MyrtleBeachOnline.com: AVX contamination investigation

Myrtle Beach told of TCE in water

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:02 EDT

An environmental report issued more that 12 years ago alerted Myrtle Beach officials to the possibility that trichloroethylene was polluting the city's groundwater, but the city apparently never conducted a follow-up investigation to identify the extent or source of that contamination.

Today, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control is overseeing the cleanup of high levels of trichloroethylene, or TCE, in the groundwater of a 10-block neighborhood north of the AVX Corp. manufacturing facility at 801 17th Ave. S.

AVX is the source of that contamination, state officials say, and the pollution likely took place during a 40-year period after the electronics manufacturer opened in 1953.

AVX soil sample results in

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:56 EST

Environmental tests show toxic contamination from AVX Corp. has not made its way to the oceanfront, but three soil samples in a Myrtle Beach neighborhood indicate vapors from the contamination could be seeping into the air, state officials said Tuesday.

Those soil samples were taken in December near homes on Beaver Road and Beaver Road Extension and on vacant land across the street from AVX's headquarters on 17th Avenue South.

Carol Minsk, a geologist with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, said it is unlikely harmful vapors are escaping from groundwater contaminated with trichloroethylene, an industrial degreaser AVX used from the 1950s to 1993.

State held off on AVX tests

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:42 EST

S.C. officials told AVX Corp. as long as eight years ago to test for groundwater contamination at property adjacent to the manufacturer's headquarters, but the state backed off after AVX said all contamination from its use of a toxic chemical had been contained on the company's land.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control now knows that wasn't the case, and agency representatives say they should have been more insistent on testing rather than being swayed by the electronics manufacturer.

"It would have been nice if AVX had put in the off-site wells when they were requested," Carol Minsk, a DHEC geologist, told Myrtle Beach City Council on Tuesday.

Lawsuit filed against AVX

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:15 EST

A group of Myrtle Beach residents filed a class-action lawsuit Wednesday against AVX Corp., claiming the electronics manufacturer contaminated their property with a toxic chemical.

That contamination has made it impossible to sell land and homes in the area and has ruined property values, according to the lawsuit.

Gene Connell, a lawyer representing the residents, said he wants AVX to pay property owners the fair-market value for each parcel.

AVX contamination land pared

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:15 EST

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said it has narrowed the strip of land that is contaminated with a toxic chemical that came from the AVX Corp. facility in Myrtle Beach, but some residents who live near the zone say they still are worried about declining property values.

The agency aimed to allay those fears in meetings Thursday by telling people who live outside the contaminated zone that the DHEC will write letters declaring that their property is clean.

Those letters, however, will come with a caveat to protect the agency from legal liability.

Questions remain on toxin's effects near AVX facility

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:15 EST

Groundwater contamination from the potentially dangerous chemical trichloroethylene has spread through at least a 10-block area of Myrtle Beach, environmental tests show, leading some experts to question whether the public's health might be at risk.

The extent of the contamination is far greater than outlined in initial reports obtained by The Sun News earlier this month.

In addition to the spreading contamination, newly obtained documents show workers at Myrtle Beach-based AVX Corp. might have been exposed to very high levels of trichloroethylene in the 1980s and 1990s.

AVX knew of TCE spread in 2000

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:15 EST

Electronics manufacturer AVX Corp., a suspected source of groundwater contamination in a Myrtle Beach neighborhood, knew since at least 2000 that toxic chemicals had migrated from its 17th Avenue South facility to an adjoining property, according to state documents.

Environmental tests two years earlier confirmed trichloroethylene, an industrial degreaser, had moved through groundwater from AVX to the adjacent Myrtle Cinema 10 site at 1804 S. Kings Highway, according to documents filed with the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control.

AVX bought the 10.7-acre cinema site in 2000 for $4 million, according to Horry County property records.

Forums to cover toxins at AVX

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:15 EST

The state's Department of Health and Environmental Control will meet next week with Myrtle Beach residents to discuss toxic contamination in the groundwater near electronics manufacturer AVX Corp.'s facility, the agency said Wednesday.

The community forums will happen more than a year after DHEC first learned that trichloroethylene, an industrial degreaser, had spread beyond AVX's property on 17th Avenue South.

AVX knew about trichloroethylene, or TCE, contamination at its site since at least 1981, although the manufacturer didn't tell DHEC about the problem until 1995.

AVX's secret upsets experts

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:15 EST

Toxic contamination at the AVX Corp. facility in Myrtle Beach was kept secret for 26 years, and that has some environmental experts and residents questioning why state regulators never did anything to inform the public about a potential health risk.

Even when tests last year indicated the contamination had spread to property adjacent to AVX, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control did not notify residents, city leaders and adjacent landowners.

DHEC officials say they usually don't notify anyone unless there is an immediate health danger.

AVX quarterly revenue released

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:27 EDT

Myrtle Beach-based AVX Corp. announced its revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30 was up 7 percent over the same quarter last year to $400.7 million, according to a Thursday news release.

Earnings were $0.23 per diluted share compared with $0.22 in the same quarter last year.

The net income for the quarter for the electronic component manufacturer was $37.4 million.

AVX may see more fines

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:15 EST

Electronics manufacturer AVX Corp., a suspected source of environmental contamination in a Myrtle Beach neighborhood, might face new sanctions in a decades-old pollution case that became one of the nation's largest Superfund sites.

The Environmental Protection Agency is considering reopening its 1991 consent agreement with AVX. The corporation dumped cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the New Bedford, Mass., harbor.

The EPA has not told AVX what additional sanctions it might face, according to statements in the manufacturer's quarterly financial report.