5 years on, pollutant monitoring continues
Shuttered dry cleaning business on west side of Portage carries legacy of chemical contamination
Dres-Well Cleaners in Portage may be closed but its legacy lives on, as more monitoring wells are on the way to track a growing plume of harmful dry cleaning chemicals.
The dry cleaner, at 5160 Central Ave. on the city’s west side, closed five years ago, leaving behind a plume of groundwater contaminated with toxic dry cleaning chemicals, among other woes, according to online documents from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, city officials and a neighbor.
Wilcox Environmental Engineering plans on adding two additional groundwater monitoring wells. One will be placed in the right-of-way, which required approval from the city’s planning department; the second, because it’s planned for city property, recently received the go-ahead from the Portage Board of Works.
Wilcox has applied for additional monitoring wells three times since early last year, A.J. Monroe, Portage’s planning and community development director, told the Board of Works during a Tuesday meeting.
“I personally feel it’s really important to have as many of the monitoring wells as possible because once (the contaminants) get out, they get onto other people’s property,” Mayor Sue Lynch said during the meeting. “There could be in the future even more monitoring wells in place because tracking those plumes is very important.”
Monroe said any results from the monitoring wells would be sent to IDEM and made public record.
“I think the citizens who live out there appreciate the more monitoring wells, the better, and don’t want it getting on their property,” Lynch said.
Neighbor Tim Hill has been concerned for years about chemical contamination from the site. Hill purchased his home just west of Dres-Well in 1978 and has lived there off and on ever since.
“I’m the worst person affected because I’m right next door,” he said.
Indoor air testing at Hill’s residence and two others nearby continued to show high levels of PCE, or perchloroethylene, and related chemicals, according to a May report from Wilcox to the IDEM.
PCE is a solvent used in dry cleaning, among other purposes, that can cause neurological effects from short- and long-term exposure, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as impacting development and reproduction and causing several types of cancer.
Hill said Wilcox put a blower in his house, known as a vapor mitigation system, to draw out air from below his concrete sub-floor because of the high level of
contamination. That was installed last year, Hill said, adding several other neighbors had the air in their homes monitored.
“The air in the house is terrible,” Hill said. “It’s way over the limit for PCE.”
Testing at several other residences, on Central Avenue and Blake and Dombey roads, was to be discontinued because there had been two consecutive compliant tests in those homes, according to the May report.
According to a May 2019 letter from Wilcox to IDEM, chemicals also were discovered in potable water wells serving two residences in the 2500 block of Blake Road. In the short term, the residents were provided with bottled water before being moved to hotel rooms for a few weeks while Indiana American Water installed municipal water lines.
Only the soil at the site was impacted by the contamination, Barry Sneed, public information officer for IDEM, said in an email, and impacted indoor air has been remediated where it exceeds guidelines.
“The remediation work plan will be developed once the delineation has been complete,” he said. “It is difficult to precisely state when the site will be completely delineated because delineation is dependent upon the results of the ongoing work.”
Initial investigation of the site was completed in August 2018, Sneed said, adding that since then, investigation has been ongoing.
“Previous investigations have adequately characterized impacts to soil and indoor air. The investigation currently underway is completing final groundwater delineation efforts,” Sneed said.
The monitoring well network is comprised of 60 wells, Sneed said, and the groundwater plume is present at the former DresWell Cleaners property and extends north-northeast. Quarterly monitoring of the groundwater monitoring well network is being conducted.
According to a March 2017 letter from IDEM to the past owners of the dry cleaner, which had been open for several decades before it closed, the past owners are responsible for reimbursing IDEM for the cost of the investigation and response to the pollution.
If a past owner has declared bankruptcy, they must include IDEM as a creditor, according to the letter, which also is online.
Online documents show that as early as 1985, IDEM contacted the owner of Dres-Well at the time about the dumping of waste that contained PCE on the ground behind the dry cleaner. The letter did not note penalties or other reprimands.
“Please be advised that you are to discontinue the practice of dumping your still bottom wastes on the ground upon receipt of this letter. Further, please advise this office as to the future method(s) of disposal,” the letter states.
The Porter County Health Department has been keeping tabs on the situation, though it falls under IDEM’s jurisdiction, David Hollenbeck, the health department’s attorney, said in an email.
“Jurisdiction over the matter is vested in the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. That being said, the Health Department did receive citizen complaints which were forwarded to IDEM. Furthermore, IDEM has kept the Health Department advised as to the status of the handling of the matter and in so doing has forwarded to the Health Department staff copies of investigative reports and remediation plans,” Hollenbeck said.
Hill, the neighbor, said he has been in contact with Wilcox Environmental Engineering about what cleanup efforts might look like and a possible timeline.
“The process is long. They’re still delineating, still drilling wells,” Hill said, adding Wilcox officials hope to start remediation in 2022, “but it’s a seven- to 10-year process.”