TEXTRON AVIATION SITE

Located in east Wichita, Kansas, the Textron Aviation site is located directly east of the Forest Hills neighborhood near Beach and Webb. The contamination created a plume moving west from the site and reaches north past East Central Avenue, south past East Kellogg Drive, and west past North Linden Drive. 

Groundwater in the area--that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has designated the “Textron Aviation Site”--is heavily contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals spilled at the Textron Aviation facility. The spilled chemical, trichloroethene (TCE), was used as a degreaser.

The contamination was discovered in 1993. Levels of contamination in the ground water below the facility were as much as 20,000 times higher than safe levels, according to facility reports. In 1995, a Consent Order was drafted to monitor and remediate the contamination at the site but there was no remediation plan for the community where as far back as 1998 the groundwater tested above health standards for TCE. Over the last two years, reports show the air is also contaminated with TCE. 

Currently, the public can find documents about the Textron Aviation site, including the groundwater monitoring reports and investigation reports on KDHE’s Identified Sites List (ISL) website at Identified Sites List | KDHE, KS and searching for “C208703012 – Textron Aviation (Main Facility)” within the Project Code – Site Name field. 

 1-800-LAW-FIRM is an advocate and leader in the fight to protect the public from contaminated drinking water. A recent study of public water supplies found unsafe levels of chemicals in the water consumed every day by 6 million people. Unfortunately, that number represents only the tip of the iceberg when you factor in the number of people whose water was not tested as part of the study, including those who consume contaminated water from private wells, or people whose water is at risk of being contaminated.

If you or a loved one own property that has been impacted by the contamination or have been diagnosed with cancer after consuming well water in the affected area, you may be eligible to file a claim. Furthermore, because TCE readily vaporizes, you may have been exposed to the TCE vapors that rose up through the soil into your home, work, or school.