'Very disturbing': EPA says 22 Olathe homes near old chemical site need air systems installed, repaired

OLATHE, 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.

—

An Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) five-year review found contamination from Chemical Commodities Inc. still beneath homes in an Olathe neighborhood off South Keeler Street, near Santa Fe Road and I-35. The review said 22 of those homes need new or repaired air systems to keep chemical vapors from getting inside.

KSHB 41's Johnson County reporters Elyse Schoenig and Isabella Ledonne first broke the story on Monday.

The site, known today as Pollinator Prairie, was formerly home to Chemical Commodities Inc., a chemical broker and recycler that operated in Olathe from 1951 to 1989. The EPA confirmed the chemicals were not stored properly and leaked into the soil and groundwater. Chemical Commodities, Inc. experienced multiple chemical fires, spills and leaks during its operation.

That created hazardous levels of at least four cancer-causing substances in the soil and groundwater.

The removal of most of the contaminated soil from the Chemical Commodities site began in 1991. After the plant closed, it was added to the EPA's national priority list in 1994.

About 10 years later, the agency began tracking vapor intrusion, which is chemical contamination that enters the air, including inside dozens of homes near the site.

The chemical contamination cleanup, expected to be done in 100 years, could now take hundreds of years to bring the neighborhood back to normal levels, according to the EPA's most recent report.

Now, the EPA oversees the vapor intrusion mitigation systems in the residential neighborhood and leads the cleanup efforts, still ongoing decades later.

Greg Divine grew up in a home across from the contamination site.

"I would like to see anybody and everybody that was involved with it held accountable," Greg Divine said.

For many of the neighbors near the site, EPA visits and home checks over the years are nothing new.

"I'd say every couple years, every other year, maybe one or the other," Kelly Divine said.

Kelly, Greg, and two other neighbors said they've already had these air systems installed for at least a decade.

Kelly's most recent letter from the EPA details samples tested in her home back in February, stating, "An analysis of the sampling results indicates that site contaminants are below levels of concern."

Neighbor Julie Owens had different test results.

"They were high, and so they loaned me an air machine until radon could come back out and re-encapsulate the crawl space," Julie Owens said.

It's unclear whether Julie's home was one of the 22 homes that needed repairs or upgrades. KSHB 41 is working to confirm that with the EPA.

"Everything's gone along as it is, and all of a sudden, it's like all these years later, there's issues. It's surprising," Kelly said.

The EPA told KSHB 41 they will make someone available for an interview as early as later this week.

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.

—