FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robbie Wilbur
April 2, 2010 601/961-5277
MDEQ ANNOUNCES ADDITIONAL REMEDIATION WORK AT DRAINAGE DITCH TO RESUME ON APRIL 5
(JACKSON, Miss.) – The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) announced that PCB remediation work will resume on the drainage ditch near the Kuhlman Electric Company plant site in Crystal Springs on April 5. The excavation process, depending on weather conditions, will continue throughout the year, and could possibly extend through 2011. MDEQ staff conducts onsite oversight of remediation work being done.
Kuhlman Electric Company (KEC) manufactured electrical transformers at their Crystal Springs site. KEC was a subsidiary of the Kuhlman Corporation, which was purchased by BorgWarner, Inc. in March, 1999. In April 2000, Kuhlman notified MDEQ that they had found contaminated soil when moving dirt for a plant expansion. Sampling and testing confirmed that the contamination was from polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and several other chlorinated compounds. Kuhlman used PCBs as a dielectric fluid in the transformers from the 1950s until 1973.
MDEQ has worked with the company to assess the extent of the contamination on and near the site, to prevent additional runoff and soil removal, to remove contamination from the adjacent residential and commercial properties, and to continue remediation downgradient on the plant site and along the drainage channel toward Lake Chautauqua.
An assessment also indicated that there was groundwater contamination from 1, 1-dichlorethene in one city well. The well was closed in 2005 because the contamination was above drinking water standards. The city’s wells are sampled monthly, and thirty-eight monitoring wells are sampled quarterly. Contamination has never been detected at the point in the city’s water distribution system where water is discharged to the citizens.
MDEQ has also worked with members of the Concerned Citizens Against Pollution and other residents to keep them informed of the work being done on the site.
“We will be disseminating information to the community pertaining to this project. We look forward to discussing where this project has been, what is being done now, and the process to resolve the issues that are of concern to local citizens,” said Trudy Fisher, MDEQ Executive Director.
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