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Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 68F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 68F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Updated: June 30, 2024 @ 7:04 pm
Don Malone, second from left, the senior engineering consultant for TerraCon, a subcontractor for the U.S. Army Environmental Command, speaks to reporters about the clean-up efforts at the former Western Electric site on June 27.
The Western Electric site at 204 Graham Hopedale Road consists of 22 buildings on about 22 acres within the city limits of Burlington. The Army Environmental Command has been working on cleaning soil and groundwater contamination on the property since 2016.
Don Malone, second from left, the senior engineering consultant for TerraCon, a subcontractor for the U.S. Army Environmental Command, speaks to reporters about the clean-up efforts at the former Western Electric site on June 27.
Formerly the Tarheel Army Missile Plant, the Western Electric property has been the site of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ efforts to clean trichloroethylene, or TCE, from the soil and groundwater. TCE is a known carcinogen.
The Western Electric site at 204 Graham Hopedale Road consists of 22 buildings on about 22 acres within the city limits of Burlington. The Army Environmental Command has been working on cleaning soil and groundwater contamination on the property since 2016.
A citizen advisory board will be formed to help inform decisions about clean-up efforts of dangerous chemicals on the former Western Electric site on Graham Hopedale Road in Burlington.
The U.S. Army Environmental Command announced the board Thursday during a public open house about clean-up efforts related to trichloroethylene and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or TCE and PFAS, at the Western Electric site, formerly known as the Tarheel Army Missile Plant.
Ethan Dinwiddie, a project geologist for Terracon, a U.S. Army subcontractor, said the full extent of TCE contamination on the Western Electric site remains unknown, but remediation efforts are ongoing, including a soil removal project earlier this year.
“All we can know for sure is that we removed contaminated soil at this point, and the approximate quantity that we removed this past year was around 350 cubic yards. or around 500 tons of soil,” he said.
Nathan Edwards, program manager for the US Army Environmental Command, said the U.S. Army Environmental Command also recently excavated a number of injection wells for a reactant that would break down the TCE contamination as it starts to migrate off the site. The Army and its subcontractors will be taking groundwater samples in August to determine how well that is working, he added.
Dinwiddie said the injection of a remediation compound into the soil focused on the northwest corner of the property “to cut the [TCE] plume off as it’s migrating off of the site.”
Bri Clark, a risk assessor for the Army Environmental Command, said the biggest concern about high levels of TCE is related to groundwater contamination, but the Army’s excavation efforts have helped minimize the risk of exposure to the general public.
The 22-acre plant at 204 Graham-Hopedale Road, also known as the former Western Electric site, has been unused for years, but contamination includes solvents, benzene and two types of PFAS chemicals. Since the mid-1990s, the military has spent upward of $2 million remediating the contamination, but a full cleanup never happened.
Sue Murphy, an engineer with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, said since all the residential neighborhoods adjacent to the Western Electric site are on the city’s drinking water system, the exposure to TCE or PFAS is greatly reduced.
“I don’t want to minimize at all what’s going on with this site, because this site, we take it very seriously,” Murphy said. “But the level of exposure or potential exposure is not such that we would be asking for help or other resources.”
Murphy said DEQ will continue to closely monitor TCE and PFAS contamination that could migrate from the site into area waterways.
“As far as actual exposure to local residents, we are concerned and we keep collecting data to reassure that ... there is no unexplored and unquantified pathway,” Murphy said.
Morgan Lassiter, community engagement director for the city of Burlington, said city officials hope the citizen advisory board will allow Burlington residents to have a voice in the clean-up efforts.
“When I’ve been out speaking to people in Burlington and in our community about this event, or the project in general, the fact there’s even an opportunity to sit on on a board that citizens might gain all the knowledge to be able to take it back out to their community and to guide and affect some decisions that are made, that’s really hopeful, so I think folks are excited about that,” Lassiter said.
For more information about the clean-up, go online to burlingtonnc.gov/westernelectric
