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Kansas City Today

Missouri hid groundwater contamination for decades

By Nomin Ujiyediin,
Trevor Grandin, Byron J. Love
Published October 20, 2022 at 4:00 AM CDT
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Residents in Springfield, Missouri, had no idea that their drinking water might be contaminated with toxic chemicals, disposed of improperly by a defense contractor, until 2019. In the years since, the community is still looking for answers to how this happened.

For years, a contractor for the U.S. Navy improperly disposed of a toxic solvent called trichloroethylene — used to wash circuit boards — that leached into groundwater in Springfield, Missouri, possibly contaminating local wells. Although the plant had closed in 2007, Springfield residents had no clue that their drinking water could be toxic until the state issued an apology in 2019.

The Midwest Newsroom's Eric Schmid and Steve Vockrodt spoke with those affected to understand the extent of this communities contamination.

Contact the show at news@kcur.org. Follow KCUR onTwitter andFacebook for the latest news.

Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Trevor Grandin, Byron Love and KCUR Studios and edited by Gabe Rosenberg and Lisa Rodriguez.

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Tags
Kansas City Today contaminationSpringfieldTCEtrichloroethylene Northrop GrummanEPAMissouri Department of Natural ResourcesLitton IndustriesMidwest Newsroom
Nomin Ujiyediin
As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
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Trevor Grandin
Trevor Grandin is a contributing producer for KCUR Studios.
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Byron J. Love
As an on-demand producer, I am focused on using my skills and experiences across multiple digital applications, platforms and media fields to create community focused audio, video and on-demand products for KCUR Studios. The media that I produce aims to inform, entertain and connect with the Kansas City metro area as we continue to learn from each other. Email me at byronlove@kcur.org.
See stories by Byron J. Love
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