The West Valley in particular has a long history of environmental contamination. 'Most of the neighbors, if it doesn't come out of the faucet, they're not going to care,' he said. 'Some of the guys that work in this neighborhood are out in the sun all day long.' 'We all go to work, we all come home,' he said. The lack of community resources could pose a challenge to rallying residents around a lengthy cleanup effort, said William Owens, a Maryvale resident who sits on the community board overseeing the cleanup. Neighborhoods in the area are largely working-class.

So far, they don't believe that anyone is drinking the tainted water. Environmental investigators are still determining the extent of the contamination. The plume of several industrial solvents is bounded by Indian School Road to the south and Camelback Road to the north, between 45th and 57th avenues. This new site is a reminder of the challenge. Over the years, some cleanup efforts have been more successful than others.īut it's becoming more critical than ever for the state to have a strategy to transform polluted groundwater into potable drinking water at best and safe irrigation water at worst as the state's population and water demands continue to swell. Groundwater contamination has plagued communities across Arizona for decades, hindering the use of precious aquifers. It's the latest in Maricopa County to be added to the state's Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund list, which catalogs environmental investigations and cleanups. Hundreds of feet beneath a residential neighborhood in Maryvale, toxic chemicals have been leaching into the groundwater.Īrizona's top environmental regulator deemed this square-mile site a major contamination site last fall.

To Go Beneath the Water by K.L. Miller