Cabot-Koppers water testing to get underway

August 12, 2005

GAINESVILLE – Up to a dozen new monitoring wells will be sunk around the old wood treating plant, known as the Cabot-Koppers site, to determine the extent of groundwater pollution and potential threat to the local drinking water supply, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Nelson has helped local utility officials win an agreement for the wells with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Either the EPA or the company now-responsible for the polluted site will cover the cost of the monitoring wells, Nelson said.

“Gainesville residents need to know their drinking water is safe,” Nelson said today, in announcing the agreement. “The test wells should help determine whether the groundwater has been significantly contaminated, as local officials suspect.”

The current owner of the Cabot-Koppers site, a company called Beazer East, has maintained the monitoring wells were unnecessary because contamination there wouldn’t reach the city’s water supply, which is drawn from the Murphree well field about two miles from the wood treating plant.

Nelson will meet with Gainesville city officials at the Murphree water treatment plant on Monday. Before that, he’ll hold a town hall meeting in Bradford County; and, after his morning meeting in Gainesville he’ll speak with community leaders at the North Florida Regional Medical Center and hold another town hall meeting in Putnam County.

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