Indian Bend Wash Area
| Indian Bend Wash Area | |
|---|---|
| Superfund site | |
North Indian Bend Wash contamination area map | |
| Geography | |
| City | Scottsdale and Tempe |
| County | Maricopa |
| State | Arizona |
Indian Bend Wash Area Indian Bend Wash Area | |
| Information | |
| CERCLIS ID | AZD980695969 |
| Contaminants | Trichloroethylene |
| Responsible parties |
|
| Progress | |
| Proposed | December 30, 1982 |
| Listed | September 8, 1983 |
| Construction completed | September 28, 2006 |
| Partially deleted | May 1, 2003 |
| List of Superfund sites | |
The Indian Bend Wash area is a Superfund cleanup site in Scottsdale and Tempe, Arizona. It was declared a Superfund site in 1983 after industrial solvents were discovered to have contaminated the groundwater in an approximately 13-square-mile (34 km2) area. It is one of the largest EPA sites in terms of volume of groundwater treated, estimated at 61.3 billion US gallons (232,000,000 m3).[1]
During the 1960s, it was typical for companies to dispose industrial solvents directly into the ground and into dry wells.[2][3] In 1981, volatile organic compounds (VOC) were detected in Tempe and Scottsdale city wells, including trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and chloroform. The wells were shut down immediately, and the area was declared a Superfund site in 1983. Potentially responsible parties Motorola, Siemens, GlaxoSmithKline, along with several smaller companies, have paid for the approximately $100 million in cleanup costs. Cleanup has consisted of several stations that pump and treat groundwater.
The area consists of two cleanup sites; the North Indian Bend Wash (NIBW) Superfund site located in Scottsdale (approximately 8 square miles) and the South Indian Bend Wash (SIBW) Superfund site located in Tempe.[4]
For eight days in October 2007, trichloroethylene tainted water was released into the water supply of 1,500 residents of Scottsdale by the Arizona American Water Company.[5]
Notes
- ^ "INDIAN BEND WASH AREA Site Profile: Background". cumulis.epa.gov. EPA. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ Colten, Craig E. (1 March 1994). "Creating a Toxic Landscape: Chemical Waste Disposal Policy and Practice, 1900–1960". Environmental History Review. 18 (1): 85–116. doi:10.2307/3984746. JSTOR 3984746. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ "The Origins of EPA". United States Environmental Protection Agency. US EPA. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ Chase Golightly (3 October 2023). "Some Arizonans are living on contaminated land. Are you?". 12news.com. Retrieved 3 October 2024.
- ^ Balazs, Diana (16 November 2007). "Tainted water may have entered PV and Scottsdale water supplies". azcentral.com. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2024.