A community meeting is set for later today on an effort to get federal funding to pay for cleaning up contaminated groundwater in central Iowa along a river that supplies drinking water for more than half a million people.
The EPA proposes adding the “Superfund” site in Des Moines to its priority list to ensure long-term cleanup and to protect public health. The EPA’s Kellen Ashford says contaminant levels are low and the agency wants to get ahead of the problem.
Ashford says, “The drinking water coming out from the Des Moines water treatment plant still meets all standards set by the Safe Drinking Water Act.” A contaminant called TCE and a chemical derived from it have been found in water samples Des Moines Water Works collected from an intake for the Raccoon River. Despite that, the EPA’s Lauren Murphy says the water is still safe to drink.
“EPA is proposing the site to the National Priorities List now to ensure EPA has the federal resources available to perform cleanup actions at the site,” Murphy says, “so these detections continue to remain well below the respective maximum contaminant level, as well as eliminating the contamination from the groundwater.”
The EPA plans to propose the Lot 46 Valley Gardens TCE Superfund Site site for cleanup in September. The agency is hosting a community meeting starting at 6 p.m. at Weeks Middle School in Des Moines.
(By Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)