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DAYTON — A group fighting for the timely cleanup of a contaminated ground water plume in the vicinity of the Behr Dayton Thermal Plant asked the Dayton City Commission to take a lead in the effort.

"Lead us or stand beside us, not behind us," Jerry Bowling III, president of the McCook Field Neighborhood Association and member of Behr VOC Area Leaders, said Wednesday, Aug. 20. "Seriously, we need your help."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has collected indoor air samples from 272 residences in McCook Field. Results showed 182 homes required a vapor abatement system.

Bowling, who addressed City Commissioners at their weekly meeting, said the goals are to get the site placed on the EPA's National Priorities List, to extend the EPA's emergency remediation action beyond September and to speed the cleanup.

A number of citizens from Dayton and Jefferson Twp. said they were concerned about contamination of the city's water, because the plume is still moving.

City Manager Rashad Young assured that the plume poses no risk to Dayton's drinking water supply. And he has asked the EPA to extend its testing. The agency had said emergency action would continue until November, but cut two months off the timetable.

"I think (the City Commission) needs to get engaged in this issue," Bowling said.

He asked them to lobby Congress and the EPA for more support. He also invited city leaders and residents to attend a Public Health – Dayton & Montgomery County meeting at 6 p.m. today, Aug. 21, where EPA and Ohio Health Department representatives will discuss contamination and health risks at the site. The meeting will be at the Kiser School, 1401 Leo St.

It's been about two years since the Ohio EPA found alarming levels of toxic vapors in homes in McCook Field near the factory complex at 1600 Webster St., owned by German auto parts maker Behr GmbH & Co.

The U.S. EPA was disturbed enough that it started testing the air in dozens of homes. Groundwater contamination was producing soil gas laced with trichloroethylene, a suspected carcinogen.

When extraction systems have been installed in homeowners' basements, the readings have come down.