JOHNSON COUNTY, Kan. — KSHB 41 reporter Elyse Schoenig covers Johnson County. She also focuses on issues surrounding the cost of healthcare, saving for retirement and personal debt. Share your story idea with Elyse.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 said former chemical broker and recycler Chemical Commodities Inc. (CCI) didn't store its chemicals properly for decades. It's why issues are still showing up today in the soil, groundwater and through air vaporization.
KSHB 41 has covered these ongoing chemical contamination concerns in Olathe for weeks.
A viewer told us about other contamination sites connected to the same company.
KSHB 41 confirmed those details through public records. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) Bureau of Environmental Remediation Identified Sites List Information tracks contaminated sites. A search for Chemical Commodities Inc. brings five total results.
The Olathe site KSHB 41 has reported on and a secondary warehouse in Shawnee are still listed as active. Two other warehouses — one in De Soto and one in Kansas City, Kansas — are listed as resolved.
The fifth result shows an incident in KCK when a CCI truck broke down and caught on fire in the late 1980s while transporting chemicals. These KDHE records say the fire started the investigation of all of CCI's Kansas facilities.
KSHB 41 sat down with the EPA for a one-on-one interview at the former Olathe site earlier this week. The agency is still working to access all 156 homes it needs for testing.
"The remedy itself ... isn't meeting the standard that we need to be at today to be protective for human health and the environment," Jim Macy, EPA Region 7 regional administrator, said of the Olathe Superfund site.
The EPA said it is still looking to hold a dozen companies accountable for contributing to the contamination in Olathe and is continuing to work with affected homeowners on reducing airborne contamination concerns.
KSHB 41 reached out to both the EPA and KDHE for more clarity on what the active status for Shawnee means.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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