Because the district is set up to handle only household-type waste, the district requires that polluters treat contaminated water before it enters the sewer.

But the levels of contamination from some parts of Hill are so low, said Hicken and Mark Roginske, the project manager over that plume's cleanup, that Hill doesn't treat the water. By the time the contaminated water reaches the sewer district, the pollutants are so diluted that they aren't detected, Hicken said.

Jeff MacFarlane, industrial-pretreatment coordinator with the sewer district, said TCE also volatilizes in the sewer lines, meaning it evaporates faster than water does. MacFarlane's job is to test water coming in and leaving the treatment plant in Syracuse.

"We rarely see anything above detection limits in the lab," he said.

The plan to add four wells for the Roy plume is estimated to cost $623,000 to build and $251,000 a year in operations and maintenance. The existing wells cost the Air Force $250,000 annually in operations and maintenance.

Residents' concerns

Laurel Santander, a Roy resident outside the plume, said Hill officials update neighboring residents on a regular basis about the plume. "I feel like they're doing everything they can," she said.

The base offers a reimbursement program: If residents try to sell their houses and can't get fair market value because of the contamination, the base will reimburse the difference, she said. "But you have to ask for it," she added.

In South Weber, meanwhile, Poll takes issue with the health standards officials use when cleaning up pollution.

"There's no absolute scientific proof," he said. "There are no means to measure just how bad it is."

If the standards are wrong, there's no way to hold officials accountable, Poll said. There's only one way to keep people safe, he said: "Keep people away from pollution or the pollution away from the people."

Chemicals on base now are tracked from the moment they enter the gates until they are disposed of properly, said Hicken, one of Hill's cleanup managers. "It's almost like a pharmacy system."

Even so, he said, air sampling in homes above the contaminated plumes has shown evidence of TCE evaporation, so the base began installing vapor-removal systems in the homes. Since January 2001, about 1,400 homes around the base have been sampled — some multiple times — and 74 vapor-removal systems have been installed. There are plans for 21 more.

Most homes in the area have no vapors, said Jarrod Case, the indoor-air sampling manager for the cleanup program. Base officials will continue to sample the air in homes that sit above groundwater plumes.

Hicken said the remediation efforts are the best that can be done under current conditions. To eliminate all pollution from every site would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, he said, and he believes the best use of taxpayer funds is to reach a reasonable level of remediation.

"It would be nice to clean everything up to pristine condition," Hicken said. "I don't think Congress or the taxpayers would want to foot that bill."

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E-MAIL: jdougherty@desnews.com