More Tests,

More Tests,

Monitoring

Suggested

At Plant Site

By CINDY MAHAN

Rappahannock New* Staff Writer

Testing to determine the extent of water contamination in the area of the Aileen plant in Flint Hill will take at least one more year.

William L, Thomas, Project Manager for the Phase IV Ground Water Assessment Report prepared for Aileen by National Environmental Technologies, Inc. (NET) of Charlotte, North Carolina stated in a phone call earlier this week, “No one envisioned it would take this long. It could take a year to accomplish all the tasks we set*out to do.”

In the Conclusions and Recommendations section of the extensive report, NET concludes that of the eight residential wells plus the well at the Flint Hill Pentecostal Church tested in April and May (the FHPC well was only tested in May as the water to it was turned off in April), FHPC’s well was the only well showing levels of contaminants higher than the maximum contaminant levels (MCL) for drinking water set by EPA. Tests showed that the church well had 96 ppb (parts per billion) of 1,1,2 trichloroethene (TCE), for which the MCL is 5. Also found was 14 ppb of 1,1 dichloroethane (DCA); the MCL is also 5 for this one. 12 ppb of 1,1 dichloroethene (DCE) was also detected; it has a MCL of 7.

NET recommends that four of the residential wells be sampled semi-annually, and that three others, along with the church well, be sampled on a quarterly basis.

Of the ground water samples taken last May from 16 monitoring wells, most of which were drilled in close proximity to the plant, 10 show evidence of contaminants in excess of the MCL for that chemical. Those contaminants found were tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE), and dichloroethane (DCA). According to Chris Demme of the Office of Water Progiams at the Virginia Department of Health in Culpeper, PCE, TCE and DCA

See Aileen, Page A-8

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