Below an Airport in Lake Elmo, a Deadly Mystery Lurks

Star Tribune ^ | 02/03/2003 | Mike Kaszuba

[wallcrawlr]

For 16 years, no one in Washington County has been able to determine where a plume of cancer-causing chemicals, now estimated to cover 6 square miles underground, has come from.

What is known is that the chemicals are slowly sliding toward the St. Croix River near Stillwater through some of the most desirable land being eyed for development in the Twin Cities area.

[Revelation 911]

which among other things has been used as a metal degreaser.

Thats funny - trichlor is an industrial solvent - go figyer-

[Dog Gone]

They've been looking for 16 years? Sheesh, give it up and focus on remediation.

[tet68]

now-closed landfills in Oakdale that handled hazardous wastes from the 3M Co.

Nah, couldn't be them.

Probably some Bubba who workes on his car under a shade tree.

[Colorado Doug]

They've been looking for 16 years? Sheesh

Sounds like they would be highly qualified as UN arms inspectors.

[kimoajax]

Years ago...in 1970 I worked for a division/plant of Sylvania in San Carlos CA and as workers we use to dip our fingers and hands (unprotected)in TCE every day.

I have often pondered where some of my alergy and food sensitivities and stuff came from which I have no recollection of having prior to then.

I wonder, is there a test for TCE to find out if one has elevated levels in their body? I will have to google this one.

[genefromjersey]

Oh-oh !

There go those blasted "enviro-whackos" again !!

I mean: What the hey ?? It's only a little industrial run-off, isn't it ?

Don't worry ! Be happy !
The CATO Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute will come with some suitable sound bytes before you know it !

[expatpat]

What also is known is that the most prevalent contaminant in the plume, trichloroethylene, or TCE, is becoming so worrisome to state and federal health officials that they are dramatically lowering the maximum amount considered safe

Well, that should certainly solve the problem!

[Willie Green]

There is now evidence that TCE, which is known by as many as 50 trade names, may be inhaled by humans in dangerous amounts when it is extracted from groundwater as part of cleanup efforts, because the chemical is highly evaporative.

Seems to be a disparity between EPA limits for drinking water and OSHA limits for air:

The EPA has set a maximum contaminant level for trichloroethylene in drinking water at 0.005 milligrams per liter (0.005 mg/L) or 5 parts of TCE per billion parts water.
The EPA has also developed regulations for the handling and disposal of trichloroethylene.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set an exposure limit of 100 parts of trichloroethylene per million parts of air (100 ppm) for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek.
Source: ToxFAQsTM for Trichloroethylene

Granted, there's a difference between drinking and breathing the stuff. And I wouldn't want to do either in harmful quantities. Just noting the difference between 5 parts per billion in water and 100,000 parts per billion in air.

[rrcobra]

I used to work (3 months)at Lenkurt Electric in San Carlos, CA (now part of GTE) and we washed electrical parts by hand with TCE daily. No gloves! Stupido me....

Trichloroethylene
ATSDR Public Health Statement, October 1989

What is trichloroethylene?
Trichloroethylene is a colorless liquid at room temperature with an odor similar to ether or chloroform. It is a man-made chemical that does not occur naturally in the environment. Trichloroethylene is mainly used as a solvent to remove grease from metal parts. It is used as a solvent in other ways, too, and is used as a chemical (building block) to make other chemicals.

How might I be exposed to trichloroethylene?
The two main sources of human exposure to trichloroethylene are the environment and the workplace. Trichloroethylene has been found in at least 460 of 1179 hazardous waste sites on the National Priorities List (NPL). Background levels of trichloroethylene can be found in the outdoor air we breathe (30 to 460 parts of trichloroethylene per trillion parts of air) and in many lakes, streams, and underground water used as sources of tap water for homes and businesses. Various federal and state surveys indicate that between 9 and 34% of the water supply sources in the United States may be contaminated with trichloroethylene. Water supplies that are contaminated typically contain an average of 1 to 2 parts of trichloroethylene per billion parts of water or less. An important source of environmental release of trichloroethylene is evaporation to the atmosphere from work done to remove grease from metal. In addition, at places where wastes are disposed, trichloroethylene is released to the air by evaporation and to underground water when it passes through the soil.
Trichloroethylene can also be released into the environment through:


Evaporation from adhesive glues, paints, coatings, and other chemicals;

Release of trichloroethylene and chemicals containing it, when it is made;

Air-cleaning processes at publicly owned waste treatment plants that receive wastewater containing trichloroethylene; and

Burning of community and hazardous waste.

