CCI Concerned Citizens Group to be Recognized for Successful Community Involvement at CCI Superfund Site in Olathe, Kan.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

901 N. Fifth St., Kansas City, KS 66101

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

CCI Concerned Citizens Group to be Recognized for Successful Community Involvement at CCI Superfund Site in Olathe, Kan.

Contact Information: Belinda Young, (913) 551-7463, young.belinda@epa.gov

Environmental News

NEWS MEDIA ADVISORY

(Kansas City, Kan., May 29, 2012) - EPA will honor a citizens’ community involvement organization this week for its successful work in addressing public concerns related to the Chemical Commodities, Inc., (CCI) Superfund Site in Johnson County, Kan.

The recognition event for the CCI Concerned Citizens Group will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 31, at the CCI Superfund Site, 320 S. Blake Street, in Olathe, Kan. EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks will present the group with EPA’s 2012 National Notable Achievement Award for Citizen Excellence in Community Involvement.

Residents near the former chemical brokerage and recycling facility formed the CCI Concerned Citizens Group when EPA began its remedial investigation of the site in 2001. Working through EPA’s community involvement process, the group served as a liaison between the community, EPA, the State of Kansas, and the site’s responsible party, to ensure the community’s concerns were addressed.

The CCI Concerned Citizens Group has remained active through the entire cleanup process at the site, which has been on EPA’s National Priorities List since May 1994. CCI operated from 1951 to 1989 as a brokerage facility where chemical recycling activities occurred. Business operations began at the site in an era when few environmental laws and regulations were in place. Numerous fires and explosions occurred at the facility during the 1960s and 1970s.

EPA provided oversight for the cleanup of soil and groundwater at the site, continuing through completion of construction in January 2012. Nationally, the CCI Superfund Site is one of three to reach “construction complete” status this year, and one of 1,123 sites to reach that status since the EPA Superfund Program began in 1980.

WHAT: Presentation of EPA’s 2012 National Notable Achievement Award for Citizen Excellence in Community Involvement

WHO: EPA Region 7 Administrator Karl Brooks and CCI Concerned Citizens Group Representatives

WHEN: 11:00 a.m. Thursday, May 31, 2012

WHERE: CCI Superfund Site, 320 South Blake Street, Olathe, Kan. 66061

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