UPDATE: As of Feb. 7, local residents say they’ve received more than 600 signatures.

PREVIOUS REPORT: As of Jan. 26, nearly 250 people have signed an online petition demanding that CTS Corp. pay for a full clean up of the Superfund site on Mills Gap Road near Asheville. The goal is 300 signatures and sending the petition to the company, which is based in Elkhart, Ind.

To check out the petition, click here.

To view a timeline of the CTS case, go to http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/cts-contamination.

For more history, visit http://www.mountainx.com/xpressfiles/040908ctssite. For the latest CTS-related articles, check http://www.mountainx.com/cts.

Five years ago, Xpress broke the news of severe contamination at the former CTS plant in south Asheville (see “Fail-Safe?” July 11, 2007, Xpress). The property was officially designated a Superfund site in 2012, and tests still show high levels of toxic chemicals leaching from it.

Here are details from the sign-up site:

We the undersigned ask CTS Corporation to pay for a full scale cleanup of the toxic chemicals leaching into the soil, water, and air surrounding the CTS of Asheville site. The delays have gone on long enough. Do the corporate socially responsible thing and clean up the mess. It should not take a government / EPA action to force you to take care of the toxins leaching into the environment of this mountain community. CTS Corp left a TCE (trichloroethylene) leaking mess in the Mills Gap community of South Asheville. The plant closed in 1987 initial investigation in began 1991. Since that time, TCE and other carcinogens have been found in the communities’ well water. We the undersigned ask for CTS corporation for a full scale cleanup of the toxic chemicals leaching into the soil, water, and air.

To check out the petition, click here.