Wells dug to test for underground contamination

Clark County

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June 27, 2011

Former dry cleaner property scrutinized in Jeffersonville

By DAVID A. MANN David.Mann@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Mon Jun 27, 2011, 10:30 PM EDT

JEFFERSONVILLE — Work is under way in downtown Jeffersonville to install subsurface monitoring wells related to possible environmental contamination near a former dry cleaning business.

During the last two weeks, crews have been drilling down to the bedrock — typically about 30 feet — in the block that surrounds the Jeffersonville One Hour Cleaners property at 119 W. Court Ave. More than a dozen such wells are being dug in order to test for contamination below the surface.

According to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, a neighboring property owner, JP Morgan Chase Bank, was conducting a subsurface investigation regarding a potential real estate transaction. It found the bank property had been affected by tetrachloroethylene, also known as perchlorethylene, or perc, from the dry cleaners’ site, the department said in a statement.

The state subsequently asked the owner of the former dry cleaners building, Ada Hibbard, to conduct a study to determine whether any of the buildings on that block might be affected by vapors from the contamination.

According to the department, tests found that chemical vapors from below the surface were of concern in the Chase building and an unoccupied building at 121 Court Ave. Mitigation systems blocking subsurface air from entering the buildings have been installed. Tests since then have confirmed the systems were working, department officials said.

The dry cleaner property is boarded up now. Hibbard and her husband, Carl Hibbard, operated the business from 1963 until 1986. After that, the property was rented to another dry-cleaning business until 2009. From 1997 onward, the location was used as a dry-cleaning drop-off store only, state records show.

Hibbard, 87, was contacted for this story but directed queries to her son, John Hibbard. He said the monitoring was an ongoing matter.

During the days his family operated the business, many of the laws being enforced now weren’t on the books, he said. Despite that, he stressed his family was always diligent in handling the dry-cleaning solvents that it used.

“My father was the most conscientious man I’ve ever met in my life,” he said.

He noted that his family’s business was one of the first in the area to embrace a system that recirculated dry-cleaning solvents rather than consumed them.

The property owner will next have to develop a remediation work plan, which the state must review and approve. According to the department, the work is being funded by the property owner’s and former operator’s insurance companies.