Soil Removal Begins at Beede Waste Oil Superfund Site in Plaistow, N.H.

News Release

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

New England Regional Office

February 27, 2013

Contact: Kate Renahan, (617) 918-1491

Soil Removal Begins at Beede Waste Oil Superfund Site in Plaistow, N.H.

(Boston, Mass. – Feb. 27, 2013) – Beginning this week, the first phase of soil removal is beginning at the Beede Waste Oil Superfund Site in Plaistow, N.H.

The lightly contaminated soil was previously excavated and/or relocated and stockpiled on site in order to construct a new temporary driveway and access road to the Site. The soil will be trucked off-site utilizing the newly-constructed temporary driveway and access road. A fleet of six trucks, each of which can carry about 20 tons of soil, will make up to three trips per day to the Rochester, N.H. landfill. The work will involve an estimated 565 truckloads of soil.

The truckloads of soil will be covered to ensure containment, and the trucks will be thoroughly cleaned before they leave the Site. To minimize dust, EPA will use watering techniques during the removal. During soil removal, EPA will also conduct air monitoring around the work site to ensure that potentially harmful contaminants are not posing a threat to people’s health. If air monitoring shows levels of contamination exceeding appropriate limits, all work will be halted until these issues are addressed.

The trucks will not leave the Site while school buses are picking up or dropping off students who live between the new Main Street driveway entrance and Route 125.

Contamination occurred at the nearly 41-acre Beede Waste Oil Superfund Site from the 1920s through August 1994, when it was used as a waste oil storage and recycling facility. The site is contaminated primarily with waste oil that seeped into the ground from a variety of sources, including a former unlined lagoon and various above and underground storage tanks that have since been removed. 

The Site cleanup plan is being conducted in accordance with the Record of Decision, signed in 2004, under the terms of a Consent Decree entered as a final order in New Hampshire Federal District Court in 2008.  The Consent Decree secures a commitment from the settling parties to finance and conduct a comprehensive clean up of the Beede site under oversight of the U.S. EPA and the N.H. Dept. of Environmental Protection.

To date, cleanup activities have included: removal of water, oil and sludge from storage tanks and drums formally located on the site, removal of approximately 100,000 gallons of waste oil from the groundwater table, design and partial construction of a groundwater treatment system, and construction of a waterline for residents whose private wells were impacted by the Site. The cleanup plan will continue to address remaining contamination at the Site including soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water.  

More information on EPA cleanup work at the Beede Waste Oil Superfund Site (http://www.epa.gov/region1/superfund/sites/beede)

# # #