Soil
Cleanup to Start at Solvent Savers Superfund Site
in
Lincklaen, NY
(New York, NY – Sept. 19, 2012) The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency announced today that a $10 million cleanup of
contaminated soil will begin in mid- to late September at the Solvent Savers
Superfund site, a chemical waste recovery facility, in Lincklaen in Chenango
County, New York. Soil and ground water on the site were contaminated with
volatile organic compounds and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) by
past waste disposal activities at the site. These chemicals can cause serious
damage to people’s health and the environment. In addition to the work announced
today, the EPA is also reviewing a work plan to build a system to treat the
contamination in the ground water.
The
EPA will hold a public meeting on September 28, 2012 to explain the soil cleanup
work and answer any questions the public may have. The meeting will be held at 7
p.m. at the Lincklaen Town Hall, 651 Union Valley-Lincklaen Rd., DeRuyter, NY
13052.
Solvent
Savers, Inc. operated as a chemical waste recovery operation at the site on
Union Valley Road where industrial solvents and other wastes were reprocessed or
disposed of from about 1967 to 1974. The company recovered solvents sent by the
parties responsible for the cleanup for reuse, reconditioned drums, and buried
liquids, solids, sludge, and drums in several areas at the site. Based on
environmental findings by the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation and a subsequent investigation by the EPA, the site was placed on
the Superfund list of hazardous waste sites in 1983.
The
Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the
cleanups, rather than passing the costs to taxpayers. After sites are placed on
the Superfund list of the country’s most contaminated hazardous waste sites, the
EPA searches for parties responsible for the contamination and holds them
accountable for the costs of investigations and cleanups.
The
design of the work plan and the cleanup of the Solvent Savers Superfund site are
being conducted and paid for by the parties responsible for the contamination,
with oversight by the EPA. These companies are American Locker Group, Inc.,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Inc., General Electric Company, Inc.,
International Business Machines Corporation, Pass & Seymour Corporation as
well as the United States Air Force.
The
EPA has already addressed the most immediate risks posed by the site and
developed a detailed plan to handle the more complex long-term cleanup of the
site. One hundred and sixty drums and drum parts buried on-site were excavated
and removed. Soil excavated during the removal of the drums was also removed.
Once
the immediate risks were addressed, a soil vapor extraction treatment system was
used to reduce the volatile organic compounds in the soil. This method removes
harmful chemicals from the soil in the form of vapor by applying a vacuum. At
the Solvent Savers site, this method successfully reduced the volume of soil
that was contaminated with volatile organic compounds from approximately 135,000
cubic yards to about 6,500 cubic yards. The remaining volatile organic compounds
are located in two “hot spot” areas that are also contaminated with PCBs. In
addition, soil in other areas of the site is contaminated with PCBs.
The
work announced today will address the hot spots and the other areas of soil
contaminated with PCBs. Soil that is contaminated with volatile organic
compounds and PCBs will be excavated and disposed of off-site at EPA-approved
facilities. Excavated soil that has high levels of PCBs will be treated by
introducing an agent similar to cement to bind the contaminants before it is
disposed of off-site.
Approximately
15,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil will be excavated and properly disposed
of off-site. All excavated areas will be filled with clean soil and re-planted
with vegetation. The work is estimated to take about 13 months to complete.
Efforts will be made to minimize site-related traffic during the work and health
and safety procedures, including air monitoring around the work zone and site
perimeter, will be in place to protect the surrounding community.
Work
related to designing a system to extract and treat the contaminated ground water
is currently underway. The EPA’s long-term cleanup plan calls for the completion
of construction of the system in 2015.
For
more information about the site, please visit:
Follow
EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eparegion2
and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.
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