Some consumer products that may contain trichloroethylene are:

Typewriter correction fluids, paint removers and paint strippers, adhesive glues, spot removers, cleaning fluids for rugs, and metal cleaners.
How does trichloroethylene get into my body?
Trichloroethylene can enter the body when a person breathes air or drinks water containing it. Trichloroethylene can also enter the body through the skin when it comes in contact with it.

How can trichloroethylene affect my health?
Dizziness, headache, slowed reaction time, sleepiness, and facial numbness have occurred in workers breathing trichloroethylene or in people who use trichloroethylene-containing products in small, poorly ventilated areas. These effects on the central nervous system have also been seen in people who drank several ounces of undiluted trichloroethylene. Irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat can also occur under these conditions. More severe effects on the central nervous system, such as unconsciousness and possibly death, can occur from drinking or breathing higher levels of trichloroethylene. In general, the less severe central nervous system effects that result from one or several exposures to trichloroethylene disappear when exposure ends.
Some health effects may persist in persons following long-term exposure to trichloroethylene. This information is based largely on animal studies. For example, studies in animals show that ingesting or breathing levels of trichloroethylene that are higher than typical environmental levels can produce nervous system changes; liver and kidney damage; effects on the blood; tumors of the liver, kidney, lung, and male sex organs; and possibly cancer of the tissues that form the white blood cells (leukemia). Results of a few studies in pregnant animals exposed to trichloroethylene in air or in food showed effects on unborn animals or on newborns. Drinking alcohol can make people more susceptible to liver and kidney injury from trichloroethylene.

At present, information is not sufficient to determine whether cancer or the effects on the unborn seen in animals following exposure to trichloroethylene may also occur in humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that trichloroethylene is not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans.


Is there a medical test to determine if I have been exposed to trichloroethylene?
Recent or ongoing exposures to trichloroethylene can be determined by measuring trichloroethylene in the breath. Another way of determining whether exposure to trichloroethylene has occurred is by measuring a number of breakdown products (metabolites) of trichloroethylene in the urine or blood. Neither of these tests is routinely available at your doctor's office. Because one of the breakdown products, trichloroacetic acid, is removed very slowly from the body, it can be measured in the urine for up to about 1 week following trichloroethylene exposure. It must be noted, however, that exposure to other chemicals can produce the same breakdown products in the urine and blood. Therefore, these methods cannot tell you if you have been exposed only to trichloroethylene.

What levels of exposure have resulted in harmful health effects?
The graphs on the following pages show the link between exposure to trichloroethylene and known health effects. In the first set of graphs, labeled "Health effects from breathing trichloroethylene," (Fig. 1.1), exposure is measured in parts of trichloroethylene per million parts of air (ppm). In the second set of graphs, the same relationship is represented for the known "Health effects from ingesting trichloroethylene" (Fig. 1.2). Exposures are measured in milligrams of trichloroethylene per kilogram of body weight per day (mg/kg/day). In all graphs, effects in animals are shown on the left side and effects in humans are shown on the right.
The first column in Figs. 1.1 and 1.2, labeled "Short-Term Exposure," refers to known health effects in laboratory animals and humans from exposure to trichloroethylene for 2 weeks or less. The column labeled "Long-Term Exposure" refers to trichloroethylene exposures of longer than 2 weeks. The levels marked on the graphs as "minimal risk for effects other than cancer" reflect estimates of levels of exposure at which no adverse effects are expected to occur. These levels are based on information on animals.

Toxic Effects Other Than Cancer--Figure 1.1 shows that short-term and long-term exposures to air containing about 50 ppm or more of trichloroethylene have produced harmful effects in both animals and humans. Figure 1.2 shows that ingesting (drinking) the equivalent of 240 mg (less than a spoonful) of trichloroethylene per kg of body weight (kg = 2.2 pounds) for 2 weeks produced effects in the liver of animals. Drinking similar amounts over longer periods of time caused effects on unborn animals and the kidney as well as on the liver.

