PIKETON, Ohio — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has received the latest groundwater treatment report for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, showing continued efforts to remove trichloroethylene (TCE), a hazardous industrial solvent linked to cancer. While the January 2025 report highlights treatment efforts, residents and environmental advocates remain deeply skeptical of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) assurances that progress is being made.
The former uranium enrichment plant is one of the most contaminated sites in the country, with radioactive contamination, widespread chemical pollution, and forever chemicals such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compounding the environmental crisis. Though this report focuses on TCE removal, it does not address the full scope of contamination threatening the community.
TCE Cleanup: Limited Success, Many Questions
According to the latest report, four groundwater treatment units—X-622, X-623, X-624, and X-627—processed millions of gallons of contaminated water between October 2024 and February 2025. However, the effectiveness of these units varies significantly:
• X-622 treated 3.9 million gallons, removing 221 pounds of TCE, the highest removal rate of all the units.
• X-624 processed 1.2 million gallons but removed only 7 pounds of TCE—a fraction of what was removed by X-622.
• X-623 and X-627 removed even lower amounts, raising questions about their actual impact on long-term contamination reduction.
While DOE touts these numbers as proof of progress, critics argue that selective reporting and incomplete data obscure the full picture. There is no clear indication of how much TCE remains in the groundwater, whether the plume continues to spread, or if additional undisclosed contamination is worsening the problem.
DOE’s History of Misleading the Public
For decades, the DOE has assured the public that contamination at Piketon is under control, only for whistleblowers, independent investigators, and community members to uncover hidden risks and withheld data. The full extent of radioactive contamination, chemical pollution, and PFAS exposure remains unclear, despite decades of demands for full transparency.
In the case of TCE, critics point to failed past cleanup attempts that were later revealed to be ineffective. The DOE initially relied on phytoremediation—planting over 3,300 hybrid poplar trees in an effort to absorb TCE from the groundwater. However, this method failed to remove contaminants at meaningful levels. Subsequent attempts at in situ chemical oxidation were also deemed unsuccessful due to the site’s complex hydrogeology, which allows TCE to leach into the surrounding rock and soil.
A Drop in the Bucket? The Scale of Contamination
The DOE claims that more than 955 million gallons of groundwater from four onsite plumes have been treated, removing over 37,788 pounds of TCE.
A 2020 technical review of the cleanup at Piketon concluded that the Gallia Aquifer—remains at significant risk due to slow-releasing contamination trapped in subsurface layers of clay and sandstone. This means that even if DOE’s current treatment systems were to operate at peak efficiency, they may never fully remove the contamination at the site.
What’s Next? Community Demands Full Transparency
While the DOE insists it is making progress, residents and environmental watchdogs remain unconvinced. The lack of independent testing has led to renewed calls for third-party oversight and full public disclosure of contamination data, including ongoing risks from radioactive isotopes and PFAS chemicals that continue to plague the region.
The latest TCE treatment report raises more questions than answers. If some of the groundwater treatment units are struggling to remove even small amounts of TCE, what does that mean for the long term? And, more importantly, how much contamination remains unreported in the surrounding environment?
For now, one thing is clear: the site’s pollution problem is far from over, and TCE is only part of the larger crisis.