Pollution inquiry demanded
Residents of the Deep Creek area west of Spokane demanded a more thorough investigation into the source of groundwater contamination near a former Nike missile site during a forum with federal and state environmental and health officials Thursday night.
They are not the only ones growing impatient.
An aide to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris said the congresswoman is waiting for a reply to a letter she sent the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in which she said she expected “a historical investigation into the matter.”
The corps, which is responsible for cleaning up formerly used Department of Defense sites, has determined there is insufficient evidence to determine the source of chemicals in numerous wells near a former surface-to-air missile site.
The former Fairchild Defense Nike Battery 87, actually two sites four miles apart in a rural area just north of U.S. Highway 2 and west of Deep Creek, was decommissioned in the early 1960s.
Since discovering trichloroethylene, or TCE, in a Euclid Road well in October 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found the toxic solvent in six private wells and four monitoring wells in a study area around the former battery. Perchlorate, a salt used in rocket fuel, has been found at low levels in 60 private wells and four monitoring wells. N-nitrosodimethylamine, a rocket fuel igniter known as NDMA, has been found in 33 private wells.
The corps maintains that TCE was commonly used degreaser in the 1950s and ‘60s and the other two chemicals could have come from other sources, as well.
So next year, the EPA will begin sampling wells around other missile sites in the area, including one near Medical Lake, said Calvin Terada, emergency response coordinator at Thursday night’s forum in the Deep Creek Grange.
McMorris’ Sept. 7 letter to Dave Roden of the Corps of Engineers’ Seattle office was unambiguous. It said that given the EPA’s suspicions that Battery 87 could be considered a source of the groundwater contamination, “it is vitally important to get to the bottom of this issue so the land owners in the area have the answers they deserve.”
McMorris aide Kristina Savestinas, who attended Thursday’s forum, said the 5th District congresswoman is still waiting for a reply. “A week is sufficient time,” Savestinas said.
Deep Creek area residents, who have been saddled with medical and financial uncertainty since the contamination came to light, also showed signs of impatience.
Rick Williams, whose well tested at 15 times the “maximum contaminant level” for TCE, told the forum that the EPA’s historical investigation into source of the contamination was “unacceptable.”
The report, released Wednesday in abridged form, discussed interviews with former Air Force personnel and longtime residents of the area, a cursory look at military archives and inquiries with Spokane County officials.
“We have to rely on EPA or the Army corps to investigate this,” said Williams, whose wife, Sally, learned of the contamination while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. “They need to be held accountable.”
EPA District 10 spokesman Tony Brown said the agency is “doing everything it can to find the source of the contamination,” that the search is ongoing and that residents have been kept informed “every step of the way.”
“We can’t speak for the Corps of Engineers,” Brown said.