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Contaminated Montco site headed to Superfund

HARLEYSVILLE The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it wants to put a Harleysville residential area with contaminated groundwater on the Superfund list.

HARLEYSVILLE The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it wants to put a Harleysville residential area with contaminated groundwater on the Superfund list.

The Superfund program investigates and cleans serious hazardous-waste sites nationwide.

The polluted groundwater at the Baghurst Drive site affects as many as 42 residential water wells, the EPA said. Residents have been using carbon filtration units for their water since shortly after the problem was discovered in 1999. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection conducted soil sampling and installed water-monitoring wells to try to determine the contamination's source, said DEP spokeswoman Lynda Rebarchak. "But that testing was inconclusive," she said.

It is known that the contamination is from "volatile organic compounds."

The state asked the EPA to handle the cleanup because of the number of homes affected and the need for a better solution than carbon filtration.

EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Smith said that if no comments needing follow-up were received during a 60-day public comment period, the site could be on the Superfund list toward the end of the year. - Carolyn Davis