Gloria Selby and her husband moved to Edgewood Estates in northwest Harris County, Texas 23 years ago because they wanted a bit of land and liked the tall trees. Well water irrigated their large lot and supplied their home.

Today, that water has become a source of anxiety for Selby and many neighbors, who wonder whether it may have increased their chances of getting cancer.

Others believe, however, that some of their neighbors and regulating agencies may be overreacting.

The neighborhood is among scores of locales in Harris County experiencing the fallout from dry cleaners' use of the solvent perchloroethylene, a possible carcinogen.

"It ticks me off a lot. We could have lived out here with our wells and been happy except for the cleaners," said Selby, a director of the Jones Road Coalition for Safe Drinking Water.

Dry cleaners knew nothing about the risks of perchloroethylene, known as perc, when it came into common use in the 1950s. In those days, chemical manufacturers even suggested that old perc or perc waste products could be tossed on dirt piles behind shops, said Mike Frew, a project manager in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's voluntary dry cleaner cleanup program.

Not until the early 1980s did the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency say perc posed a risk to the environment, and in 1985, it classified perc as a possible human carcinogen. Seven years later, it established that steps must be taken to lower levels of perc in water when it exceeds 5 parts per billion.

Contamination from perc, a heavy chemical that sinks in water, is common. In Harris County, 86 dry cleaners or former dry cleaning sites are taking part in removing perc or other contaminants through TCEQ's voluntary cleanup program. Another 16 have completed efforts.

Statewide, 364 dry cleaners or former sites have been enrolled in the cleanup program. The real estate market has forced many of the cleanups. About 90 percent of the 364 sites landed in the program after banks that had been asked to loan money found contamination, said Jay Carsten, a TCEQ manager of the voluntary cleanup program.

In areas where residents are on municipal water systems and perc has not contaminated groundwater, cleanups are not as massive and may require only that contaminated dirt be disposed of as hazardous waste. Such cleanups typically cost $50,000 to $100,000, said Rick Sims, owner of Sims City Cleaners and chairman of the Southwest Drycleaners Association. It represents 550 dry cleaners in eight states.

Remedies for sites where perc has contaminated groundwater are much more costly. The TCEQ and the EPA sometimes require that contaminated groundwater be pumped into a treatment system and disposed of, Carsten said.

A fifth of these cleanups statewide have required water treatment, which can take 10 to 30 years and cost from $200,000 to more than $1 million, Frew and Carsten said.

Selby's Jones Road-area subdivision provides a good example of the upheaval and problems caused by the discovery of perc contamination.

Polluted water was found in December 2000, when tap water was tested at Finch's Gymnastics on Jones Road, the TCEQ says on its Web site.

The TCEQ and EPA tested wells throughout the area, trying to gauge how far the contamination had spread in the Chicot Aquifer, the source of neighborhood well water.

More than 200 wells were tested, and 150 still are monitored quarterly.

Tests revealed that 33 exceeded the 5 parts per billion standard. TCEQ installed sophisticated filtration systems at these homes.

Evidence indicates that the perc came from the now closed Bell Dry Cleaners at 11600 Jones Road and may have been dumped out behind the store near a drainage ditch or poured down store drains that led to a septic tank, said Vince Malott, the EPA's remedial projects manager for the Jones Road site.

Dae Duk Kim, owner of Bell Cleaners on Jones Road, died in 2001. The county has sued his widow, Choon Hae Kim, but she has filed for bankruptcy, as has the corporation that owns the strip mall where the cleaner was located.

Without an entity to help underwrite the cleanup costs, the EPA declared the Jones Road area a Superfund site in 2003, thus providing a revenue stream.

The TCEQ and EPA will pay to run water lines from an existing water system into the neighborhood and provide free hookups. Property owners have until Sept. 23 to inform the TCEQ whether they want to be hooked up or continue using well water.

While some residents welcome the opportunity to connect to a water system, others are resisting, partly because TCEQ will not discuss allowing use of well water solely for yard irrigation -- a major issue of owners with large lots, said Jason Lundquist, a resident and one of three directors of Jones Road Coalition for Safe Drinking Water.

"It seemed like a very heavy-handed, take-it-or-leave-it arrangement, which may make some inclined to leave it," said Lundquist, a geologist.

Another resident, Bob Land, whose well on Timber Hollow is contaminated with perc, questions whether there is much risk in continuing to use well water if filters are installed on well water lines.

But he was so put off by TCEQ that he ordered the agency to remove a filter it had put on his well.

Residents who stay on well water will complicate TCEQ's cleanup, the EPA's Malott said, because the wells may pull contamination farther along the Chicot Aquifer.

TCEQ fears the heavy contaminants may sink through the Chicot into the deeper Evangeline Aquifer, a significant water source for Montgomery County and parts of Harris County.

"I can understand why people don't want to pay water bills. But water systems are far safer (than wells)," said Michael Honeycutt, manager of the TCEQ's toxicology section. "The water is treated and checked frequently. Not only are residents protected against perc, but other potential contaminants."

Are the residents in the Superfund site at greater risk of getting cancer? Some people who drink "over many years" water that has more than five parts of perchloroethylene per billion "could have problems with their liver and may have an increased risk of getting cancer," the EPA's web site says.

The EPA and TCEQ view perc as a possible carcinogen because animals given high doses of it had a greater tendency to develop kidney and liver cancers.

"Humans exposed to the relatively low levels of (perc) typical of the Jones Road plume are much less likely to be at risk of cancer," the TCEQ web site says.

Despite the possible hazards, 65 percent of Texas dry cleaners continue to use perc, Sims said. Dry cleaner machines today include traps beneath that collect leaks and sophisticated systems that allow for recycling perc.

Contamination from dry cleaners has become so prevalent that the state Legislature in 2003 passed a law requiring dry cleaners to pay into a cleanup fund.

The bill set fees of $2,500 a year for large facilities where dry cleaning is performed, $250 a year for small facilities, plus $15 for each gallon of perc and $5 for petroleum solvents -- an alternative to perc.

The fund now contains $11.1 million.

Sims said the fund was a good idea. To cover the costs of paying into it, most dry cleaners have raised prices about 3 percent to 6 percent, he said.

The fund, he said, protects society but also serves as insurance for those in the industry. "It protects the majority of cleaners," he said.

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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News