MILLEDGEVILLE - Although today is the last day that cloth will be manufactured at the Concord Fabrics plant, the business' long-term impact on the environment will continue.

The company and its neighbor, Vought Aircraft Industries, have polluted groundwater with industrial solvents and their components, according to the state Environmental Protection Division. Solvents are generally used to remove grease from metal parts.

EPD officials say the most extensive pollution comes from trichloroethylene. Drinking or breathing high levels of TCE may harm the nervous system, lungs and liver, and it could lead to death.

The TCE and related chemicals have created low-level contamination in North Fork Fishing Creek and wider contamination in shallow groundwater, EPD geologist Penny Gaynor said.

This spring, the Concord Fabrics site was added to the state's hazardous site cleanup list, also called the state Superfund list. The company conducted pollution testing as part of a previous EPD consent order, but it was moving slowly, Gaynor said. Adding Concord to the state Superfund program gives the state more ability to set deadlines, she said.

The state EPD issued enforcement orders a few weeks ago requiring Concord, Vought and Northrop Grumman to create cleanup plans with a schedule and cost estimates for monitoring the pollution.

The Vought plant, which opened in 1975 as a Northrop facility and was sold to Vought in 2000, makes components of military and commercial aircraft.

TCE spilled from storage tanks at Concord and leaked from a sump pump used to collect TCE from a factory assembly line at Northrop/Vought, said Jane Hendricks, state Superfund program coordinator for the EPD. The two plants are next to each other on Ga. 22.

Hendricks said the Northrop Grumman pollution was discovered in 1994. The company has been cooperative in removing contaminated soil from ditches that lead to the creek, sealing stormwater pipes to keep out contaminated groundwater, and using bacteria to eliminate the most concentrated pollution, she said.

However, she said Northrop Grumman and Vought have been reluctant to continue with a broad cleanup while more contamination continues to flow downhill from the Concord property, where it was discovered as a result Northrop Grumman's monitoring.

In a written statement, Northrop Grumman said the consent orders relate primarily to contamination from a solvent called tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, "caused by significant and documented PCE spills on Concord Fabrics property. ... Given the fact that we are not responsible for the PCE contamination, we anticipate having little or no role in its clean-up."

The consent orders, however, do not indicate which contaminants are most extensive. PCE is present at the Concord site, but TCE is the most widespread contaminant under both properties, Hendricks said. Gaynor said Concord's contamination is not well-documented.

In a written statement, Vought indicated, "We do not understand why Vought and Northrop Grumman are included in this administrative order. We are analyzing the order and will be discussing this issue further with the Georgia EPD."

Concord Fabrics announced in August it would be closing its Milledgeville plant after 34 years. Concord officials in Milledgeville referred questions to the home office in New York, which did not return phone calls.

"With them closing the plant and leaving town, we didn't want to be left holding the bag," Gaynor said.