by Russell Kinsaul, originally posted on November 1, 2016

WASHINGTON, Mo. (KMOV.com) –

A contractor for the EPA is drilling for soil samples at an EPA Superfund site in Washington, Mo. to determine the full extent of contamination.

Dianna Pritchette lives across the street and told News 4, “I have my concerns.”

A vacant lot at 7th and MacArthur used to be home to the Sporlan Valve plant which manufactured refrigeration valve parts. The soil on parts of the property has been found to be contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), benzene and vinyl chloride. TCE has been classified as a likely cause of cancer in humans.

Over time, groundwater has caused some of the chemicals to migrate through the soil into the surrounding neighborhood and now vapors from those chemicals are seeping up through the ground and into nearby homes.

“They tested all the way down in my backyard and they tested up here too,” said Byron Stolte who lives across the street.

Because of concern from TCE vapors, the EPA installed a mitigation system on Stolte’s home which pulls air from below his foundation and vents it to the outside.

Mitigation systems have been installed at 10 homes and a total of 25 homes are slated to get systems. Workers installed a system at Rebecca Johnson’s home last Friday.

“We were reassured that they had not found high levels of it,” said Johnson.

Currently an EPA contractor is testing soil to determine the exact parameters of the contamination on the Superfund site. The next phase of the testing will include soil samples near homes on 7th, 8th and 9th Streets to determine how far the chemicals have migrated through the neighborhood.