Water tests reveal history of PCE

By DARYL LANG
and REBECCA ZEIBER
Collegian Staff Writers

Penn State will begin to dig up 5,500 tons of contaminated soil from the Big Hollow Road fire training site this week.

But long before discovering perchloroethylene (PCE) at the former fire training site, the university faced problems with the chemical in drinking water wells.

Penn State has removed three wells from its drinking water system since 1987 due to excessive PCE levels.

Two other wells exceeded government PCE drinking water limits but were allowed to continue operating because the PCE concentrations were diluted with water from other wells.

At no time was the tap water on campus unsafe to drink. The water system is safe and in compliance with standards, said John Gaudlip, utilities systems engineer for the Office of Physical Plant.

Although levels of PCE in well water fluctuate over time, neither the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) nor Penn State has determined any source of the pollution.

A regional problem

Far from any substantial lakes and rivers, the University Park campus relies entirely on underground aquifers for drinking water.

The water comes from a system of eight wells managed by OPP.

PCE, a toxic manmade chemical, has been of particular concern in the State College area since 1987, when DEP asked the university to begin a PCE monitoring program.

At that time, concern stemmed from the discovery of PCE in a spring near campus used by the Lemont Water Co. for drinking water, said College Township manager Adam Brumbaugh.

To deal with the problem, the water company installed an air stripping system to remove PCE from drinking water. That system, now run by the College Township Water Authority, is still in use, Brumbaugh said.

The State College Water Authority has had no problems with PCE, said Max Gill, manager of the water authority.

Since 1987, the university has tested its wells every month and reported the results to the DEP four times each year.

The tests show PCE levels consistently have been below the legal limit and are usually below detection at entry points, where well water enters the drinking water system.

The legal limit of 5 parts per billion (ppb) applies to entry points, not to individual wells, said Dan Spadoni, community relations coordinator for the North-Central Regional Office of the DEP.

Individual wells, however, have exceeded 5 ppb several times since 1987.

Well 26, in the Big Hollow Well Field, had PCE readings as high as 9.1 ppb in 1988, but levels have decreased significantly since then.

Meanwhile, the Houserville Well Field recently has had the highest PCE readings, but only Well 35 has shown a reading higher than 5 ppb.

The most recent tests show all wells are now reading below 5 ppb, although four wells still have detectable amounts of the chemical.

Uses and effects of PCE

PCE, also known as tetrachloroethylene, is a manmade chemical used primarily in dry cleaning and as an industrial solvent.

Louie Marrara, owner of Marrara's Cleaners, 324 E. College Ave., said dry cleaners use PCE as part of standard cleaning processes.

The chemical comes in liquid form and gets pumped directly from trucks into a closed system to prevent fumes from escaping.

PCE pollution is common in urban areas where industry is prominent. State College's PCE problem is an exception to most of central Pennsylvania, Spadoni said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that repeated exposure to high PCE levels causes liver, kidney and central nervous system damage, and may also cause cancer.

Because the effects of PCE occur over time and may react in combination with other chemicals, it is difficult to tell whether people living in a particular area have been made sick by the chemical, said Francis Bertovich of the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

If entry point tests of public water show PCE in excess of 5 ppb, the EPA requires the water system to notify the public of the potential risk.

Testing is not perfect, however. Even though Penn State sends water samples to certified independent labs, the results have differed from occasional DEP tests.

Gill even recalled a mix-up several years ago when three State College Water Authority samples, including a pure control sample, tested abnormally high for PCE. The lab eventually blamed the incorrect levels on traces of PCE from a worker's recently dry-cleaned lab coat.

Plans for the future

In keeping an eye on the problem, Penn State plans to continue monthly PCE testing and collect more data at the fire training site, said Maurine Claver, director of Penn State Environmental Health and Safety.

Testing still has not conclusively linked the PCE on the surface of the site to the PCE in the groundwater underneath it, Claver said.

Testing near the site will also determine the way groundwater flows, which may shed some light on why PCE levels decrease in some wells as they increase in others, Claver added.

The PCE testing program is just part of the many tests and projects the university monitors to keep drinking water safe.

"That's the most important thing to us here," Claver said. "Making sure everybody in the university who uses water, drinks water, is provided with the best quality possible."