Nov. 9--WATERLOO -- Underground soil contamination at the former Chamberlain Manufacturing Corp. plant apparently has spread through groundwater underneath surrounding homes.

Waterloo city officials will join federal and state environmental agencies in discussing the situation at a public informational meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 207 W. Louise St.

"There is a potential for an unacceptable long-term risk," said Stephanie Doolan of the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 7 office in Kansas City, Kan. "The next step is we need to define the number of homes that are potentially affected."

The city and EPA have been working since 2003 to conduct environmental tests and demolish blighted buildings at the former defense contractor's plant at 550 Esther St. Previous testing found concentrations of volatile organic compounds, including trichloroethene, on the site, with lead and other heavy metals in sediment leaving the property to the east.

During a public meeting in July 2008, Doolan asked homeowners south and west of the Chamberlain complex for permission to take samples from under their basement floors. Contaminants were found in soil vapor samples at all 10 of the volunteers' homes.

"We suspected there was the potential for these organics to migrate from the groundwater to the soil and potentially leak into people's basements ... as a vapor," Doolan said. "We need some more volunteers that are willing to be sampled, and we need to take some indoor air samples."

While testing for the problems is burdensome, Doolan said the fix is not as difficult. A ventilation system could be installed in every home where there's a potential risk from contamination.

Meanwhile, city officials expect to update residents on the demolition process at the 23-acre Chamberlain site. While roughly three-fourths of the plant will eventually be torn down, the city is investigating saving a few of the new, structurally sound buildings.

Chamberlain Machine Works began operating at the Esther Street site in 1919, manufacturing metal washing machine ringers, and began handling defense contracts in 1941, manufacturing 100-pound bombs and 15-pound shot.

After World War II, a group of Waterloo businessmen reorganized the company as Chamberlain Manufacturing Corp. to produce a large line of consumer productions. But it continued to receive defense contracts, which included building warheads for the Patriot missile during the Gulf War in the early 1990s.

The factory was shuttered in 1994. The city acquired ownership in 2005.

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