PCBs may have surfaced near plant

BEDFORD -- Heavy rains last spring in south-central Indiana may have pushed oil contaminated with PCBs to the surface of land near the GM Powertrain plant, company officials said.\nThirty Lawrence County residents already had sued the company, saying it discharged the toxic chemical onto adjacent properties for years without notifying them. Now, environmental officials fear PCBs may have been channeled in many directions through fractured bedrock.\nCompany and federal environmental officials will hold a meeting Thursday at Bedford-North Lawrence High School to update residents on preparations for a government-supervised cleanup.\nPCB-tainted oil was discovered in a natural spring in Bailey's Branch, a stream near plant property. GM Powertrain has been investigating the spread of PCBs in preparation for the cleanup.\n"We don't believe it has gone very far because it doesn't move or flow easily," said GM spokeswoman Kathy Bommarito.\nBommarito said oil has not been found in other springs. GM has mapped 26 springs and six seepage sites, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.\nA collection device has been installed in the stream to capture the oil, Bommarito said.\nGM Powertrain officials said they believe the tainted oil was pushed to the surface during heavy rains in May as large volumes of water flowed through the rock.\nPolluted water was found last spring seeping from the ground on private property north of the plant, where residents have said GM waste was deposited, said Peter Ramanauskas, project manager for the EPA.\nGM Powertrain was investigating four or five areas where waste may have been dumped off plant property, Bommarito said.\nA report on groundwater migration must be submitted to the EPA by April 30, 2005.\n"It'll be a lot of work to determine where these materials could be going," Ramanauskas said.\nGM Powertrain was erecting signs along Bailey's Branch and Pleasant Run Creek, two of the contaminated waterways, warning residents not to swim, wade or fish there, Bommarito said.\nPolychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were banned by the federal government in 1977. The chemical was used as an insulator in electrical transformers.