CHEYENNE - The rugged beauty of the rolling hills and wind-whipped plains west of Cheyenne betrays no hint of the invisible poison that ebbs and flows beneath the grassy surface.

But deep underground, and extending for miles, a massive plume of industrial solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE, adheres stubbornly to the granite bedrock and mingles with the snow-fed groundwater.

The TCE plume, an unfortunate remnant of the Cold War, has invaded city and private water wells, and lies beneath land the city plans to drill for more water in coming years.

After a long fight, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March all but admitted that the plume - possibly the largest of its kind in the nation - resulted from dumping at former nuclear missile sites near the Capital City.

But another important question remains: Will the federal government clean up the mess, or simply treat municipal and private water at the source, leaving thousands of gallons of toxic chemical pollutant in the ground?

State and city officials have already staked out their ground in what could be the next big fight in a long saga of environmental degradation in southeastern Wyoming.

"We will be pushing to clean up the whole plume; we want comprehensive cleanup," said Jane Francis, geological supervisor with the state Department of Environmental Quality's Water Quality Division, who oversees the state's interests in the contamination area under the federal Superfund program.

'Safe to drink'

Once used by the military and industry as a degreaser, TCE today is the most widespread water contaminant in the nation. States from Florida to California are plagued by plumes of TCE in their soils and groundwater.

Considered a "probable" carcinogen by the International Agency for Research and Cancer and other organizations, TCE is a nonflammable, colorless liquid with a somewhat sweet odor and a sweet, burning taste.

Drinking small amounts of trichloroethylene for long periods of time may cause liver and kidney damage and can impair fetal development, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Consumption of TCE in Cheyenne's drinking water has been extremely limited, and no adverse health effects from the pollution have been documented in the Cheyenne area, state officials said.

"The water is safe to drink," Francis said.

The trichloroethylene plume near Cheyenne was deposited nearly five decades ago at a former nuclear missile site then under command of Cheyenne's F.E. Warren Air Force Base.

The missiles were stationed at seven locations in southeastern Wyoming, and were part of the nation's first intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile system. They were in operation for just three years, from about 1960 to 1964.

During numerous readiness drills, young military men prepared the missiles for launch and then used TCE to flush fuel residue. They disposed of the powerful solvent in unlined pits that drained into the shallow water table.

There is no evidence of nuclear contamination at the former missile sites, state and federal officials confirmed.

At six of the former missile sites, the TCE drained straight down and never reached private or public wells. But the contamination under Atlas missile site 4, located 16 miles west of Cheyenne, reached underground streams and spread out for miles.

The TCE plume today is estimated at 10 miles long, and reaches depths of 300 feet - far larger than most other TCE plumes in the country.

"I think it would be among the largest in the country," said John Cherry, emeritus professor of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and a recognized expert in the area of trichloroethylene contamination.

Wells test positive

TCE was first discovered in Cheyenne municipal wells west of town in 1997. It was subsequently found in other wells in the Borie well field, an important source of city water during the summer months, city officials said.

Initial tests in those wells showed concentrations of TCE well above recommended federal guidelines. The federal Environmental Protection Agency considers more than 5 parts per billion of TCE unsafe to drink.

Fortunately, the city water treatment plant was already fitted with a filtration system sufficient to remove the TCE. The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities has adopted a policy prohibiting any detectable amount of trichloroethylene in city drinking water.

"We think that's what the community wants," said Bud Spillman, manager of the city water treatment plant, referring to the no-tolerance TCE policy. "We take pride in the high-quality drinking water we provide the community."

Keeping city water free from TCE has not been easy. Last December, tests revealed 40 ppb of TCE in one well, enough to overpower the city filtration system.

The well was shuttered and will remain so until the Army Corps of Engineers furnishes temporary filtration equipment at the wellhead this summer, city and federal officials said.

Private wells tainted

Test wells on the Belvoir Ranch, a sweeping property west of town that the city bought in 2003 and hopes to tap for additional drinking water, have also tested positive for TCE.

