ATSDR MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT

ATSDR To Discuss Public Health Assessment
For the Griggs & Walnut Groundwater Site on Aug. 31

The agency finds the site is not a past or current health hazard

For Immediate Release: Aug. 27, 2004

ATLANTA - Contaminants in water at the Griggs and Walnut Groundwater Site in Las Cruces, N.M., in the past and currently are at levels too low to cause adverse health effects, according to a public health assessment released by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

The health assessment is available for review at

Thomas Branigan Memorial Library
200 E. Picacho Ave.
Las Cruces

New Mexico Environmental Dept.
Harold Runnels Building
1190 St. Francis Drive
Santa Fe

ATSDR will accept comments to the public health assessment though Oct. 7, 2004. Comments on the health assessment must be made in writing. Mail comments to

Chief, Records Management Activity
ATSDR
1600 Clifton Road, NE (MS E-60)
Atlanta, GA 30333

Agency representatives will be available Aug. 31 to talk with community members about the health assessment from 5:30-8:00 p.m. at Sierra Middle School, 1700 E. Spruce, Las Cruces. Community members are welcome to stop by any time during the session; there will be no formal presentation.

ATSDR found that people drinking water at the site were exposed to perchloroethylene (PCE) at levels too low to be a health hazard. Similarly, the amount of PCE in indoor air cooled by evaporative (swamp) coolers also was at a level too low to cause sickness.

After reviewing potential exposure to contaminants via soil gas, ATSDR concluded that PCE is not expected to migrate through the soil subsurface to affect people in homes or businesses over areas of contaminated groundwater.

Because the degree of future exposure is unknown, ATSDR recommends continued monitoring of the area's municipal water supply wells to ensure that levels of PCE do not exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) maximum contaminant level.

Comments received during the public comment period will be logged in to the ATSDR administrative record for this health assessment. Comments received, without the names of individuals who submitted them, and ATSDR responses to the comments will appear in an appendix to the final public health assessment. Names of those who submit comments, however, will be subject to release for requests made under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

For more information, community members can contact Environmental Health Scientist Robert Knowles or Community Involvement Specialist Maria Teran-MacIver toll-free at 1-888-422-8737. Regional Representative Patrick Young also may be contacted at 214-665-8562. Callers should refer to the Griggs and Walnut Groundwater site in Las Cruces, N.M.

ATSDR, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.

Established by Congress in 1980 under the Superfund law, ATSDR conducts public health assessments at each of the sites on the EPA National Priorities List, as well as other sites when petitioned.

Headquartered in Atlanta, ATSDR is staffed by more than 400 health professionals including epidemiologists, physicians, toxicologists, engineers and public health educators.

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Members of the news media can request an interview with ATSDR staff by calling Jennifer Sarginson or Jill Smith in the ATSDR Office of Communication at 770-488-0700.