EPA hosting presentations in Spencer

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will host an open house and presentations for the Franklin Street Groundwater Superfund Site on Thursday, April 17 at the Historic Tivoli Theatre, 24 N. Washington St., Spencer. 

Presentations are set for 2 to 4 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m., with the EPA to share details about current and upcoming sampling activities throughout Spencer, which include soil, groundwater and vapor intrusion sampling at commercial and residential areas.

According to the EPA, Tetrachloroethene (PCE) was detected in finished water samples collected from the BBP Water Corporation (BBP) as part of regularly scheduled required testing for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). In 2014, IDEM conducted additional sampling and detected PCE in raw water at all three active drinking wells.

Monthly raw water samples collected since 2014, the EPA has said, continued to show detections of PCE. Groundwater samples collected at various locations down and upgradient to possible sources was also reportedly contaminated with PCE. Despite several investigations in the area, the origin of the contamination is unknown.

According to IDEM, the municipal water supply in Spencer is blended and treated before distribution to residents and meets the Safe Drinking Water Act standards.

PCE has not been found in BBP’s finished water since the air strippers at the water treatment plant were turned on in May of 2017, completely removing it from the finished water.

“Even before then we weren’t using the well that had the contamination,” BBP CEO Todd Gardner told The Owen News in May of 2024, “so we never sent treated water that was contaminated. It was a well that wasn’t being used at the time that it popped up on.”

For questions of if you need special accommodations, call 312-886-6595 or email muhtsun.ruth@epa.gov.

To learn more, visit epa.gov/superfund/franklinstreetgroundwater