TCE. It stands for trichloroethylene. In the 20th century, the toxic chemical was used to clean circuit boards manufactured at the old Litton Systems plant near Springfield-Branson National Airport — and until 1980, it was disposed of in lagoons and pits on the Litton property.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources says it’s been involved in cleaning up the site since 1979. Northrop Grumman bought out Litton in 2001, and the Springfield plant closed in 2007.
Last year, an investigation by NPR Midwest Newsroom and St. Louis Public Radio found that as early as 1993, state authorities and Litton Systems knew that TCE had contaminated not just company property, but groundwater in the surrounding community. According to Midwest Newsroom, a 1993 EPA report found that Litton had dumped more than 190 million gallons of wastewater into those lagoons and pits.
But the problem wasn’t widely known — and some nearby property owners weren’t notified — until the issue became public when TCE was detected at a nearby tourist attraction, Fantastic Caverns, in 2018.
In early 2019, the head of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources at the time apologized to the public for not alerting residents “in a timely manner.”
On Monday, Springfield City Council considered a licensing agreement allowing Northrop Grumman to add three new groundwater monitoring wells to its TCE extraction and monitoring network. The new wells are set to go along North Westgate Avenue where it intersects with Kearney Street, less than a mile east of the old Litton property.
In a community involvement plan for the Litton site published two months ago by the Department of Natural Resources, state authorities say Northrop Grumman is “actively investigating and remediating the site.”
At their meeting Monday night, City Council questioned Chris Maxwell, a geologist subcontracted to work with Northrop Grumman on the project. Northwest Springfield Zone 1 Councilwoman Monica Horton said she wanted to research the issue more, while Councilman Craig Hosmer asked about the scope of Springfield’s decades-old TCE problem. Here’s part of his exchange with Maxwell, the geologist.
Hosmer: “And how long have we been monitoring?”
Maxwell: “How long? Since the ‘80s.”
Hosmer: “And since the 80s, do we know whether it’s been — seems like if we’ve been monitoring it for 40 years — ?”
Maxwell: “I would, I would say in my professional opinion, no it is not.”
Hosmer: “I’m sorry?”
Maxwell: “I would say in my professional opinion, no it is not.”
Hosmer: “It’s not?”
Maxwell: “Getting bigger, no.”
The agreement for the three new monitoring wells — which comes at no cost to the City budget — is expected to be up for a Council vote on August 21.
