Roswell plume site added to EPA’s Superfund priorities list

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wednesday added anarea in Roswell contaminated with harmful chemicals leftover from a dry-cleaning business to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

The Lea and West Second Street site in Roswell had been going through the procedures to get listed on the NPL since last September.

The site contains soil contaminated by chemicals from a former dry cleaners business that operated in the mid-20th century, an in-ground concrete separator tank and a groundwater plume, according to the EPA, which says that Roswell drinking water could potentially be contaminated by the plume.

One of the chemicals found at the site, tetrachloroethylene, can be potentially harmful to humans and has shown negative effects in animals exposed to it.

Roswell’s city environmental officer told KOB in September a prior Superfund site had been set up in Roswell near McGaffey and Main streets.

The Roswell site was among several added to the NPL Wednesday. The EPA also Wednesday proposed adding a cluster of mines in southwest Colorado to the NPL.

More information can be found here.