April 16, 2008, North Platte, Nebraska - The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency are both currently testing a downtown site in North Platte, Nebraska, for signs of asbestos and chemical contamination.

The land that is undergoing testing is the site of a former dry cleaning service which was torn down several years ago. The site is situated slightly west of the town’s 1913 Post Office building, which is also undergoing contamination assessment.

The 1913 Post Office building was recently purchased by the North Platte Creativity Unlimited Arts Council, which plans to use a combination of fund-raising money and grant money to renovate the abandoned building.

However, their plans could be delayed considerably if tests show the presence of contamination. NDEQ spokesperson Steve Kemp says the 1913 Post Office building may be contaminated with asbestos and lead-based paint, which may be costly and time-consuming to remove, depending on the extent of the contamination.

In addition, it’s thought that the parking lot behind the Post Office building may be contaminated with chemical left-overs from the dry cleaning business, including trichloroethene (TCE) and tetracholoroethene (PCE). Both chemicals are known cancer-causing agents, and they have been detected in groundwater thought to have run off from the dry cleaning business.

Even worse, with TCE and PCE running through groundwater beneath the city, it’s impossible to predict where the dispersion of the chemicals might end. However, EPA remedial project manger Melvin Brown says that the city’s drinking water is safe because the contaminants affect only shallow wells.

The good news for the Creativity Unlimited Arts Council, according to spokespeople from the EPA, is that the site can be cleaned up with federal grants.

Unfortunately, however, applying for EPA funds will almost certainly delay the project considerable. EPA attorney Robert Richards says it will take around a year to complete assessments of the contaminated properties and grant clean-up funds, if the CUAC chooses to apply for a grant.

One delaying factor is that due to the presence of TCE and PCE as well as asbestos and lead, surrounding properties must also be assessed for contaminants. Because the cancer-causing chemicals have found their way into groundwater, it’s likely that properties near the 1913 Post Office Building and the former dry cleaning site have also been contaminated.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Jobsite Exposure, Nebraska. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.