Buttermilk Creek & Smith Mill Creek pollution

[Brotherhug]

Many of you have probably noticed the surveying marks in Malvern Hills Park. It's the preliminary phase of restoration of Buttermilk Creek through Malvern Hills Park.

The good news: Riverlink has received a grant from the Clean Water Management Foundation to restore the creek to a more natural meander through the park. They are currently in the surveying phase and will make a presentation to the neighborhood in the near future about their plans.

Buttermilk Creek was named at a neighborhood picnic in the park pavilion on Earth Day 2007. The Ingles milk plant on used to wash out their trucks in the lot and the water would flow into the creek causing a sour milk smell through our neighborhood. The creek name takes the sour milk smell and adds a "cultured" spin to it. It reminds us that we can't let corporate industry destroy our resources and environment like that.


The bad news: Ingles Milkco is developing the brownfield on Deaverview that was formerly the Asheville Hosiery Company division of Andrex Industires.
This nine-acre, light manufacturing site was formerly a textile facility that operated a knitting, weaving and cutting business along with dry cleaning, shrinking and packaging of fabrics. Tetrachloroethylene groundwater contamination from dry cleaning operations is being remediated by with pump-and-treat system. Ingles has demolished the Andrex buildings and plans to expand the Milkco Plant to double capacity within eight years.

Unfortunately, the large spill of tetrachloroethylene, a highly toxic dry-cleaning solvent has left plumes that extend into Malvern Hills Park and the upper part of Buttermilk Creek in the park. It has also contaminated the soil in the ballfields across Deaverview from the site as well as Smith Mill Creek.


Tetrachloroethylene is a heavy solvent and difficult to remove. It sinks low in the groundwater and evaporates quickly when it comes out into streams.

Hartwell Carson at Riverlink has been trying to get signs posted about the dangers of playing in the contaminated parts of the creek, but has had no success. He is considering going to the press if he continues getting no response.

Do we need more reminders of why we've got to stop polluting our planet?

[McDaniel family]

Thank you for letting everyone know about this.

[Sage Linden]

There was just an article on this in the Mountain Xpress: http://www.mountainx.com/news/2007/122308the_green_scene/

[Bridget O'Hara]

Does this mean we should not be playing in the creek? Frack ! My kids are always in that creek. Shouldn't the City be required to post a danger sign or something?

[Brotherhug]

According to Hartwell Carson, yes. There have been signs posted on Smith Mill Creek, but that's from a more recent spill from Haynes Electrical. I don't know the full extent of how much is getting into the creek.

[Edward M.]

From the mountainx article: "...showing him a map depicting the results of a 2008 evaluation of PCE levels within a mile of the old Andrex site, Carson explains. The map, dated February 2008, shows levels as high as 13 parts per billion at Smith Mill Creek and 6.9 ppb at Buttermilk Creek. The EPA’s allowable limit in public drinking-water sources is 5 ppb..."

I am assuming these readings are from the monitoring wells at the 2 parks. Those are fairly low readings considering they are down in the groundwater. I definitely wouldn't want to drink it though! The real question is whether there is any in Buttermilk Creek itself. Doesn't sound like there has been any testing on the creek. The article also says how quickly it evaporates once it is in a creek which will probably make it difficult to detect/measure in the creek. It would be great to get some funding to do the proper sampling and analysis on the creek several times throughout a year or something like that.

Edward

[Brotherhug]

My understanding is that tetrachloroethylene evaporates as soon as it come out into the stream releasing a toxic gas and does not go downstream in the creek. The hazard is where the flume meets the creek which is in the area between Sulphur Springs Road and the bridge in the park.

I've been told that the haz-mat team from the fire department will be doing further testing in the park, but I've not heard results.

It's hard to say how much of a hazard there is for kids playing in the stream. Which is more dangerous, the discharge from the coal plants in our air or what's in the water. Is playing in the stream more dangerous than walking to the park?

I'd like to get more definitive information on what the problems from this plume.