environmental Strategist, between the lines: Share this with your excavation client’s. Even though the contractor did not cause the pollution, under federal law if you exacerbate an existing pollution condition, even if you are to aware the pollution condition exists, you are now a liable party. I wonder how much it’s going to cost the contractor to buy water for people. What about defense cost, investigation costs, who is going to manage the claim for the contractor….
ROCHESTER (AP) — The EPA is testing water and soil samples near a pit where a contractor disturbed a chemical tainted with PCBs that now pose a threat to well water.
A contractor digging a pit for a sewer pumping station dug through a layer of clay soil Thursday and exposed a mixture of water and a petroleum-based chemical.
Preliminary results showed that the mixture tested positive for PCBs, a liquid coolant banned by the federal government in 1977 that’s classified as a probable cause of cancer.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has conducted extensive soil and water testing from the site near Lake Bruce in Rochester.
The agency expects to receive test results later this week, a state official said.
“We’re trying to determine whether it’s just right there or if it’s gone beyond the area around the excavations,” said Amy Hartsock, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
The pit is on a former Chesapeake and Ohio railbed that the Lake Bruce Conservancy District bought from CSX. Construction of the sewer has been halted while the testing analysis continues.
And since Friday, when Fulton County health officials issued a no well-water use order, between 80 and 100 residents on the lake’s southwest side have been unable to use their tap water.
That order means residents cannot consume the water or use it for laundry and bathing.