This is Eileen.
Eileen works for an environmental firm called Shannon & Wilson. She is here this week from Seattle at the request of the Flint Hills Refinery in North Pole.
Yesterday I came home to find a note on my door explaining that my neighborhood was now part of a project to test well water that may have been affected by the operations at the refinery a few miles away. I was asked to call and make an appointment for one of their reps to come by to get a sample for testing, and that the results would be shared with us in a couple of weeks.
Eileen came by this afternoon, and after inspecting the water system, she had me bypass the filters and softener, and ran the water for about half an hour so that she could get water that was coming out at a steady temperature so she could be sure she was all the way down to the settled well.
She explained that they were only testing for sulfolane, a by-product of the refinery that had been detected in surrounding areas. If I understood correctly, the amount detected in our area was equivalent to a drop or two in an Olympic sized swimming pool, not enough to cause any sort of harm. But Flint Hills has made a deal with the State to test as far out as they need to go, and keep testing until even a drop is not detected anywhere.
Eileen went on to tell me that as part of the deal with the State, Flint Hills would be providing us drinking water “until further notice.” She gave me a website link to look up more information on the project. According to her, this could go on for months or even years, so I’m sure we’ll be scheduling more tests in the future.
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