Contamination is a more prevalent problem in urban settings, though it is not absent from rural areas. Contaminants of major concern in the Mid-South are volatile organics (e.g., TCE, benzene), coal ash, LNAPLs (like gasoline), and heavy metals.
Threats
What Threatens Our Groundwater?
The main threats to the groundwater come from poor disposal practices and uninformed decisions post-World War II. With groundwater moving very slowly, historical releases of contaminants have been migrating at a snail’s pace and beginning to arrive or pose a threat to some wells.
Urbanized areas provide an increased potential for contamination, whether due to historical releases or current potential contaminant sources, such as gas stations, bulk storage facilities, dry cleaners, and other sources.
There are many well-known contaminated sites in the Memphis area, all of which are under some type of remediation (cleanup) program:
- Memphis Defense Depot
Memphis Defense Depot is an old WWII army munitions plant that had buried products such as TNT and Agent Orange (a defoliant). The space now serves as a large storage/transfer facility and home to Barnhart Crane.
- Former Custom Cleaners
Former Custom Cleaners was a dry cleaner in the 1950s that released large amounts of TCE (trichloroethylene) into the underlying soil, which later resulted in medical issues due to vapor intrusion until closure and teardown.
- Carrier Air Conditioning Corporation
Carrier Air Conditioning Corporation is an air conditioning assembly plant in south Collierville that released TCE beginning in the 1970s and whose treatment of this contaminant was disrupted by a plume from Smalley Piper in 2005.
- Smalley-Piper
Smalley-Piper is a site that’s also located in Collierville (east of Carrier by about a mile), which served as a machine shop, dumping hexavalent chromium into an unlined basin behind its facility. You may have heard of this contaminant if you’ve watched the movie Erin Brockovich (2000).
- Other Superfund Sites
Other Superfund sites in Shelby County include: Arlington Blending and Packaging, Illinois Central Railroad Johnston Yard, National Fireworks, North Hollywood Dump, Sixty One Industrial Park, and Walker Machine Products.
- Memphis Defense Depot
Memphis Defense Depot is an old WWII army munitions plant that had buried products such as TNT and Agent Orange (a defoliant). The space now serves as a large storage/transfer facility and home to Barnhart Crane.
- Former Custom Cleaners
Former Custom Cleaners was a dry cleaner in the 1950s that released large amounts of TCE (trichloroethylene) into the underlying soil, which later resulted in medical issues due to vapor intrusion until closure and teardown.
- Carrier Air Conditioning Corporation
Carrier Air Conditioning Corporation is an air conditioning assembly plant in south Collierville that released TCE beginning in the 1970s and whose treatment of this contaminant was disrupted by a plume from Smalley Piper in 2005.
- Smalley-Piper
Smalley-Piper is a site that’s also located in Collierville (east of Carrier by about a mile), which served as a machine shop, dumping hexavalent chromium into an unlined basin behind its facility. You may have heard of this contaminant if you’ve watched the movie Erin Brockovich (2000).
- Other Superfund Sites
Other Superfund sites in Shelby County include: Arlington Blending and Packaging, Illinois Central Railroad Johnston Yard, National Fireworks, North Hollywood Dump, Sixty One Industrial Park, and Walker Machine Products.
Memphis Defense Depot is an old WWII army munitions plant that had buried products such as TNT and Agent Orange (a defoliant). The space now serves as a large storage/transfer facility and home to Barnhart Crane.
Former Custom Cleaners was a dry cleaner in the 1950s that released large amounts of TCE (trichloroethylene) into the underlying soil, which later resulted in medical issues due to vapor intrusion until closure and teardown.
Carrier Air Conditioning Corporation is an air conditioning assembly plant in south Collierville that released TCE beginning in the 1970s and whose treatment of this contaminant was disrupted by a plume from Smalley Piper in 2005.
Smalley-Piper is a site that’s also located in Collierville (east of Carrier by about a mile), which served as a machine shop, dumping hexavalent chromium into an unlined basin behind its facility. You may have heard of this contaminant if you’ve watched the movie Erin Brockovich (2000).
Other Superfund sites in Shelby County include: Arlington Blending and Packaging, Illinois Central Railroad Johnston Yard, National Fireworks, North Hollywood Dump, Sixty One Industrial Park, and Walker Machine Products.
