Site Description
Site location
The Lane Street Site is located along the east and west side of the named residential street in Elkhart, Elkhart County, Indiana. The site is bordered on the north by mixed industrial facilities, to the east by other residences including the area affected by the GeoCel Voluntary Remediation Project (VRP) site, to the west by open land, and to the south by residences. The geographic coordinates for the site are 41.716745 o and -85.920974 o.
Description of threat
A VRP under the direction of Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) was initiated at the nearby GeoCel facility. A local resident noticed media coverage of the project and initiated the testing of her own well. She notified IDEM when she discovered that her well was in fact contaminated with Tricloroethylene (TCE). IDEM subsequently responded by sampling numerous drinking water wells along Lane Street. IDEM discovered TCE at levels up to 300 ppb.
The GeoCel plume contamination is the result of Tetrachloroethene degradation into vinyl chloride. There is very little if any TCE detected in the plume while the Lane Street plume shows no Vinyl Chloride contamination and up to 300 ppb of TCE contamination. This strongly suggests that the Lane Street plume is a more recent plume and from a different source.
