ADEQ Report Says Payson Groundwater Cleanup is Working

ADEQ Has Spent $10.7 Million on the Cleanup to Date PHOENIX - Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) Director Steve Owens announced on July 2 that ADEQ has issued its formal Record of Decision (ROD) on the Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund (WQARF) site in the Town of Payson. The ROD, a report that evaluates the approach being taken to clean up the site, concludes that the cleanup is proceeding successfully and that ADEQ should continue to implement the process until the groundwater in the area is free of contamination. "This report is very good news for Payson," Director Owens said. "It shows that what we have been doing is working well and that the groundwater is being cleaned up." The groundwater at the 110-acre site is contaminated with tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE), known carcinogens that reached the groundwater from a former dry-cleaning facility. The contamination was first discovered in the groundwater in the area in 1990. After conducting an extensive investigation into the contamination that included several early response actions, ADEQ officially added the site to Arizona's Superfund list in 1998. The cleanup process being used involves pumping groundwater from the site and sending it through two 20,000-pound granulated activated carbon filters that remove the contaminants. After the groundwater is cleaned, it is used as part of the town's drinking water supply. The treated water entering the drinking water supply has been free of detectable levels of PCE and TCE since the operation began in 1998. The system, which is operated by the Town of Payson, delivers about 200 gallons each minute to the Town of Payson drinking water supply and currently provides about 35 percent of the water supply for Payson, which depends completely on groundwater. ADEQ has spent $10.7 million to date to clean up the site since it was added to the WQARF program. The ROD estimates that completely cleaning up the groundwater in the area may take up to another 25 years and could cost between $10 million-11 million more. If so, the total cleanup costs for the Payson WQARF site could exceed $21 million. "This is an expensive cleanup," Director Owens said, "but it is worth every penny of it to make sure that the citizens of Payson will continue to have safe, clean drinking water. We are absolutely committed to this cleanup." The Payson WQARF site is bounded by Frontier Street to the north, the Beeline Highway (State Route 87) to the east, Aero Drive to the south and McLane Road to the west in Payson.