TOXINS LINGER ON FARM
$70M spent so far on Crossley Farm Superfund Site
HEREFORD TOWNSHIP >> Nobody knows precisely when the dumping of 55-gallon drums of trichloroethylene started on the Crossley Farm, but it was at least 50 years ago. The more than $70 million cleanup of that toxic mess is still happening today.
In the 1960s and ‘70s at least 1,200 drums of the cancer-causing industrial solvent and degreaser were taken from Bally Case & Cooler Co. and buried along with household garbage in a pit on the 209-acre dairy farm owned at the time by brothers Harry and James Crossley.
It was not exactly illegal, that is until the 1976 enactment of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency authority to control hazardous waste, including how it is stored.
The EPA believes that around 1980, one or both of the farmers realized they could no longer store drums of toxic waste on the Huffs Church Road property.
So they emptied all 1,200 drums on top of Blackhead Hill, a high point on the farm, and buried the empty drums nearby in an area now known as the hot spot.
From there, the liquid menace trickled deep into the ground through fractured bedrock, a poison slowly seeping its way into the community’s
drinking water.
It’s unclear under what terms the Crossleys agreed to take the barrels, what led to the decision to dump them and how they went about it.
Drinking poison
Trichloroethylene, or TCE, can cause cancer and has harmful effects on the nervous system, liver, respiratory system, kidneys, blood, immune system and heart. TCE does not dissolve in water or fade over time.
By 1983, neighbors noticed the water had an unusual scent and taste, and reported it to the state Department of Environmental Resources, now the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
The state issued a health advisory, warning residents not to drink from the contaminated wells. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency provided temporary water supplies to
the community.
The maximum allowed contaminant level for TCE in drinking water is 5 parts per billion. Today, groundwater at the hot spot on Blackhead Hill has TCE measuring 700,000 parts per billion, according to the EPA.
In 1997 the EPA installed water treatment systems in homes served by about 65 contaminated wells.
Today 49 residential wells are still affected. The EPA said the special filters make it safe for residents to drink and use water normally.
Although there is a long road ahead, the EPA is making progress, a five-year site review released by the EPA this month shows.
Since the federal and state governments got involved in the site in 1983, at least 24 springs have been cleaned up, 14 wells restored and the seepage plume, once extending 3 miles from Blackhead Hill, is shrinking instead of growing.
Life on the plume
Township Supervisor
Karla Baxter lives on Dale Road, 3 miles from the hot spot, on the edge of the plume. She bought the house in 2000, aware of the contamination. Before buying the home, she spoke with an EPA representative who told her he would feel safe living there because of the reverse osmosis water filter that was added to contaminated homes.
“I don’t think it is a cause for concern. It is really no different than living in the city and having your water taken from the Schuylkill River,” Baxter said. “It’s just that living in the country, you think it’s bucolic and all the water is clean. That’s not the case. It needs to be treated.”
Because the water is purified, it tastes better than other water, Baxter said.
“I can’t drink anybody else’s water because it doesn’t taste as good. It’s better than bottled.”
Every quarter, a DEP contractor visits her house to test the water and sometimes change the filter.
“Some residents were
taken off the system because they don’t need filters anymore,” Baxter said. “Others have put the filter system in, just because it tastes better.”
Hot spot is a hot spot
The newly released report reviews the EPA’s work so far: restoring potable water in homes, treating groundwater and addressing vapor from evaporating TCE in homes.
The report also describes the next phase: cleaning water at the hot spot.
The EPA said it has drilled about 100 wells around the Crossley Farm property for monitoring.
Seven of those wells are expected to go into service in about two years, pumping water to the large, brown pole barn on the property that houses a water treatment system. This system currently cleans other groundwater connected to the seepage. After exiting the system, water is discharged into
the ground and flows to Perkiomen Creek.
The area was declared an EPA Superfund site and added to the National Priorities List on Oct. 14, 1992.
Taxpayers on the hook
To date EPA and DEP have spent more than $70 million on investigations, short-term removal actions and longterm remediation at the site. And, the work is ongoing.
An EPA spokesman said the agency has recovered more than $2 million from the company that produced the waste disposed at the site, Bally Case.
John Crossley died in 1983, and Harry Crossley died in 2001. The contaminated property was left in Ruth Crossley’s name. Ruth, who was married to John, died in July at age 90.
In a 2008 settlement agreement, Ruth Crossley sold the land and paid the EPA $155,000 for the Crossley family’s reimbursement of costs related
to the cleanup.
The EPA determined that because she was a senior citizen with few assets besides the farms, a larger amount would cause undue financial hardship.
The farm was sold to Warner Tuttle for $600,000, his father David Tuttle confirmed. He left further comment up to his son, but Warner Tuttle did not respond to a request for comment.
The farm has been divided into two large tracts: one with the hot spot and the other for farming.
John Membrino, another Hereford supervisor, said the contaminated area is a small portion of the farm’s total acreage.
“The EPA did a good job of keeping us informed,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of people would even know about the site today. I think it was a successful. It cost millions of dollars. It needed to come from the federal government because nobody had that kind of money.”