FAYETTE, O. - The groundwater flowing beneath this Fulton County village still may have pockets of contamination stewing in it. But a massive trench being dug this week will at least ensure that no more pollutants seep under Gorham Fayette Local Schools.
While students at the junior/senior high school revel in an extended Thanksgiving vacation, environmental engineers are working to solve one of the problems caused by the now-vacated Fayette Tubular Products plant.
For 35 years, Fayette Tubular produced parts for automotive air conditioners at Gamber and Railroad streets, just north of the village's downtown. State EPA tests have found traces of trichloroethene and vinyl chloride in the groundwater. Vinyl chloride is known to cause cancer in humans.
The village draws water from the ground through two community wells and treats it with a sand filtration system. The water then is distributed to the 1,300-person village as drinking water.
EPA officials said monthly samples of both raw and treated water are collected in Fayette. Based on these test results, the village's treated water meets the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act and is considered safe, EPA officials said.
Although contamination in the groundwater will have to be addressed, this week it is simply the school property that is being remedied, said EPA spokeswoman Heather Lauer. “The drinking water will be addressed as an overall package. This trench is happening as an interim measure, because we wanted to stop any further leaking of contaminants to the school,” she said. “You can't be too careful with kids or with any population that has no choice but to be somewhere, in this case a school.”
The project is being funded by D.H. Holdings Corp. of Washington, which bought the property from Fayette Tubular Products, Inc., in 1987. Although the property since has been sold to Hutchinson FTS, Inc., D.H. Holdings is footing the nearly $250,000 bill to install the trench.
The trench is being built north of the school, parallel to the property line. It is about 250 feet long, between 13 and-15 feet deep, and about five to six feet wide, said environmental engineering manager Camille Ajaka from Toledo-based Philips Services. Pumps will pull groundwater seeping from the facility toward the school into pipes and return it to an on-site treatment station, said Carl Grabinski, corporate counsel for D.H. Holdings. The treated water will be released into the village's sewer system.
“These chemicals are sort of floating in the groundwater, and the groundwater is moving very slowly off the site,” he said. “We're building a trench that will catch the groundwater, all of it, pull it back into the facility and treat it.”
Not only will the trench prevent further chemicals from migrating off the property but it also will bring some contaminated water that has already moved offsite, he added.
Village Manager Steve Wheeler said residents were pleased to see work begin. Earlier this month, stalled negotiations led to an EPA order to have the containment trench dug this week. Although the situation could have led to legal action, both parties reached an agreement, and the project is now on schedule, Ms. Lauer said.
Mr. Wheeler admits the village has had to take a back seat during the negotiations but is pleased that the residents' concerns are starting to be addressed.
Emphasizing once again that the village's drinking water filtration system extracts most contaminants from the groundwater, Mr. Wheeler said the project was a positive step.
“This is the first phase in the containment process. You can't have cleanup until you contain the contaminants,” Mr. Wheeler said. “What's next will be worked out between the EPA and company, and although we're only a third party in the process, we have stressed that it's very important that the project is completed as soon as possible.”
First Published November 21, 2000, 12:47 p.m.