Tim Wilson, director of the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities, indicated that the board did not know about the contamination when it bought the ranch.

"I don't know that we had direct access to that type of knowledge," said Wilson, adding that development of aquifers under the ranch will proceed despite the contamination.

Wilson stressed that the Board of Public Utilities will continue to assure that no TCE enters the city water supply.

Private water users have also been affected by TCE.

Hank VanGoethen and his family drank bottled water for months after tests in March 2008 showed that his well west of Cheyenne contained about 20 parts per billion of TCE, four times the maximum allowable level.

The Army Corps responded by providing the bottled water, and agreeing to install a permanent filtration system at the VanGoethen residence and all other private wells affected by TCE.

"However long the contaminant has been in the water, we've been drinking it," said VanGoethen, who has lived at his current home for 27 years.

Superfund dollars available

City officials immediately suspected the former Atlas missile sites as the source of the TCE contamination, but initially they could not afford to investigate, said Bud Spillman, manager of the city water treatment plant.

Eventually, the state Department of Environmental Quality won a grant to proceed with testing, and federal funds became available under the Formerly Used Defense Sites program, or FUDS, which falls under the federal Superfund process.

The investigation and any cleanup of the TCE plume near Cheyenne will take place within the framework of the FUDS process.

DEQ scientists, including Francis, came up with the first plausible explanation of how the TCE had entered the groundwater and grown into a massive plume.

The Atlas 4 site, state scientists observed, is located near the foothills of the Laramie Range, which provided a slope that propelled the TCE eastward.

Trichloroethylene is heavier than water and does not break down easily in soil. It naturally sinks into the ground and moves with the underground flow.

State scientists believed that as runoff from the mountain snow drained into the ground each spring, it flushed the TCE toward Cheyenne through crushed granite channels.

The channels empty into the Ogallala aquifer, which feeds the city's Borie well field.

"If the water is moving, the TCE is going with it," said Adrienne Nunn, an engineering consultant with DEQ's Water Quality Division who has studied the TCE plume.

Army Corps digs in

But federal scientists were unconvinced. They believed sources other than the Atlas missile TCE plume might be responsible for pollution in the municipal water wells.

They insisted that a rock quarry, a nearby industrial plant, a local shooting range and a heavily used locomotive corridor all be investigated as possible sources of contamination.

"One by one, we ruled them all out," Francis said.

The Army Corps ultimately took responsibility for TCE contamination to a point east of the former missile sites called Cow Camp, but well short of the city water wells.

That's where the standoff stood until U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., intervened in December 2007.

As the newly appointed ranking member of the Superfund and Environmental Health Subcommittee, Barrasso sent a letter to the chief of the Army Corps inquiring about the contamination and the lack of federal accountability.

The letter asked why the Army Corps had not responded to a DEQ theory that the Atlas 4 missile site was the source of TCE contamination, according to Barrasso's own records.

"Sen. Barrasso became involved in this issue after he felt the city of Cheyenne and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality were not being heard by Washington," according to a written explanation of the events provided by Barrasso's office.

The Army Corps responded by drilling additional wells east of Cow Camp that tested positive for trichloroethylene. Those test wells, according to state scientists, provided the missing evidence that linked the Atlas 4 missile site to contamination in the Ogallala aquifer.

Soon after, the Army Corps scientist who had discounted the Atlas sites as the source of the contamination was reassigned, state officials said, and a new official with experience in pollution cleanup was tapped for the post.

Barrasso blasts Corps

In March, the Army Corps released a voluminous report that all but admitted what Francis and other state scientists believed all along:

"Based on all currently available data, (Atlas missile) site 4 is contributing TCE contamination in the Borie well field, and the municipal wells have likely been impacted from the site 4 TCE release."

However, additional careful wording in the report left room to blame alternate sources for the contamination should any ever surface.

"It cannot be stated conclusively that site 4 TCE is the only source," the report said, "as other industrial and commercial operations exist in the area."

