By Mike Rush
St. Louis County (KSDK) - They know there's contamination in their neighborhood, but people living near an old metal plant in north St. Louis County near Overland are no closer to knowing what that means to them.
The contamination came from a facility when it was owned by a company called EG&G.
State officials tested ground water and air in ten nearby homes and found contamination.
Environmental officials held a public meeting, but some of the people who came looking for answers left frustrated.
EG & G was a metal plant. About 13 years ago, the state began an investigation into a chemical, trichloroethylene released into the groundwater. The water then released vapors into homes.
Environmental standards at the time didn't deem the amounts found to be a health concern. But levels that were once acceptable are no longer.
More testing this May found levels of TCE in all 10 of the homes tested. Three homes with levels that concerned state officials.
Thursday night, about two dozen residents came to a meeting to find out how much they've been exposed to, for how long, and what toll the exposure could have taken on them.
"We're getting a lot of rhetoric and runaround of tests, whatever, you know, we're going to do this and do that, but not direct answers. That's what you want is a direct answer. So they're saying that they don't know, there could be chronic problems, there could be heart problems, there could be cancer," said resident Dorothy Rush.
State Environmental Officials and the EPA, which is now involved, say there's a good reason they can't answer those questions. They don't have enough information. They stressed more tests need to be done, which begin later this month.
KSDK