Are there harmful levels of solvent vapors in Building 478?
No. On Dec. 6, 2005, the campus Office of Environment, Health & Safety (EH&S) sampled the air in Building 478, the largely vacant former Forest Products Laboratory building. Monitoring was conducted for perchloroethylene (PCE or perc), trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride and arsenic. None of these chemicals was detected. Recent plans to reoccupy Building 478, have led to concerns being expressed about residual PCE contamination in soil and groundwater from an area known as Lot 1 located on the neighboring Zeneca site. Lot 1 was an area of historic industrial operations of the Stauffer Chemical Company and Zeneca. Cleanup actions were completed by Zeneca in 2001. In November 2001, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, the regulatory agency overseeing the cleanup of Lot 1, approved the cleanup and issued a No Further Action letter. The Department of Toxics Substances Control, the state agency currently overseeing cleanup of the Zeneca site, has required additional soil and groundwater
