Gas vapors feared at Army post

FORT LEWIS, Wash. – Toxic underground water could pose a threat to military families living near Madigan Army Medical Center, but the Army has yet to test for possible contamination, federal officials say.

The military has known for at least five years that gas vapors from the water could be seeping up through the ground and into the homes of soldiers and their families, according to interviews and government documents obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The Environmental Protection Agency worries that air inside the homes could be contaminated, particularly from trichloroethylene, a grease-cutting solvent that can cause kidney cancer and reproductive, developmental and neurological abnormalities.

The TCE is believed to have spread from a decades-old dump less than a mile from the housing.

It’s impossible to determine how many people could be at risk without testing air inside the homes, EPA officials said.

“We’re really guessing where the edge of the plume is today, and that adds to our nervousness for the people living in that housing,” said Marcia Knadle, a hydrogeologist with EPA’s regional Risk Assessment Unit. “That’s why the testing is important.”

There are about 100 single-family and duplex homes in the 47-year-old neighborhood, according to Equity/Fort Lewis Communities, the civilian corporation managing the post’s housing. Most of the occupants work at Madigan Army Hospital.

Levels of trichloroethylene found by contractors with Fort Lewis’ Public Works Department weren’t high enough to present a problem, Army officials said.

“Our current discussions with the EPA indicate they do not believe air quality testing in our housing is a priority,” said Joseph Piek, a Fort Lewis spokesman.

He also noted that Fort Lewis’ environmental experts “have never been formally asked (by EPA) to conduct air quality testing or additional measures above what we’ve done all along.”

But EPA scientists and managers disagreed.

“We told the military repeatedly that their evidence is insufficient to conclude that people are not being exposed to TCE and the need for testing within the housing complex has not diminished at all,” said Marcia Bailey, an EPA toxicologist with expertise in the movement of toxic vapors.

Piek said he had no indication from either Public Works or the Equity management company that the soldiers and their families had ever been told of the possible danger.

“Tests indicate that air quality in Army housing is safe, and there is no reason to unduly alarm the residents in the housing area to a concern that we believe does not exist,” he said.

“People living in that housing have a right to know what’s going on so they can make decisions about the safety of themselves and their children,” Bailey said. “The Army owes it to its people to do that testing. They should be able to have a reasonable expectation that they are not breathing contaminated, cancer-causing vapor.”

While the Army acknowledges it’s never tested inside or under Madigan housing, its own documents have suggested testing would take place, the P-I reported Tuesday.

A June 2003 Army slideshow on environmental issues suggested a “measurement of indoor air concentration” of the TCE vapors was planned for the next year. That October, officials acknowledged the potential health risk in a report that stated: “Contaminated groundwater has reached Madigan housing, resulting in an unknown hazard associated with vapor intrusion into the buildings.”

Vapor intrusion at Madigan housing should be addressed, according to Fort Lewis’ monthly status reports on environmental issues.

In 2002, testing was done outside housing as part of the Army’s contractual agreement with the EPA, and in 2004 by Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

However, Bailey and Knadle cited deficiencies in sampling and challenged conclusions that residents weren’t at risk from TCE.

Using Battelle’s contamination figures, Bailey said she “came up with a dramatically different conclusion that did not conclude the housing was safe.”

Knadle said Battelle’s test sites for its study were too far from the housing to make accurate assumptions of the risk to occupants.

If Fort Lewis were a civilian housing complex, the EPA could invoke emergency provisions allowing it to test the site, then take the landlord to court to recoup costs.

Fort Lewis officials signed a 1990 agreement to stem the flow of highly contaminated water from a specific landfill and dumping area that had been used for decades to dispose of toxic waste.

That agreement was written about 10 years before the plume moving toward the Madigan housing area was discovered, said Nancy Harney, EPA’s regional program manager for projects that involve other federal facilities.

This latest plume is not covered by the 1990 agreement.

“There is nothing we can do to force the Army to take protective action in this case,” Harney said.