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County Starts Testing for Chemical at Airport

Officials and contractors hired by San Luis Obispo County have started testing for trichloroethylene – better known as TCE – at property on around the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport.

Contractor Roux Associates is collecting groundwater samples along Buckley Road; and they plan on collecting nearly 100 soil gas samples around the Airport’s two runways and existing facilities, along Buckley’s stormwater drainage and at other sites required by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, said Assistant County Administrative Officer Guy Savage in a news release, adding, that the samples will mailed to a certified, “third-party laboratory under standard chain-of-custody procedures.”

At the direction of the Water Board, which is investigating the source of TCE contamination found in 12 Buckley area wells in the last year, Roux will take six

groundwater samples along Buckley with additional areas of interest north of the runway pending.

The Water Board, which is a State agency, has maintained that with other possible sources for the contamination eliminated from their inquiries, the Airport is the most likely culprit; possibly from military operations conducted onsite generations ago.

The County initially issued statements disputing that their sites could be a source, maintaining that records, which only go back to the 1980’s did not show any TCE use.

Savage and Roux Associates’ Principal Hydrologist Jon Rohrer were onsite July 26 to announce commencement of testing and demonstrate the process Savage reiterated:

“To date, we have yet to find anything to indicate that the source of TCE found in the groundwater along Buckley Road is coming from airport property. Regardless, we will continue searching until we are satisfied that airport property is not the source.”

Results are expected to be delivered to the County in fall of 2016, at an approximate cost of $100,000. – Camas Frank

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