Jones Road Community To EPA: Tell Us More About Your Superfund Cleanup Plans!
The latest meeting concerning the Jones Road Ground Water Plume Superfund Site was very productive. We had a two-hour long discussion that included representatives from the EPA, four elected official’s offices and two water districts. The meeting did, however, highlight how much work still needs to be done to truly protect the community.
We talked about EPA’s Community Involvement Plan (CIP), which is designed to guide public involvement as the cleanup proceeds and engage them in future decisions on the project. That’s important right now because the EPA has determined that its existing remediation efforts aren’t doing enough to protect residents and is working on improvements.
However, the EPA still does not have some critically important information on the site. Most importantly, it does not know exactly where the chemical plume is right now. As background, after a dry cleaner dumped chemicals into the ground behind its store, those chemicals formed a plume in the aquifer beneath the neighborhood and has been slowly moving below homes for more than 20 years. This map shows the rough location of the plume, but this is only an estimate.
Without an updated map of the plume, it will be hard to remove the threat. The EPA is hiring a contractor to map out the area and develop cleanup options, but these types of studies typically take several years to finish.
In the meantime, what is being done to address the problem?
In 2010 and again in 2023, the EPA performed bioremediation in the area, injecting microorganisms into the ground to break down pollutants. Crews took samples at the beginning of this year to see how well it has worked, but the results are not available yet.
Since 2019, the EPA has used a soil vapor extraction system to remove vapors at the strip mall where the dumping took place. That has shown positive results and is expected to continue for at least another year.
One of the biggest problems at the site is that many residents still use well water, potentially exposing themselves to contaminants. The EPA has been trying to convince people to switch to municipal water, but that effort has resulted in less than half of the community making the switch.
Recently THEA urged the EPA to utilize Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzers (TAGA) to determine if there are vapor hazards in the community, but the EPA has declined.
There is a concern that the EPA needs to better understand the potential threat to the community. In addition to now knowing the precise dimensions of the plume, the EPA has never had an accurate count of how many houses are still using well water. THEA maintains that it will be hard to solve a problem that has never been fully defined.
Additionally, the community has changed. Many new homeowners have moved in since the site was first placed on the Superfund Priority List and the number of people for whom English is a second language has increased significantly. This month, THEA staff visited 100 houses near the source of the contamination. Many residents said they were not aware that there was a Superfund Site in the area. Part of the reason for this has been that the area has seen an influx of new residents since the dry cleaning chemicals were first discovered in a childcare/gymnastics facility in 2000.
The bottom line is that, even though the process has dragged on for many years, public involvement is critical, especially in the coming year.
You can look at the presentation from the meeting here.
You can watch the meeting here.