Barrasso lambasted the Corps during a Dec. 11 speech on the Senate floor for hedging its responsibility in the report.

"The report doesn't actually say, 'We are responsible,'" Barrasso said mockingly. "Washington can never admit its faults so transparently.

"No, instead the report says that other potential sources of trichloroethylene, the chemical in our city's wells, 'May be limited.'

"I guess that's Washington's way of saying, 'Yes, it was us,'" said Barrasso, adding that the Army Corps should pay to remove the contamination.

State officials are adamant that Barrasso's intervention in the process was critical.

Francis said a federal official even told her that congressional pressure plays a major role in determining which of hundreds of TCE plumes across the nation get cleaned up.

"Barrasso's office has prodded them every step of the way," Francis said.

'We got their attention'

Even the Army Corps admits that politics probably played a role in moving the process forward.

"Certainly getting the politics involved has certainly helped stimulate the interest of everyone to move forward as quickly as possible," said Jeff Skog, project manager for the agency.

But Skog said it's inaccurate to portray the Army Corps' actions during the past six years as adversarial.

Instead, Skog said, the Corps did the best it could with limited funding to follow established federal laws and procedures, eventually reaching the proper conclusion.

"We're stepping up and doing the right things, as far as I'm concerned," Skog said.

A federal study on the feasibility of several cleanup options is due out by Sept. 30. Skog wouldn't hint about the contents, other than saying all of the alternatives will be costly, and potentially difficult.

City and state officials insist that they will push hard for a full cleanup of TCE at all seven former Atlas missile sites.

Barrasso, who remains involved in the process, said he will also continue to push for a sufficient federal response.

"We finally got their attention, and now we have to get action," Barrasso said in an interview about the contamination.

Cold War left legacy of pollution in Wyoming

By JARED MILLER

Star-Tribune capital bureau

CHEYENNE - Frank Carr was a young airman when the Cuban missile crisis gripped the nation in 1962.

His task during that terrifying Cold War episode was to help fuel and prepare nuclear missiles for attack.

Afterward, he and other airmen flushed the missiles with a powerful industrial solvent, and afterward dumped the solvent, called trichloroethylene, or TCE, into unlined pits, where it slowly sank into the ground.

"That I can remember, we never made any effort to recover any of the (solvent) that we purged through the engines," Carr recalled in a video posted on the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Web site.

That Cold War legacy of unwitting pollution continues to haunt Laramie County and Cheyenne, as a portion of the city's drinking water remains tainted by TCE.

But despite the impact on the community, and the potential cleanup costs, the story of how one of the largest underground plumes of industrial solvent in the nation got into the soil around Cheyenne is not well known here, or outside the area.

"I don't know why this isn't national news," said Jane Francis, a geological supervisor with the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality's Water Quality Division who oversees the state's interests in the spill site.

America was deep in the Cold War when the United States built about a dozen Atlas nuclear missile sites in Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The intercontinental ballistic missiles, the first in the American nuclear arsenal, were 82 feet long, liquid fueled and designed to carry a devastating nuclear warhead across the Atlantic at a speed of up to 16,000 mph.

F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne was the command center for the missiles, which were maintained around the clock by young airmen stationed at the base.

During routine readiness exercises, airmen raised the missiles from their horizontal resting places inside thick-walled concrete bunkers to a vertical launch position and fueled them with kerosene and liquid oxygen.

When raised, the missiles towered over the surrounding prairie and flashed unmistakable signals of America's military dominance to Soviet spy satellites that might have been peering down from above.

After each exercise, the liquid fuel was pumped back into an underground storage tank and the missiles were flushed with TCE, a synthetic solvent popular at the time with industry and the military for its ability to cut grease.

The TCE was subsequently dumped into unlined waste channels extending behind the missile sites called flame pits or burnout pits, where it disappeared into the ground and entered the shallow water table.

"TCE was used as a solvent to clean the rocket fuel tanks, engines and liquid oxygen lines through a series of flushing exercises to prevent accidental explosions," according to a report written in 2008 to help government scientists better understand the extent of the contamination.

