After more than 25 years of cleanup, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality recently announced that the groundwater and soil at a site near 16th Street and Camelback Road in Phoenix is officially considered safe.
The area, between 17th and 15th streets, from Camelback Road south to Highland Avenue, was contaminated by tetrachloroethene, known as PCE. Almost a century ago, businesses like dry cleaners relied on PCE as a degreaser. They didn’t know yet that it would pose a public health risk by seeping into the soil and contaminating the groundwater.
By 1999, the central Phoenix site landed on Arizona’s priority list for contaminated site cleanups, the Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund Registry.
Since then officials have been working to fix it, using natural microbes to help break down the underground contamination and keeping a close watch to make sure levels keep naturally declining.
The state says the pollution never made it to public or private drinking water wells, so most tap water stayed safe. Still, even in tiny amounts, PCE can raise cancer risks over time.
Now, after years of cleanup and monitoring, the site is officially off Arizona’s list of contaminated locations.
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