An article published by the Sun News today has revealed that there is a possiblity that our water supply has been contaminated with the highly toxic cancerous agent, Trichloroethylene.
The article goes on to say:
"Electronics manufacturer AVX illegally dumped groundwater laced with TCE, an industrial degreaser, into the sewer at its 17th Avenue South facility from at least 1985 to 1996".
"The earliest test for TCE that the city can find is from May 2000 - at least 15 years after AVX started dumping the water into the sewer."
The city used deep-water wells for its drinking water supply until a municipal water treatment plant went online in 1987. One of those wells is on land adjacent to AVX's facility on 17th Avenue South. Another is on 13th Avenue South, where TCE contamination was found in shallow groundwater.
TCE, which is heavier than water, sinks to the bottom of aquifers and forms large pools called plumes. It can take decades to treat and clean contaminated groundwater.
Geologists say the only way TCE could have gotten into the city's drinking water is if one of the deep-water wells located near shallow contamination was poorly grouted, and the toxic chemical went down the annular space between the well's casing and borehole wall.
AVX learned it had high levels of TCE contamination in groundwater at its property as early as 1991, but did not tell state regulators or city officials about the problem until 14 years later.
When I did some searching online to see what effects TCE has on the body, I found this:
Trichloroethylene is one of the chemicals suspected of causing a cluster of childhood leukemia cases due to drinking water contamination in the town of Woburn, Massachusetts, in the early 1980s. The subsequent lawsuit against the polluting company was the subject of the 1995 book and 1998 film, A Civil Action. Source
We have to do do something about this! If anyone out there knows where to find epidemiological studies on leukemia cases in Myrtle Beach than PLEASE let me or the author, (Contact DAVID WREN at 626-0281 or dwren@thesunnews.com) know!
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