A plume of tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a chemical used in dry cleaning and metal degreasing, sits beneath Woods Cross City, Bountiful, and North Salt Lake City in Davis County, Utah. PCE showed up in a Woods Cross municipal drinking water well in 1988. The contamination most likely came from Your Valet Cleaners in Bountiful, which used PCE in dry-cleaning operations from 1964 to 2002. The plume stretches about a mile and travels west-southwest from its source. EPA added the site to the Superfund National Priorities List in September 2007.
PCE is the sole contaminant of concern and has been found in groundwater. EPA determined it poses an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment. Early cleanup steps included shutting down a contaminated municipal supply well and, in 2007, removing an underground storage tank and PCE-contaminated soil from a nearby dry cleaner. The Utah Department of Environmental Quality (UDEQ) took the lead on cleanup in 2008. In August 2016, UDEQ and EPA completed a Record of Decision calling for extracting and treating contaminated groundwater and putting institutional controls in place to prevent exposure. Remedial design work began in February 2017.
Samples from 2019 showed the plume had shrunk and its source had shifted. Because of that, UDEQ and EPA launched additional characterization work to find a more fitting remedy, with completion scheduled by 2029. EPA also started a second combined remedial investigation and feasibility study in December 2022, which is still underway. Physical construction of the cleanup has not started, and the site has not reached construction completion or deletion from the National Priorities List. Whether human exposure is currently under control cannot be determined due to insufficient data. Groundwater migration is stabilized and no unacceptable discharge to surface water is expected, but cleanup goals have not been fully met across the entire site.
The EPA Remedial Project Manager handles federal coordination, while two UDEQ staff members manage state-level project work and community involvement. Public records related to the site can be reviewed at the Davis County Library South Branch in Bountiful, the UDEQ Division of Environmental Response and Remediation in Salt Lake City, or the EPA Superfund Records Center in Denver, Colorado. Copies of administrative record documents can be requested by calling the EPA Superfund Records Center at 303-312-7273 or toll-free at 800-227-8917, extension 312-7273 (Region 8 only).
