They want specifics about cleanup process

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Residents had a lot of questions but got few answers Wednesday night from state officials about the state's proposal to install a network of pipes under some west side Ann Arbor neighborhoods.

The proposal, the state Department of Environmental Quality's alternative to a company plan to clean up a spreading plume of underground contamination, involves extracting groundwater from wells in several west side neighborhoods, piping it to Maple Road for treatment, and then piping it to the Huron River downstream from the city's water intake.

But authorities did not say how or when the pipes would be installed and how disruptive the construction might be to neighborhoods.

The meeting grew fiery at moments, with some frustrated residents directing angry comments to DEQ officials or to officials and attorneys representing the company involved in the cleanup, who were sitting in the audience.

"We want to know some answers," said Roger Rayle, vice chairman of the grass-roots environmental group Scio Residents for Safe Water, as the audience clapped. "This is the kind of half-hearted effort that's been going on for years now," he said.

"I am glad to see DEQ is finally proposing a plan ... but I don't think it goes far enough," said resident Karen Sidney. She warned DEQ officials not to allow the company to try experimental cleanup methods.

The plume has spread 1,4 dioxane from west of Wagner Road to east of Ann Arbor's Veterans Park. Dioxane is a chemical solvent classified as a probable carcinogen once used to make medical filters at the former Gelman Sciences plant on Wagner Road. The site is now owned by Pall Corp.

Pall proposed several ways to clean up the pollution earlier this summer. But in an unusual move, the DEQ submitted its own plan because DEQ officials said the company's plan would not clean up the problem quickly and thoroughly enough.

The company's plan calls for allowing the plume to migrate toward the Huron River, then pumping, treating and discharging to the Huron from a nearby site. It also proposes pumping more water from wells on its Wagner Road property and pumping from the Maple Road area, treating that water and injecting it back into the ground.

The DEQ's proposal involves pumping at the leading edge of the plume (currently near Veterans Park), treating the contamination at a facility near Maple Road and piping the treated water to the Huron, below the city's water intake site.

DEQ's tentative route for the pipeline runs along Glendale, Worden and Doty streets, with extraction wells at Maple Village Shopping Center, on Glendale Drive, Worden Avenue and near the intersection of Doty Avenue and Arborview. DEQ officials said the pipeline would be underground, and some drilling techniques could minimize the disruption while it was installed.

City environmental coordinator Matt Naud said that some people live in the projected path of the plume in township "islands," where they depend on well water. And it's not clear if the plume will pass under the Huron eventually and move toward Ypsilanti or other townships, he said.

"Part of this is about being a good neighbor," he said, adding that DEQ's plan seems to be a good attempt to solve the problem. He said pipelines could likely be installed primarily on rights of way and city property.

Alan Wasserman, an attorney for Pall, said DEQ's plan will take longer to complete than the company's because of the time and logistical difficulty involved in installing pipes under neighborhoods. Pointing to the city's recent lawsuit against the company over contamination of a city well, he added that opposition from city officials could further slow the process.

And the company chose its plan, he said, because it would keep drilling rigs and obvious signs of the cleanup from residential neighborhoods.

John Psychas, a Pall employee and resident of the Evergreen neighborhood in northwest Ann Arbor, where pipes and extraction wells were installed in the late 1990s, said there had been too much miscommunication for too long, and that people need to unite to get the pollution cleaned up.

Pall has since 1997 been cleaning upper layers of groundwater. But the cleanup took on new urgency in 2001, when dioxane turned up in a west side city well.

The well was promptly taken off line, but further investigation showed the contamination had been creeping slowly west in the lowest aquifer above bedrock, under west Ann Arbor neighborhoods.

DEQ officials said no in-use drinking water supplies are believed to be affected.

Contact Tracy Davis at (734) 994-6856 or tdavis@annarbornews.com