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Milford, Ohio Aquifer Site Proposed To Be Added To Superfund National Priorities List

Release Date: 10/19/2010
Contact Information: Jayna Legg, (312) 353-0562, legg.jayna@epa.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 10-OPA 130

(CHICAGO – Oct. 19, 2010) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 announced today that a contaminated aquifer in Milford, Ohio, is one of nine hazardous waste sites proposed to be added to the Superfund section of the National Priorities List.

Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country. There are a total of 1,343 final and proposed sites on the NPL.

The Milford Contaminated Aquifer site is a ground water plume contaminated with chlorinated solvents in the vicinity of Main Street and Lila Avenue in Milford. Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, were first detected in the Milford public wells in 1986. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency began searching for the source of the contamination in 1991. Despite several investigations, the source was not found, and the state referred the site to EPA.

Milford’s well field serves 6,000 people. The city installed and maintains an air stripper to remove VOCs from its treated water.

EPA will try to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the Milford contamination. For sites without viable responsible parties, EPA investigates the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup. It may be several years before major cleanup funding is required.

If the site is added to the NPL, EPA will be eligible for the technical and financial resources to fully characterize the extent of the contamination in the aquifer and develop a comprehensive cleanup plan.

For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for Milford and other proposed sites, go to: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm

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