2000/12/04-News from Pall-Gelman November report packet (continued)
Post date: Sep 01, 2014 4:18:5 AM
December 4, 2000
Here is some of the news from the Pall-Gelman November 2000 report packet:
EVERGREEN TREATMENT SYSTEM SHUT DOWN
Pall-Gelman has shut down the Evergreen Treatment System and is pumping untreated water back to the core for partial treatment and discharge to the Honey Creek tributary. This was authorized by Judge Shelton without the prior approval of the DEQ.
Citizens and local governments called for complete destruction of the 1,4-dioxane and reinjection of the treated water back to aquifers in the same vicinity from which it was purged, an approach that Pall-Gelman had been using from 1993 until 1999.
HORIZONTAL PURGE WELLS BEGIN OPERATING BUT NOT UP TO PAR... RISKS REMAIN
The company has begun pumping from the horizontal purge wells that run along side the pipeline from Evergreen. However, the pumping rate from these horizontal wells is only about 130 gpm and not the 200 gpm that was called for. Pall-Gelman claims that the 100-foot long screens in the horizontal wells are being plugged by sand.
If sand continuously plugs the wells and has to be pumped out, a void may be left in the sand formation around the transmission pipeline that lies next to the horizontal wells. If the void becomes big enough, the transmission pipeline may sag and leak or break. If that happens the Evergreen purging will have to stop since Pall-Gelman has no backup system in place, and the Evergreen plume will spread to new areas. [Update: the northern transmission pipeline failed in 2005 and the southern one failed in 2014.]
This is what can happen when a last-minute, "back-of-a-napkin" plan is allowed to be implemented over the objections of citizens and local governments.
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More details on the following when space allows:
REVISED 5-YEAR PLAN STILL HAS MAJOR FLAWS.
HAZARDOUS CHEMICAL STORED WITHOUT PROPER SAFEGUARDS IN RESIDENTIAL AREA.
DEFINITION OF PLUMES STILL INCOMPLETE.
PUBLIC BEING SHUT OUT.