Free PCE mitigation systems to be available to some Martinsville homes. Here's what you need to know.

MARTINSVILLE — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been working in Martinsville for years to investigate and cleanup the Pike and Mulberry Streets PCE Plume Superfund Site.

The toxic plume is believed to have been caused by several potential sources, including the former Master Wear dry cleaning business, in the late 1980s to early 1990s.

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The primary contaminate in the plume is tetrachloroethylene, commonly referred to as PCE. which polluted the city's water supply.

Back in 2005, the city installed a carbon filtration system which removes the PCE from the water.

The filtration system has brought the levels of PCE in the city's municipal water system into compliance with federal safe drinking water standards.

The concern with the plume isn't as much the water for those connected to the municipal water system now, and the federal government does recommend Martinsville residents who use a private well for water to connect to the city's system, but vapor intrusion into area homes and businesses.

During a meeting of the Pike and Mulberry Superfund Site Community Action Group (CAG) Monday evening, the EPA gave an update on the mitigation efforts for vapor intrusion in Martinsville.

Who is eligible

The site's remedial project manager, Erik Hardin, reported the EPA has received approval for money to install mitigation systems on properties in the plume area.

"These mitigation systems are to keep underground vapors from getting into homes and businesses," Hardin said Monday evening.

He went on to note that EPA has tested several structures in the plume area, and found there to not be a widespread problem of contamination.

EPA initially tested homes and businesses in the area back in 2016 and 2017, which only included about 50 structures.

More recently, the agency was able to test air samples in more than 80 homes and businesses.

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"Between all of that, we only have, I'd say, a couple of dozen properties where soil vapor .... was high enough to think that that's a potential future concern," Hardin said. "In other words, if it's finding its way into the home or business, that could accumulate to dangerous levels."

The testing showed that there is not a high level of contamination in indoor air samples, but that there were some elevated samples coming from soil under local buildings.

Right now, the EPA is working on getting one contractor to design the mitigation systems and test them, another contractor to install the systems and a third contractor who will design a groundwater treatment and soil vapor extraction system.

According to Hardin, the initial systems on homes will be offered to the roughly two-dozen homes which have already been tested and show potentially high levels of the contaminates in the soil.

"It would start with an initial walkthrough of the home or business with the contractors, a group of four or five of us, and then they go back and design the system and then come back shortly thereafter and install it," Hardin said.

Hardin said that eventually, he expects, that every home and business in the plume area could be offered a mitigation system.

"The reason that I say 'expect' and not 'it will' is because there will be some parallel investigations happening," Hardin noted. "I mentioned this other contractor that's doing the overall design for the groundwater treatment and the soil vapor extraction. Part of what they will be tasked with is to investigate the soil vapor a little bit more."

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He is wanting the contractor to look into the potential for the contaminated vapors to be spreading through utility lines like sanitary and storm sewers.

"I'm going to have additional samples taken (and) it may change the area that's eligible," Hardin added.

What the system looks like

In the initial phase, EPA and its contractors will visit the homes and businesses that have already been identified to be potential problems in the future and work to address those issues.

"And then, rather than going back and exhaustively sampling every year or two ... the expectation is that we're going to offer a system," Hardin said.

The systems are installed free of charge to the building owner and/or tenant.

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According to Hardin, the systems take up a relatively small amount of space in the building.

"In most applications, it's a single pipe that runs to the basement slab," Hardin said. "There's a hole drilled in the slab and then kind of a pit dug underneath the hole, a small pit, and the pipe runs from that hole in the slab outside where a fan draws the air from underneath the building up and above the roof line where it's safely dissipated."

Next steps

EPA Community Involvement Coordinator Kirstin Safakas said the agency will need access agreements from property owners to install systems on homes and businesses.

"I feel very strongly that getting these systems on people's homes is even more important than asking them to allow us to sample," Safakas said. "This is a phenomenal opportunity to protect themselves and protect your community and their families."

Getting the word out now that EPA will be asking for access to construct the systems is an important in the coming months, and the hope that CAG members and other local residents will help spread the information to potentially impacted building owners and tenants.

Hardin believes that outreach from the EPA will begin in the coming months, either late summer or early fall, with installation occurring sometime in 2023.

Anyone with questions about the Pike and Mulberry Streets Superfund Site can email Hardin at hardin.erik@epa.gov or Safakas at safakas.kirstin@epa.gov.

Contact Reporter-Times, Times-Mail and Spencer Evening World editor Lance Gideon at lgideon@reporter-times.com or 765-342-1543. Follow him on Twitter: @LanceOGideon.