Timeline: Timeline: Early stories about TCE contamination in Tucson's groundwater
Trichloroethylene, or TCE, was found in Tucson's groundwater in the early 1980s, and the contamination spread quickly even before cleanup began.
1981
May 15
Public-health officials are meeting in Tucson today after traces of a common solvent were found in three local wells this week, setting off an…
Aug 04
Fifty to 70 city drinking-water wells eventually could become contaminated if the spread of toxic trichloroethylene isn't stopped, Water Direc…
1982
Oct 05
The U.S. Air Force will spend $3 million to clean up harmful chemicals contaminating the Tucson aquifer near Hughes Aircraft Co., it announced…
1983
Oct 23
Tucson's cluster of chemically tainted southside wells won't be cleaned up for two years.
1984
Sep 21
The cost of cleaning up Tucson's ground water may go as high as $79 million — almost four times as much as previously estimated, a city report…
1985
May 25
Murmurings of conflict over who is going to clean up Tucson's two southside toxic waste sites may surface next month when separate reports col…
May 25
10-year price tag for project has been set at $20 million
1987
Apr 09
The Air Force and Hughes Aircraft Co. yesterday started a $28 million system to clean TCE, chromium and other chemicals from southside ground water.
1988
Feb 10
Water pollution north of Los Reales Road
Mar 16
A Pima County health official last night opposed a federal plan for cleaning southside ground water polluted by TCE.
Oct 06
Environmental Protection Agency officials say they may finally have linked some chemical dumps to the southside TCE pollution.
1990
Feb 06
The City Council, after more than two years of negotiation, voted yesterday to agree with an order outlining responsibility for cleaning TCE f…
1991
Jun 29
System should be on-line in 2½ years, official says
1992
Mar 22
Environmental officials found TCE in several private southside wells as early as 1981, and some residents are still drinking the water.
1993
Jul 14
Pima County's new budget contains no money for a southside TCE clinic that was approved nearly two years ago but has not yet opened.
Sep 13
A federal agency has linked TCE exposure to above-normal rates of nine Illnesses, including heart problems, in children.
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