The Former Antoine Laundry site, located at 125 Avenida Isla Verde is in a mixed residential and commercial urban area in a northern portion of Carolina, Puerto Rico. The site is a former laundry and dry-cleaning facility that operated from approximately 1975 to around 2022. The facility historically used tetrachloroethylene (PCE or PERC), a nonflammable, liquid solvent widely used in dry cleaning, wood processing, fabric manufacturing, and metal degreasing. The building is currently vacant.
In January 2024, EPA collected soil gas, soil, and groundwater samples from the Former Antoine Laundry site, which confirmed that there was hazardous waste present at the site. The sampling results indicated elevated levels of tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene in soil gas and groundwater samples.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sampling the former dry cleaner facility and surrounding properties for chemicals that may enter buildings in vapor form. In the coming months, EPA will collect and analyze samples of indoor air and gas that is in the soil, originating from contaminated groundwater at the Former Antoine Laundry site in Carolina, Puerto Rico. This information will help EPA determine if chlorinated volatile organic compounds (CVOCs) from past dry cleaning operation is posing a risk to people’s health.
