Environmental Compliance 101

Trichloroethylene (TCE), which is used as a degreasing and cleaning solvent, has played an important role in the industrialization of this country. However, the prevalent use of TCE has also left its fingerprint upon our environment making it a common soil and groundwater contaminant at environmentally impacted properties throughout the United States.

TCE has been a widely used solvent in the past, especially for industrial metal cleaning and vapor degreasing purposes. TCE has also found use as a refrigerant, a dry-cleaning agent, a coffee decaffeination agent, a general anesthetic, a chemical intermediate for production of other chemicals and as an ingredient in products such as shoe polish, paints, varnish, paint removers, pesticides and adhesives, to name a few.

The importance of TCE to the industries of this country cannot be understated since TCE was considered the best degreasing solvent available and, in effect, helped build America. At the same time, its popularity and use has also given the United States a lasting environmental legacy of soil and groundwater impacts. TCE is a common contaminant which has been detected at approximately 60% of all National Priority List sites and countless other properties throughout the United States. The majority of environmental impacts of TCE have occurred from the use of TCE as a metal degreaser, due primarily to the releases of spent TCE prior to the advent of environmental regulations in the 1980s.

The material above is an excerpt from the History of Trichloroethylene Use article featured in our October newsletter. Click here to read the rest of the article.