Public Availability Meeting Scheduled Thursday, Sept. 5, for Chicago Heights Boulevard Location in Saint Louis County, Mo.

(Lenexa, Kan., Sept. 3, 2013) - E.P.A. Region seven will host a public availability meeting this week to share information about the most recent round of environmental sampling and future projects for investigation and cleanup of the Chicago Heights Boulevard Location in Saint Louis County, Mo.

The meeting will be held from seven p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5, at the 1st Baptist Church of Elmwood Park, 1452 Dielman Road, Saint Louis, Mo., 63132. E.P.A. representatives will present information and will join representatives from other partner agencies, including health experts, to answer questions.

A primary focus of the meeting will be to share information about a recent round of sub-slab and indoor air sampling that was conducted at several residences in the Elmwood Park neighborhood.

The Chicago Heights Boulevard Location involves a contaminated groundwater plume located in an unincorporated area of north Saint Louis County. At some time before 1988, an unknown quantity of the industrial chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) was released at an industrial property located at 9970 Page Avenue, just northwest of the Elmwood Park neighborhood, and traveled through the soil and into the groundwater. Since then, TCE and other contaminants have been detected in groundwater beneath the residential area of Elmwood Park, and TCE vapors have been detected at levels of concern in some of the residences situated adjacent to the industrial site.

PerkinElmer, Inc., which purchased the industrial property in 1988, has worked with E.P.A. and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to identify the extent of the groundwater contamination plume at the site, and has installed vapor mitigation systems in homes where sampling found vapors at harmful levels. MDNR transferred regulatory oversight for the Location to E.P.A. Region seven in September 2012. Since November 2012, PerkinElmer has been subject to an Administrative Settlement Arrangement and Order on Consent that requires the company to perform various steps related to the investigation, mitigation and cleanup of the contamination.

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