Opinions differ on how much TCE was dumped at the former missile sites.

Anecdotal estimates of the number of refueling exercises range from two to six times per year, and TCE quantity estimates range from 25 to 300 gallons per exercise, the report says.

During the Cuban missile crisis, however, the number of readiness exercises increased to several times per week, and, by extension, the amount of TCE dumped onto the ground soared, according to the report and other government documents.

"Based on these estimates, the amounts of TCE used per year were calculated to range between 50 and 1,800 gallons per year," says the report, which notes that the site was operational from 1961 to 1964.

"Therefore, between 800 and 5,400 gallons of TCE may have been released per launch area," the report says, or up to nearly 38,000 gallons of TCE at all seven missiles sites in Wyoming.

In retrospect, the dumping of tens of thousands of gallons of a cancer-causing chemical onto the ground seems like a major folly. But at the time, TCE was thought to be safe, and dumping was thought to be a proper means of disposal.

"It was standard practice at that time to dump it on the ground," Francis said.

Partly for that reason, TCE is the most widespread water contaminant in the nation. Florida, Texas, California and other states are also plagued by large TCE spills.

In Laramie County, the TCE entered a deep aquifer and over the next 50 years traveled along underground channels of crushed granite toward Cheyenne.

Some of that TCE has tainted city water wells and private wells in the area. A giant plume of TCE continues to pulse through a major underground aquifer on a route that could someday pass under a section of Cheyenne.

Estimated to be up to 10 miles long and 300 feet deep, the TCE plume is a lasting legacy of the Cold War that young airmen like Carr, who was doing his duty to keep the nation safe from nuclear attack, could not have anticipated.

"At the time, I never had a thought of what (TCE) would do if it went into the ground," Carr said in the DEQ video.

Pollution cleanup could be costly, or impossible

By JARED MILLER

Star-Tribune capital bureau

CHEYENNE - Now that the federal government has all but taken responsibility for thousands of gallons of industrial solvent leaked into the ground near Cheyenne during the Cold War, the discussion has turned to cleanup.

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality will be pushing for an extensive cleanup of the trichloroethylene dumped at seven former nuclear missile sites around Cheyenne during the Cold War, said Jane Francis, geological supervisor with DEQ's Water Quality Division, who is overseeing the state's interests in the contamination area.

Most of the contamination plumes in Wyoming are fairly isolated. The exception is the former Atlas 4 site, located 16 miles west of town. That plume is estimated to extend up to 10 miles from the source, and reaches a depth of 300 feet.

The plume has contaminated city water wells and land the city plans to drill for additional municipal water. TCE has also been detected in private wells.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already committed to improved treatment equipment at Cheyenne's water plant to remove TCE from city drinking water.

Right now, the city's water utility treats TCE with equipment designed to remove radon gas. The Corps has agreed to install a system intended for TCE, said Jeff Skog, project manager for the Army Corps.

The Corps has also begun to install water filtration equipment at private homes affected by the contamination.

It could be far more tricky, scientists said, to clean up the source of the TCE at the missile sites, and the contaminated aquifer that provides water to Cheyenne in the summer.

But Francis said it is important to clean up the source of the contamination because it could otherwise continue to pollute for a century or more.

The plume could also eventually reach Cheyenne, where it would create more problems, officials said.

Here are several possible cleanup options:

* Soil vapor extraction, whereby harmful vapors are removed by applying suction that draws contaminants out of the soil, may be one of the best ways to clean up the source of the contamination, officials said.

"You are actually pulling the contaminants out above the water table," said Francis, adding that a soil vapor extraction pilot project at one of the sites has yielded positive results.

* Another technique known as "injection" could be used to clean up contaminants near the source. It requires injection of a compound that neutralizes and breaks down the TCE, rendering it harmless.

* A similar process called bioremediation uses microorganisms, enzymes or fungi to return the contaminated soil to its original condition. In some cases, micro-organisms are injected into the soil, where they consume the TCE.

