Source: https://press-herald.com/, April 22, 2022
By: Amber McDown

The Department of Environmental Quality was canvasing the Pennsylvania Avenue area on Friday morning distributing notices regarding contaminants detected in the vicinity. Subsurface samples of soil gas were collected recently in a utility right-of-way area near the old Imperial dry cleaning building on the corner of Pennsylvania and Murrell which contained perchloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), cis- and trans-1,2-dichloroethene. These compounds are known as chlorinated solvents.  Aliphatic hydrocarbons, a petroleum product, were also detected.

“The source of the chlorinated solvent contamination appears to be from historic operations at the former dry cleaning facility,” the notice stated. “It has not been determined how the contamination occurred. Contamination could have possibly resulted from the release of the solvent to a floor drain, operation of a solvent still, lack of dry cleaning machine pans, carryout from transfers of clothes between machines, carryout from muck cleanouts from machines, or solvent waste or other waste mismanagement.” Read more.