CHEYENNE, Wyo.—Plans by the Environmental Protection Agency to set a tougher standard for the amount of a toxic chemical allowed in drinking water will raise the bar for cleaning up contaminated groundwater near old nuclear missile sites.
But a tougher standard for trichloroethylene (TRI’-chlor-oh-ETH’-el-een) will add little if any expense to cleaning up those sites.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says that once groundwater is cleaned up to the current standard, not much more work is needed to reduce TCE to undetectable levels.
The U.S. Air Force used TCE to clean nuclear missiles. Groundwater pollution has been detected near dozens of former missile sites in Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, California, New Mexico, New York and Texas.
