IBM Endicott TCE story continues...
TCE reached aquifer via elevator shafts

Sunday, February 22, 2009
Story by Tom Wilbur- Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, NY

ENDICOTT - Hazardous chemicals found pooling below the former IBM plant decades ago have worked their way down through elevator shafts into an aquifer that feeds municipal wells, according to recent information from state environmental officials.

Powerful pumps have contained the pollution to one spot, officials said, keeping it from spreading into Endicott wells on South Street less than a mile away. They are the wells closest to the pollution, and part of the village water works that supplies more than 45,000 people in Endicott and the Town of Union.

The problem persists, however, and more work is needed to fix it, according to William Wertz, an engineer with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

DEC officials have been tracking pollution flowing under the sprawling microelectronics plant and showing up in nearby neighborhoods for 30 years.
On Wednesday, they will give an update on the epic cleanup effort at a 7 p.m. meeting at Union-Endicott High School.

Much of the focus since 2003 has been on TCE flowing through the shallow water table and creating vapors found in buildings near the plant.

The investigation has also targeted pollution in the deep aquifer that threatens water supplies. That's where the elevator shafts become relevant.

Shafts in Building 18 extend 50 feet or more into the ground, penetrating a layer of clay that separates a shallow water table from an aquifer more than 200 feet below. The shafts have become a likely conduit for TCE, pooled under the building, to sink deep into the earth.

"We think that's what happened," Wertz said.


TCE exposure is linked to illnesses ranging from brain damage to cancer, and there is ongoing debate among scientists
and policy makers about how much poses a calculable risk.

The South Street wells have tested positive from time to time for TCE and traces of chemicals similar to the ones below IBM, but they are from a different, unknown source, according to the DEC's evaluation, based on data generated by IBM's sampling.

Regardless, IBM gave the village a $2 million donation in 2004 to install a special filtration system to purify the South Street wells. Chemicals found in the wells typically fell within safety margins, although advocates argue that standard is too lax.

A deep problem IBM has been attempting to clean the pollution under the plant on North Street, now owned by Huron Real Estate Associates, since it was first discovered in 1979. Since then, more than 70,000 gallons of solvents have been pulled from the ground, along with new revelations surfacing every decade or so.

In 2003, scientists discovered that TCE - long-known to be flowing through shallow water tables - was also forming vapors pushing into the basements of hundreds of nearby homes and businesses through a process called vapor intrusion.
Soon after, IBM installed ventilation systems to keep the vapors out of more than 450 homes, and the DEC ordered the company to step up its efforts to pinpoint and clean pollution.

That has been a monumental task, given the size of the 60-acre campus and unknowns about how much solvent is still in the ground, exactly where it is and how deep it flows.

Clues about the depth began trickling in with water samples from a cafeteria in Building 42, on the southeast corner of McKinley Avenue
and North Street.

In 1963, IBM drilled a well that extended 250 feet beneath the building to draw water from cracks in bedrock, according to records filed with the DEC.

The building, designated as a civil defense shelter in the event of a Cold War nuclear catastrophe, would require a water source that was safe from nuclear fallout.

The cafeteria well, which is deeper than hundreds of monitoring wells drilled in the area to track the pollution from the plant in the 1980s and 1990s, inexplicably began producing water tainted with industrial solvents similar to that found in shallow water tables.

Details remain murky, partly because some records are missing.

Concentrations began increasing in this well "sometime prior to 1991, (during a period for which sampling records have not been located)," according to a report filed with the DEC.Although the well was not used as a drinking source, it shows how deep the problem is, literally.

While pumps running around the clock have contained the pollution in the bedrock aquifer to directly below the campus, officials are afraid it could spread, especially with unknown quantities of TCE still at large under the village.

Mike Maloney, a spokesman for IBM, said the company has been using dyes to test the elevator shaft theory since January 2007.
He expects the final report, with detailed findings and recommendations, to be released in April.

On Wednesday, Wertz will answer questions and provide a general update about the bedrock aquifer and other aspects of the cleanup, which covers several other areas of the village.

Rick White, a labor advocate (Alliance@IBM CWA) in Endicott and former IBM employee, has attended public meetings updating the cleanup for years.
He has repeatedly raised the question about elevator shafts as a possible conduit for TCE below the campus.

The chemical, once used liberally in the microelectronics industry, is heavier than water, so it sinks through the water table. At the same time, it creates vapors that rise up and push into basements and buildings.

"This shows there was indeed opportunity for exposure," White said. "What is that? We need an answer."

Maloney said construction and design of the shafts would prevent TCE fumes from moving up them.

In 2005, the DEC collected samples inside, outside and beneath 36 buildings throughout the campus.

Concentrations in outdoor air samples showed no significant levels of the chemicals.
Samples from beneath the buildings over the most concentrated areas of pollution, such as building 18,
showed TCE vapors up to 77,000 micrograms per cubic meter.
State guidelines generally recommend action if TCE levels below buildings exceed 50 and there is evidence it has the potential to seep through foundations.

Indoor air samples at the campus ranged from between 5 and 17 micrograms per cubic meter in some areas that were occupied.
Although that exceeds the state guideline of 5, it carries a "low" health risk to people chronically exposed to them, according to the report.
That means state health officials do "not expect to be able to associate health effects" from exposure.

In confined spaces below the buildings, concentrations were much higher.
Levels reached 250 micrograms per cubic meter in a crawl space below building 18, and 56 micrograms per cubic meter in a basement "tank room" in the same building.

About 4,000 people are employed on the campus, which includes operations for IBM and Endicott Interconnect and several other businesses.

White, who plans to attend Wednesday's meeting, said state health and environmental regulators need to promptly do more testing,
especially in and around elevators.

"This investigation has been deliberate but it's been very slow," he said.
"This is case in point of that slowness."