Residents of an Elkhart neighborhood can have their home’s air quality tested for potential contamination. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is conducting vapor intrusion testing in the area bounded by Crawford Street, Christiana Street, Maple Row and Plum Street.
Sonia Vega, an on-scene coordinator with the EPA, says volatile organic compounds from the former Walter Piano site could potentially travel through groundwater and impact nearby homes. “As the groundwater moves, these chemicals might evaporate and come through the inner spaces in the soil and have access into people’s property,” Vega explained.
While these chemicals are common – even in some household items – they could lead to health risks with prolonged exposure.
To see if any homes might be impacted, the EPA conducts air sampling.
Here’s how it works: any other potential sources of these chemicals are removed from the home. Then, Vega says a quarter-sized hole is drilled in the basement floor.
“We connect what we call summa canisters to kind of get air from under the house, so we can send it to the laboratory and evaluate if there are VOCs in the air, under the house,” Vega said.
Additional canisters are placed in the basement at breathing level and on the first floor.
Vega says a notice was mailed to homes in the area. So far, samples have been collected from three homes, while another two households have agreed to be tested.
She says there are about 140 homes in the initial testing area. “The result of the sampling will tell us if these boundaries need to be expanded, or if we can shrink the footprint,” Vega added.
Vega notes that the Elkhart area has multiple Superfund sites, due to its history of automotive businesses. “The degreasers and some of the materials they used have come to contaminate the groundwater in the area,” she explained.
Residents in the testing area interested in having their homes sampled can email Vega at Vega.Sonia@epa.gov.
