Roosevelt Mills site

Vernon, Connecticut is a community of approximately 29,000 citizens near Hartford. The Rockville section of the town was once world-famous for its production of fine woolens from the mid-to-late 1800s. As time went on, these mills were closed and then converted to other industrial uses, primarily dry cleaning and metal plating operations. These activities contaminated local groundwater with chlorinated organic solvents, including PCE, TCE, DCE, and vinyl chloride. Rockville was selected for the Connecticut Main Street Program, which combined historic preservation with economic development.

To clean up contaminants at the Roosevelt Mills site, the SITE program participated in a laboratory treatability study of chemical oxidation technology demonstration. The demonstration also included The Environmental Research Institute at the University of Connecticut and the town of Vernon. Of particular interest at the Roosevelt Mills site was the chemical oxidation technology's ability to reduce the concentrations of chlorinated solvents to very low levels (effectively drinking water standards) so that the area could be reused for residential and mixed-use development. In addition, the technology selected had to be able to reach a contaminant source area that was under an existing building which was not scheduled to be razed.

In 2005, the results of the treatability study showed chemical compounds using the chemical oxidation technology, when used in specific combinations, were effective in reducing the levels of chlorinated solvents in the site groundwater as well as in spiked soil samples, to the levels desired.