by Matt Fountain, originally posted on December 8, 2016

Three business properties in the Thread Lane/Buckley Road area next to the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport will be investigated as potential sources of trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxic solvent found to exceed safe levels in groundwater in the Buckley Road area in January 2016.

On Thursday, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board announced that since the airport was found not to be the source of the contaminant in February, the agency has conducted extensive soil gas and groundwater sampling in the area and will investigate three properties on Thread Lane in the coming months.

Letters were sent Nov. 17 to the three companies — Apple River & Company LP, SLO Buckley Properties LLC, and Noll Properties Inc. — to notify them of of their requirement to submit work plans for TCE investigations by Jan. 16.

In July and August, the agency says, the county collected 105 passive soil gas samples in potential source areas north and east of the airport runway.

Out of those, just one sample had a laboratory detection of TCE, which the agency said was a very low concentration near the detection limit.

From July to September, the county also collected groundwater samples at four locations north of Buckley Road. TCE was not detected in any of the 12 groundwater samples taken, the agency said.

Next, the agency will continue to investigate in the industrial area overlying the highest levels of TCE along Thread Lane.

Copies of the county’s investigation reports, the letters to property owners and other information about the TCE investigations in the Buckley Road area is available online at goo.gl/wNBe0x.