* A technique known as "pump and treat" could be used to clean up contaminated groundwater.

The technique uses a series of wells drilled across the contamination plume to draw out contaminated water, treat it and return it to the aquifer.

If done correctly, the technique could stop or slow the spread of the plume, while protecting downstream municipal and private wells, officials said.

"They clean up the water and then they re-inject it," said Francis, adding that the pump-and-treat method could be costly for such a large plume of TCE.

"That could be very, very expensive," Francis added.

No matter which methods are used, cleanup of the TCE is likely to take years. A typical plume might take around 30 years to clean up, but this plume is far larger than most.

However, Francis said she is confident that with the right techniques, and funding, the problem can be fixed. She said the state will be looking to the Army Corps of Engineers for guidance and funding to address the pollution.

"This is all really doable stuff," Francis added. "It's going to be expensive, but it's all proven technologies."

That perspective is not shared by everyone.

John Cherry, emeritus professor of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and a recognized expert in the area of trichloroethylene contamination, said the record for cleaning up major TCE plumes is not good.

And the plume west of Cheyenne could be especially tricky because of the size and depth of the plume, he said.

"The precedent of successful cleanup of major source zones causing major plumes, very few have been cleaned up," Cherry added.

For its part, the Army Corps of Engineers plans to make public this year a draft study of the feasibility of several cleanup options, Skog said.

Skog confirmed that the study will include information on the feasibility of the pump-and-treat method and others, but he declined to go into specifics until the report is released to the public.

He admitted that all of the possible remedies will be costly, and that cleanup is "somewhat limited because of the geology of the source area."

But Skog said the Corps is committed to doing what it can to clean up the contamination.

What is TCE?

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is a nonflammable, colorless liquid with a somewhat sweet odor and a sweet, burning taste.

It was used extensively during the 1960s by the military and industry as a solvent to remove grease from metal parts. It was also an ingredient in adhesives, paint removers, typewriter correction fluids and spot removers.

TCE is heavier than water and tends to sink into the ground and water sources, where it can remain for a long time.

TCE is also toxic, and has been recognized as "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Drinking small amounts of TCE for long periods of time may cause liver and kidney damage, impaired immune system function and impaired fetal development in pregnant women, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set a maximum contaminant level for TCE in drinking water at 5 parts per billion, but arguments have been made by government agencies that the limit should be dropped to 1 ppb.

TCE levels at the former Atlas missile sites west of Cheyenne have been tested as high as 6,600 ppb. A city water well last summer showed TCE levels of 40 ppb before it was shut down.

Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities policy prevents any detectable amount of TCE in city drinking water, although current tests can only detect TCE once it reaches concentrations of 5 ppb or stronger, city officials have said.

No incidents of health problems as a result of TCE exposure have been confirmed in Cheyenne, according to state officials.

- Jared Miller

Public meeting

The state Department of Environmental Quality has scheduled a public meeting July 28 in Cheyenne to update the public on the latest tests results concerning TCE contamination near the city.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Cottonwood Room of the Laramie County Public Library.

TCE TIMELINE

* 1960-1964: Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is used to flush fuel residue from nuclear missiles near Cheyenne.

* 1997: TCE is first detected in municipal wells operated by the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities.

* 2002: Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality receives federal grant to investigate TCE contamination in city water.

* 2002: TCE is found in stock wells and monitoring wells at the former Atlas 4 missile site.

* 2003: The city of Cheyenne buys the Belvoir Ranch as a water source. Tests later prove that water under the ranch contains TCE.

* 2002-05: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discovers TCE at Atlas missile sites, and at wells east of the Atlas 4 site.

* 2007: U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., begins pushing for federal accountability of the TCE plume.

* 2008: Additional test wells prove that TCE from missile sites leaked into the city water source.

* March 2009: Army Corps releases 500-page report that says Atlas 4 missile site is the source of contamination in city water.

* September 2009: A report on possible cleanup measures is due from the Army Corps.