FRANKLIN, Ind. — There is a new development in a story 13 Investigates has been reporting on for years, the groundwater contamination in Franklin.
On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Amphenol Corporation to start the final cleanup plan. It involves issues stemming from the old plant along Forsythe Street and Hamilton Avenue.
About one year ago, the EPA released a decision for cleanup at the site.
Final remedies for the contamination site at the former Amphenol plant involve the installation of permeable reactive barriers, also called PRBs.
PRBs are a wall created below the ground that clean up contaminated groundwater, according to the EPA. Groundwater can flow through that wall, but harmful materials that make up the wall either trap contaminants or make them less harmful. The treated groundwater then flows out the other side of the wall.
Those PRBs would, according to the EPA's plan, be established both on the contamination site of the former Amphenol plant and along nearby Forsythe Road in Franklin.
EPA officials had already determined chemicals released from contaminants at the former Amphenol plant had migrated outside the company's fence line and contaminated nearby neighborhoods.
The agency announced their final decision following a 75-day public comment period. EPA officials said they would work to establish long-term monitoring of the site in addition to those creating those PRBs.
This final decision came years after the EPA was accused of failing to adequately warn Franklin residents of toxins and risk from cancer-causing chemicals that were in the area, and after 13 Investigates first looked into a cancer cluster in Franklin.
In 2015, responding to a 13 Investigates report, state health officials told parents in Johnson County there was no "cancer cluster" in the county making their children sick.
But in 2018, Franklin residents raised concerns to EPA and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management about VOC vapors from the site seeping into nearby homes.
In 2019, the EPA took steps to neutralize cancer-causing toxins, like TCE, in two test locations near the old Amphenol site.
A new sampling report released that year also said the Environmental Protection Agency likely missed more homes exposed to toxic vapors in Franklin.
Also, in late 2019, about 1,298 feet of sewer lines south of the Amphenol plant, along South Forsythe Street, were replaced. The soil around those lines was also removed.
Following further investigation, the EPA confirmed there was potential for vapor intrusion in Franklin residents' homes from remaining volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, both in the soil and sewer laterals, or the run of pipe between the building and the city’s main drain sewer.
In October 2020, the EPA said it would continue to study the area and devise a community-wide cleanup plan for several contaminated sites.
The EPA released plans to inject treatment chemicals into the ground near the former Amphenol plant to break down the toxins in the groundwater in 2022.
There's no timeline yet for when the underground walls will be installed. The EPA will continue monitoring the water for years.