City passes a milestone

With some citizens up in arms over other actions by the the City Council, now is a good time to mark a major positive accomplishment by McCook's governing body.

Friday, Mayor Dennis Berry notified the Environmental Protection Agency that not only is the city's water supply in full compliance with state and federal standards; it has been that way for two months prior to Friday's deadline.

The consent decree agreement, between the city and the EPA, Nebraska Attorney General's Office, Nebraska Health Department and Nebraska Department of Environment Quality, required the city to comply with EPA standards for nitrates, uranium and arsenic no later than March 31.

While the safe standards for nitrates is less than 10 parts per million, tests show water produced by McCook's new treatment plant ranging from 4.8 to 6.1 parts per million. The tests have shown 4.47 parts to 6.45 parts per billion of arsenic, well within the new 10 parts per billion rule that went into effect in January.

McCook's water has also tested 21.1 to 27 parts per billion of uranium since the plant went into operation on Feb. 7, under the 30 parts per billion safety standard.

As Utilities Director Jesse Dutcher points out, McCook has the first municipal water system in Nebraska, the Midwest and perhaps even the entire United States that has resolved the nitrate, uranium and arsenic problems in one fell swoop.

Of course, it wasn't easy or inexpensive. Water users will be paying off the $14.4 million bill for decades to come.

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Now that McCook's city water quality problems are solved, at least for the time being, it's also a good time to look back at how we got into this situation.

Mention "TCE" -- short for trichloroethylene -- around McCook and you'll either get a knowing shake of the head or a puzzled look, depending on how long the listener has lived here.

Twenty years ago, while searching for nitrate-free water for the city water supply, drillers encountered a plume of TCE contamination to the east and south of McCook.

The industrial solvent was dumped on the ground behind the old TRW plant on Airport Road -- now the Army Reserve Center -- and over the decades, drifted toward the southeast.

While the company and its successors agreed to clean up the contamination by pulling the water out of the ground and allowing it to evaporate into the air, a recent story in the Los Angeles Times sheds new light on the issue. Reporter Ralph Vartabedian recounts how the military allegedly pressured the Environmental Protection Agency into burying a new study that showed TCE may be twice to 40 times more of a cancer threat than previously thought.

Invented in the late 1800s, TCE was widely used as a degreaser, including plants like McCook's TRW facility and about 1,400 Department of Defense sites across the nation. They include places like Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyo., Camp Lejeune, N.C. and many others. According to the Times report, the Department of Defense is disputing 80 epidemiological studies and hundreds of toxicology studies that indicate TCE is dangerous.

It makes us wonder whether McCook is truly over its TCE problem.