The Associated PRess

HEMATITE, Mo. -- Two more private wells near the closed Westinghouse Electric Co. nuclear fuel plant in this Jefferson County town contain chemical contaminants, company officials said.

The discovery brings to eight the number of wells found to contain non-radiological contaminants from the plant. Seven of those wells are in a subdivision southeast of the plant, in this community about 35 miles south of St. Louis.

Last month, three of the original six families whose wells were found to be tainted sued Westinghouse, its parent company and Mallinckrodt, seeking unspecified damages.

The plant, opened in 1956 by Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., was used to fill military contracts and later made nuclear fuel-rod assemblies for commercial power plants. The plant ended production of fuel for commercial nuclear power plants last year after British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., Westinghouse's parent company, bought it from former owner ABB Combustion Engineering, which had run the plant since 1989.

Kevin Hayes, director of environmental health and safety for Westinghouse, said the wells were found to contain detectable levels of trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, or their byproducts. The chemicals, which were used as cleaning agents at the plant in the 1950s and 1960s, have been linked to cancer and other health problems.

The contaminants found last week were less than half of the five parts per billion standard established by the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Natural Resources for drinking water.

The latest two wells had tested clean as recently as April, Hayes said, though the company had been providing bottled water to the homeowners because of their proximity to the other contaminated wells.