A groundwater site north of Odessa’s city limits identified by the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality as containing three chemicals above levels safe for human consumption took another step toward being listed as a Superfund site.

About 20 residents attended the Thursday evening public meeting in the council chambers at city hall. TCEQ representatives presented a report and answered questions for about 45 minutes.

Residents at the meeting ultimately voiced their approval to proposing the Angus Road Groundwater Site be listed as a Superfund site.

TCEQ investigators will continue to look at the Angus Road site for possible remedies and see if it’s feasible to reduce the contamination. There will be another public meeting before cleanup starts.

Of the 38 wells tested since elevated chemicals were identified in 2003, 15 were positive for three potentially harmful chemicals and eight contained concentrations above maximum standards.

Investigators haven’t identified any potential sources of the chemicals in the area that has a mix of residential homes and commercial properties. They said 1,2-Dicholoethane was a common solvent found in many parts of Texas, while 1, 2, 3-Trichloropropane and Manganese were much less common.

Freddie Gardner, precinct 2 county commissioner, said there are some other Superfund sites still in existence in the northwest part of the city. Gardner said the manufacturing sites that existed in the area decades ago left behind other contaminants, especially chromium.

Toxicologist Shannon Ethridge said that in the levels of the chemicals found in the Angus site, water was safe to wash clothes and shower but not to drink regularly.

“We haven’t drank our water in 25 yeas,” said Janet Halley, who lives in the 4400 block of Guernsey Road.

Many residents said they were hoping for a simpler solution than the state cleaning up the local sites.

“I’m still rooting for that city water,” said Esther Boroff, owner of Williams Court trailer park, at 4307 Angus Road.