,’" said Anthony.

Around 25% of water samples collected from wells in the flood-hit regions of Ernakulam have been found highly contaminated in a study conducted by the School of Environmental Studies at Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat).
“Of the 172 wells from which samples were taken, 43 were found contaminated with faecal coliform.
Dr. Achari said that the total coliform count should be 50 or less per 100 ml in water found fit for consumption, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) norms.
Of the 172 wells from which samples were collected, three wells were found having water with a total coliform organism count higher than 50 MPN and below 1,100 in 100 ml, while nine wells had coliform content in the range of 1,100.
It also has to be boiled before use.
The total coliform count in water collected from 47 wells was below 50, while there was no coliform presence in 11 wells.
Researchers at the school have already received around 500 samples from the flood-hit regions in Ernakulam.
It could also have been caused by the presence of slaughter waste dumping sites, chemical factories, and chemical storage facilities near drinking water sources.
Samples could be collected after a week to confirm whether the total coliform presence has come to 50 or less in 100 ml, they added.
Extension of service Dr. Achari said that the water testing facility at the school could be used for carrying out sample analysis of drinking water from drinking water sources across the State.