Last
of wells planned for former Chem-Fab site
By Christina Kristofic, Intelligencer, January 18, 2009
There soon will be 47 wells to monitor.
The state Department of Environmental Protection is preparing
to drill the last of 47 wells to help monitor contaminated groundwater near the site of the former Chem-Fab plant on Broad Street in Doylestown.
"We've been seeing previously that the contaminated groundwater
was traveling in a south or southwest direction from the site. In the past few years, we have seen northern wells have some
contamination," DEP spokeswoman Lynda Rebarchak said this week.
DEP officials want to put wells on more properties north
of the site to help better determine the extent and direction of the contamination. The DEP has drilled 44 wells on commercial,
residential and municipal properties in the area. DEP spokesman Dennis Harney said the last three -at the PECO substation
and The Intelligencer property, both on Broad Street, and
on A Avenue, south of Chem-Fab - are expected to be drilled when weather allows.
Neither Harney nor Rebarchak could explain the delay in
drilling the last three wells.
"It could be that property owners asked for reimbursement.
It could have been the normal access agreement process. Generally, when lawyers get involved, it tends to slow the process
down somewhat because things have to go back and forth a little bit more," Rebarchak said.
The DEP needs to finish monitoring the area before the EPA,
which has listed the Chem-Fab property as a superfund site, can begin cleansing the groundwater.
The EPA will pump out the contaminated groundwater, treat
it to remove toxic chemicals, add an agent that will break up any chemicals still in the ground and re-inject the water into
the ground. The process is expected to take 20 to 30 years, and cost about $5 million. A borough well near the contaminated
site was closed in 2004 and will remain closed until the groundwater has been cleaned.
The former plant, at 300 N. Broad St., was an electroplating and metal etching operation from 1965 to 1994.
The EPA and FBI removed more than 100 drums of hazardous
substances and more than 8,000 gallons of chromic acid waste that had been left on the site.
The EPA referred the site to DEP for investigation in 1999.
The DEP found high concentrations of the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, as well as trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene
(PCE), which may be carcinogenic, in the groundwater.
The DEP also tested the soil around and air inside nearby
buildings. Rebarchak said the only building where the air was found to be contaminated was a commercial business at 330 N. Broad St., but the state Department of Health and OSHA said the level of contamination was not
significant enough to require remedial action.