Cancer--From available information on animals, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has estimated that breathing air containing 1 ppm trichloroethylene every day for 70 years may place as many as 93 persons in a population of 10,000 (or 93,000 persons in a population of 10,000,000) at risk of developing cancer. EPA has also estimated that drinking water containing 1 ppm trichloroethylene every day over a lifetime may place as many as 3 persons in a population of 10,000 (or 3,200 persons in a population of 10,000,000) at risk of developing cancer. It should be noted that these risk levels for humans are plausible upper-limit estimates based on information obtained from animal studies. Actual risk levels are unlikely to be higher and may be lower.


What recommendations has the federal government made to protect human health?
EPA has established a drinking water standard of 5 parts of trichloroethylene per billion parts of water (ppb). This level became effective on January 9, 1989, and applies to community water systems and those which serve the same 25 or more persons for at least 6 months.
Trichloroethylene levels in the workplace are regulated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The occupational exposure limit for an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek is an average concentration of 50 ppm in air. The 15-minute average exposure, which should not be exceeded at any time during a workday, is 200 ppm. The OSHA standards do not take into consideration the cancer-causing potential of trichloroethylene. EPA requires industry to report spills of 1,000 pounds or more of trichloroethylene. It has been proposed that this level be reduced to 100 pounds.


Where can I get more information?
If you have more questions or concerns, please contact your state health or environmental department or:





Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

Division of Toxicology

1600 Clifton Road, E-29

Atlanta, Georgia 30333

[justlurking]

I can't believe they are still trying to figure out what is going on. I saw the mystery solved right in front of me -- apparently they don't want to believe it.

I was at a pilot's meeting at that airport over 10 years ago, where a representative from the Metropolitan Airport Commission was talking about future plans for the airport. During the discussion, the contamination came up (because the groundwater under the airport is undrinkable).

Among the attendees was a guy that had lived in the area for years. He said that some years before, trucks would show up in the middle of the night near an abandoned well just west of the airport. They never knew what was going on, but it seems pretty clear now: someone was dumping stuff down the abandoned well.

[jmax]

Up thru, and including the 60's, trichloroethylene was used routinely on Naval ships when performing maintenance. One particular use, as I remember, was cleaning contacts and terminal connections in power panels, switchboards and other electrical components.

That said, the article above states that the problem area is in the vicinity of the St. Croix River near Stillwater. Sitting on the banks of the St. Croix at Stillwater is an ELECTRICAL power generating plant. When on Recruiting Duty in St. Paul in the early 70's, I used to fish the river right outside the plant, where the cooling water was discharged (the warm discharge water drew the Silver Bass in the winter).

Wonder if, over the years, the power plant used trichloroethylene on their equipment and then dumped the used and dirty trichloroethylene into the many cornfields and wooded areas? Also wonder if the investigators have thought of that? 2 plus 2 MAY equal 4.

[cavtrooper21]

Ping

[aruanan]

The CATO Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute will come with some suitable sound bytes before you know it !

Read The Apocalyptics by Edith Efron so that later you can re-read what you wrote above and bemoan your scientific naivete.

[Terriergal]

Hmmmmm! Glad we don't live downstream of that! Then again we have the 3M tape plant here in town...

Good thing we have a reverse osmosis drinking water system.

[Alas Babylon!]

These effects on the central nervous system have also been seen in people who drank several ounces of undiluted trichloroethylene.

Ewwww! And who would do that, a Darwin award nominee?

[DannyTN]

Anybody look in the bottom of the lake?

This seems like it wouldn't be too hard to trace it back to it's origin if it's still leaking.

[boris]

"Oh-oh !

There go those blasted "enviro-whackos" again !!

I mean: What the hey ?? It's only a little industrial run-off, isn't it ?

Don't worry ! Be happy !
The CATO Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute will come with some suitable sound bytes before you know it !"

I will.

The plant I work in has serious TCE contamination underground from when it was used in the 1960-70 period--when its dangers were not well understood. The TCE was dumped on the ground and doing this was perfectly legal at the time and not understood to be a danger.

I call this "retroactive regulation", i.e., holding the guy in 1958 responsible for 2002 environmental regs.

A sane society would remediate and stop trying to put people in prison who had no part of causing the problem.

If you think this is the way to proceed, take a look at what has been wrought upon innocents by the "superfund" laws.

--Boris

[Hot Tabasco]

I have often pondered where some of my alergy and food sensitivities and stuff came from which I have no recollection of having prior to then

My unprofessional opionion suggests that TCE MAY cause memory loss, not allergies......

This sound pretty series to me!

[tet68]

Sorry ya'll, just couldn't resist that lead.

It really should be in a Bulwer-Litton contest.