North Penn - Area 7

Site Description

The 650-acre North Penn - Area 7 site in North Wales, Montgomery County, PA, encompasses five industrial facilities where solvents are used or were used in the past. Spra-Fin, Inc. operated a metal manufacturing and finishing business; the former Ford Electronics and Refrigeration Corp. manufactured electronics and electrical autoparts; Teleflex Inc. manufactured mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic control devices for the aircraft industry; the former Leeds and Northrup Inc. operated an electronic instruments manufacturing plant; and the former Zenith Electronic Corp. manufactured television picture tubes. The groundwater and soils are contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including trichloroethylene (TCE) and vinyl chloride (VC) from former process wastes. An estimated 91,000 people obtain drinking water from public and private wells within three miles of the Site. The public water supplies in the area come from groundwater and from the Delaware River. The Site was added to the National Priorities List (NPL) on March 31, 1989 for contamination of soil and groundwater by chlorinated solvents including TCE, tetrachloroethene (PCE), carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride, and VC.

Current Site Status and Cleanup Actions to Date

• EPA has divided the work into three separate planned remedial actions, called operable units (OUs).
  • OU1, which is currently in the investigation phase of cleanup, will focus on the contamination and cleanup of the contaminated soils at four of the five properties;
  • OU2, will focus on the Spra-Fin facility soil contamination. The design of the cleanup remedy was completed in September 2005.
  • OU3, which is currently in the investigation phase of cleanup, will focus on the site-wide groundwater contamination.

Current Funding Status

• To date, EPA has spent approximately $2.6 million for investigation work at this site.
• EPA has determined that this site does not pose an immediate threat to human health. Design work was completed in Fiscal Year (FY) 2005. EPA expects that the Site will be ready for construction funding in FY 2006.

For more information on the projects at this site, please read the North Penn - Area 7 Fact Sheet on the Region 3 Superfund Web site.