GLENBURN TWP. - More than 12 years after federal officials halted operations at the Precision National Plating site, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency coordinators Tuesday introduced supervisors to a website that details the level of contamination near the site.
At the Township Building, a contingent of EPA officials led by on-site coordinator Ann DiDonato announced the release of the Precision Site Viewer - an online database that allows users to track and monitor the levels of hexavalent chromium in local public wells, shallow bedrock well locations and surface water locations.
Designed and monitored by the EPA, the site is a response to residents' concerns that the 40 years worth of sampling information was too hard to locate and decipher.
The website is the latest tool in a decades-old problem. Officials have been attempting to rid the site of hexavalent chromium that leaked into the ground at the Ackerly Road plant where chrome was once layered on locomotive parts.
"Supervisors asked us to develop a way for residents to be able to digest this information easier," Mrs. DiDonato said. "The graphs and tables allow residents to see the levels and specific trends."
Similar to Google Earth, the website allows viewers to zoom in on specific wells or surface water locations in the area. After doing so, users will be able to decipher whether a point is still contaminated, or how the levels of hexavalent chromium - a pollutant that can cause cancer - have fluctuated over the years.
"I think it's extremely beneficial to have this website because it makes the information more readily available for residents," said Supervisor David Jennings, who lives near the former Precision plant. "The problem for many is that they had no idea what the levels of contamination in wells around them were. This solves that."
To visit the site, go to: https://gis2.westonproject.net/EPA_Precision_Viewer
Contact the writer: miorfino@timesshamrock.com, @miorfinoTT on Twitter