Tri-County Public Airport

Overview

Tri-County Public Airport covers about 3.5 square miles near Herington in Morris County, Kansas. It served as an Army airfield during World War II and later hosted aircraft restoration, plane storage, and manufacturing of farm implements, black powder, and roofing materials. Those manufacturing operations left trichloroethylene (TCE) and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride, in the groundwater and soil. The EPA proposed the site for the National Priorities List (NPL) in July 2000. The NPL is the federal list of the most serious uncontrolled hazardous waste sites in the country.

Contamination reached residential drinking water wells north and northwest of the site. TCE was detected above safe drinking water levels in 1997. The EPA responded by providing bottled water and filtration systems to affected homes. In 2000, Raytheon Aircraft Company, a responsible party, entered a consent order with the EPA to install whole-house filtration at 22 residences. By 2006, about 50 additional homes were connected to the Herington municipal water system, and 15 previously filtered homes were also connected. Two residences continued using carbon filtration. Drummed wastes stored on-site were removed in May 2011.

Cleanup planning continued in the years that followed. As of December 2020, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) finalized cleanup plans that include chemical oxidation of groundwater, soil vapor extraction, water well management, and institutional controls. Quarterly groundwater sampling continues under the consent order. In September 2021, the EPA formally deferred the site to KDHE for continued management. Groundwater contamination is still moving, and physical cleanup construction has not been completed. Human exposure control status could not be confirmed due to insufficient data.

The site is divided into two operable units. Operable Unit 00 covers site evaluation and disposition. Operable Unit 01 covers the airport itself, though no formal cleanup decision document has been issued for that unit yet. Two businesses were operating on-site as of December 2024.

KDHE now oversees the site, and the EPA's site profile page is maintained as a historical record only. Community members with questions can contact the EPA Remedial Project Manager.