EPA to Deploy Mobile Laboratory to Mead, Neb.

EPA Region 7 will deploy the Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer (TAGA) mobile laboratory to Mead, Neb., for one week beginning Oct.1. The TAGA will be used to evaluate potential indoor air contamination related to contaminated ground water at the Former Nebraska Ordnance Plant Superfund site.

EPA’s team will sample vapors beneath and inside of approximately 15 buildings, including residences, to determine whether trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent found in ground water at the site, is present. TCE is a volatile solvent, and tends to move up and out of the water into a gaseous phase. As a gas, it can potentially intrude into buildings that lie above the contaminated ground water zones.

The TAGA laboratory is a state-of-the-art mobile laboratory housed in a large bus that resembles a recreational vehicle. The TAGA provides results immediately as samples are collected, and can detect contamination at very low levels.