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Clean Up Work Resumes at Alexsons Cleaners Site in Sanford, Maine

Release Date: 03/25/2009
Contact Information: Jeanethe Falvey, (617) 918-1020

(Boston, Mass. – March 25, 2009) – Clean up work will resume next week at a Sanford, Maine site to address chemical contamination in the soil and groundwater.

Last September, EPA began a “removal action” at the Alexsons Cleaners site, located at 46 High Street in Sanford. This clean up action was undertaken to address tetrachloroethylene (also known as perchloroethene or PCE) that was released into the soil and groundwater during the building’s history as a dry cleaning establishment.

During that previous work, contaminated soil around the facility was excavated, while remaining soil and groundwater under the building was treated by chemical oxidation. This treatment process chemically degrades the PCE into carbon dioxide, oxygen, and chloride ions. The excavation removed all of the PCE in the accessible soil, and the post-treatment sampling results indicated that the PCE concentrations in the remaining soil and groundwater beneath the building were reduced by about 50 percent.

Chemical oxidation treatment programs regularly require two or three rounds of treatment before the cleanup is complete. To begin the second round, EPA is returning to the Alexsons Cleaners site on March 31, and anticipates that the second treatment program will occur over approximately two weeks starting April 1, 2009.

More information: EPA’s Removal Program and other short term clean ups in New England (epa.gov/region1/superfund/er/index.htm)

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