SEARCH FOR SOURCE OF CHEMICAL BEGINS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992                   TAG: 9202220376
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY and MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SEARCH FOR SOURCE OF CHEMICAL BEGINS
State Health Department engineers Friday began a search for the source of a chemical that may have contaminated wells in the Hollins-Plantation Road area of Roanoke County.
Seventeen samples were taken from wells in the search for trichloroethylene (TCE), according to Dr. Molly Hagan, Alleghany Region health director. The samples will be sent to Richmond for laboratory tests that may take a week, she said.
An estimated 50 homes within a mile of the trailer court have private wells that could contain the chemical, Hagan said.
The samples were taken within a quarter-mile of the Tinkerview Trailer Court, where a well was found to be contaminated with a high level of TCE. According to Roanoke County Utilities Director Cliff Craig, the safe level for TCE is .005 milligrams per liter. A sample from the trailer court well contained 1 milligram per liter, he said.
Roanoke County is supplying water to the 34-lot trailer court and to two nearby houses and a small apartment complex, all managed by HCMF Real Estate and Housing Management of Blacksburg.
County Supervisor Bob Johnson is president of HCMF. But County Administrator Elmer Hodge said Friday, "We're not treating them any differently than we would any other. . . . Our purpose was to get safe drinking water to them as fast as we could."
HCMF will owe the county about $25,000 in connection fees for the water hookup. Because the hookup was needed to provide safe drinking water to the trailer court, Craig said he would recommend to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that HCMF be given until July 1 to pay the connection fees.
Ideally, the party responsible for the contamination will be located and will pay the connection fees, he said.
Hagan said she doubts that the TCE came from the nearby ITT plant, but she does not know the source. Other smaller industries are located nearby.
"There are four or five potential places this could come from," Craig said.
If she lived in that area, Hagan said, she would drink bottled water, but she considers the well water safe for showers. Concerned residents might use a carbon filter to remove the chemical as a short-term solution, she said.
TCE is a non-flammable, colorless liquid with a sweet odor, Hagan said. The chemical came under regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency only last year.
TCE is used in anesthesia, she said, and "any acute effect is non-existent." No evidence has been found to associate cancer with TCE in humans, the doctor said.
Positive samples of TCE were found in two other wells within a half-mile radius of the trailer court, Hagan said.
Hagan is working with the state Water Control Board on the problem. She planned to study ground water maps with the board and ITT representatives "to try to anticipate where other contamination may be."

NOTE: TCE was spelled tricholoroethylene in print.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB