PCE–Carriage Cleaners Superfund Site: Environmental Pollution
This paper examines the PCE–Carriage Cleaners Superfund site in Bellevue, Nebraska, a former dry cleaning business that operated from 1955 to 1995 and left behind significant soil and groundwater contamination. The paper outlines how tetrachloroethene (PCE) and trichloroethene (TCE) released during historic dry cleaning operations contaminated groundwater and caused vapor intrusion into surrounding residential and commercial properties. It reviews the EPA's process for listing the site on the National Priorities List in December 2022, the installation of vapor mitigation systems, and the agency's ongoing evaluation of long-term groundwater remediation strategies.
- Introduction to Environmental Pollution and the EPA's National Priorities List: EPA's NPL framework for addressing pollution
- Overview of the PCE–Carriage Cleaners Superfund Site: Site history and Superfund listing background
- Toxic Contaminants: PCE and TCE: Contaminant types and benchmark exceedances
- Health and Community Impacts in Bellevue, Nebraska: Risks to residents and commercial properties
- EPA Cleanup Strategy and Vapor Mitigation Systems: Installation of 21 vapor mitigation systems
- Evaluation of Groundwater Remediation Programs: Assessment of federal and state cleanup options
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper stays tightly focused on a single, concrete case study — the PCE–Carriage Cleaners site — which gives abstract environmental concepts a real-world anchor.
- It moves logically from background context (EPA and the NPL) to site history, contaminant identification, community impact, and then cleanup response, creating a coherent narrative arc.
- Citations are consistently applied to authoritative government sources (EPA reports), lending credibility to factual claims about contamination levels and remediation status.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of a case study approach within an environmental science context. Rather than discussing pollution in abstract terms, it grounds the analysis in specific regulatory data, geographic details, and documented agency actions. This technique — moving from the general (EPA's NPL framework) to the particular (one site in Nebraska) — is a strong model for applied environmental writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a broad introduction to pollution and the EPA's regulatory framework, then narrows to the specific Superfund site. Middle sections identify the contaminants and their community effects. The final sections address the EPA's remediation actions — vapor mitigation system installation and groundwater program evaluation — before a brief concluding observation. The structure follows a problem-to-response pattern well suited to environmental policy writing.
Introduction to Environmental Pollution and the EPA's National Priorities List
Pollution is one of the major ways through which human activity affects the physical environment. This form of human activity has attracted considerable attention in recent decades because of global climate change. In the United States, pollution and damage to the environment due to human activity continues to be a major issue for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The agency has created the National Priorities List (NPL), which identifies national priorities among environmental issues and projects involving pollutants, hazardous substances, or contaminants throughout the country (EPA, 2023). The list guides the agency in decision-making about sites that require urgent action to prevent environmental damage or harm.
Overview of the PCE–Carriage Cleaners Superfund Site
One of the Superfund national priorities listed by the EPA is PCE–Carriage Cleaners, situated in Bellevue, Nebraska. The site is located nearly 0.7 miles west of the Missouri River (EPA, 2022). Similar to other Superfund sites, this location involves contamination by toxic substances, which poses risks to both public health and the environment.
PCE–Carriage Cleaners was identified as a Superfund site in 2017 after the EPA noted that groundwater at this location was polluted by tetrachloroethene (PCE), one of the primary ingredients in dry cleaning substances. Carriage Cleaners was a former dry cleaning business in Bellevue, Nebraska, that operated from 1955 until October 1995, when it closed after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Historic operations at the site released PCE, which contaminated soil and groundwater. Consequently, residential and commercial properties in the surrounding area have experienced contaminated indoor air as a result of vapor intrusion. PCE–Carriage Cleaners was formally listed as a Superfund site in December 2022 as the EPA moved to address groundwater, soil, and indoor air vapor contamination.
Toxic Contaminants: PCE and TCE
The toxic substances at this site are PCE and trichloroethene (TCE), both of which have been detected at levels exceeding benchmark thresholds in indoor air and soil gas at commercial and residential properties. The elevated levels of these chlorinated solvents are a direct legacy of the dry cleaning operations formerly conducted at the site. Tetrachloroethene is a volatile organic compound widely used as a dry cleaning solvent and is classified as a probable human carcinogen.
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