New treatment system cleaning up groundwater At Crossley Farm Superfund Site

Press release:

Contact: Roy Seneca seneca.roy@epa.gov, 215-814-5567

New treatment system cleaning up groundwater

At Crossley Farm Superfund Site

BARTO, Pa. (July 10, 2012) – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin commemorated the opening of a new water treatment system today in a ribbon cutting ceremony. The new system will remove contamination from the groundwater at the Crossley Farm Superfund site in Hereford Township in Berks County.

“This construction project, which used approximately $6.5 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and created more than 60 jobs, demonstrates EPA’s commitment to transforming the contaminated groundwater associated with this Superfund site back to beneficial use for the local community,” said Garvin. “The people of Hereford Township can look upon this site as a tremendous success story.”

Located on 200 acres of farmland, the Crossley Farm site was once used for dumping various wastes, resulting in a TCE-contaminated groundwater plume. As part of EPA’s ongoing long-term cleanup plan for the site, the pump-and-treat system will treat the TCE-contamination in the groundwater. Underground piping connects the new treatment plant to four wells where the contaminated water is pumped to the plant and treated before being discharged on farm property adjacent to Perkiomen Creek. The system, which includes four extraction wells that can pump a total of about 450 gallons per minute, will help prevent the contaminated plume of groundwater from spreading.

The groundwater will be treated with air stripping technology to remove the TCE contamination. The water will then go through carbon filtration before it is discharged. The vapors coming from the air stripping treatment will also be treated before being released.

EPA received about $6.47 million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to accelerate construction of the treatment plant and the cleanup. This Recovery Act funding was part of the $600 million that Congress appropriated to the federal Superfund remedial program. 

More details on the Crossley Farm Superfund cleanup can be found at http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/npl/PAD981740061.htm . 

News Release from EPA Region 6

EPA Proposes to Add Parker County Area

to National Priorities List of Superfund Sites

Nine hazardous waste sites added, 10 proposed

(DALLAS – March 13, 2012) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced the Circle Court Ground Water site, in Willow Park, Texas, has been proposed to be added to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites, a list of sites that pose risks to people’s health and the environment. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.

In 2006, routine sampling of a well in the city of Willow Park’s water system showed concentrations of trichloroethene (TCE) to be above health-based safety levels. Subsequent tests showed that public water supply and five private wells all had elevated TCE levels. These water sources are all within a one-mile radius of the site, which extends for a half-mile along Russell Road. The city of Willow Park shut down the wells and installed a carbon filter to provide safe drinking water for affected residents. The source of the contamination has not been identified.

“Today we’re taking an important step toward restoring contaminated property and protecting people’s health and our environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz. “Cleaning up hazardous waste in our communities and returning properties to environmental and economic vitality are EPA priorities.”

The EPA will seek public comment on adding the Circle Court Ground Water site to the NPL for 60 days. Comments will be considered as the agency completes the final decision process.

Since 1983, 1,661 sites have been listed on the NPL. Of these sites, 359 have been cleaned up resulting in 1,302 sites currently on the NPL (including the nine sites added today). There are 62 proposed sites (including the 10 announced today) awaiting final agency action.

With all NPL sites, the EPA works to identify companies or people responsible for the contamination at a site, and requires them to conduct or pay for the cleanup. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, the EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site. Therefore, it may be several years before significant EPA cleanup funding is required for these sites.

More information on the Superfund NPL is available at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm

More about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

EPA audio file is available at http://www.epa.gov/region6/6xa/podcast/mar2012.html

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News Release from EPA Region 2

EPA Proposes To Add an Area of Orange and West Orange, N.J. to the Superfund List

Protecting Drinking Water EPA Priority

Contacts: Elias Rodriguez, 212-637-3664, rodriguez.elias@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. – March 13, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposed adding the Orange Valley Regional Ground Water site in Orange and West Orange, New Jersey to its Superfund National Priorities List of the country’s most hazardous waste sites. Ground water under the site, which includes heavily populated urban and suburban areas of Orange and West Orange, is contaminated with the chemicals tetrachloroethylene or PCE, trichloroethylene or TCE and cis-1,2-dichloroethylene. Exposure to PCE, TCE and cis-1,2-dichloroethylene, which are common industrial solvents, can have serious effects on people’s health including liver damage and an increased risk of cancer. The ground water contamination has impacted public wells used to supply drinking water to local residents. Some of the wells have been taken out of service and water from others is treated to remove the contamination and provide the community with water that is safe to drink.

“Ensuring that people have a safe source of drinking water is essential to protecting public health and is an EPA priority,” said Judith A. Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. “By placing the Orange Valley Ground Water site on the Superfund list, EPA can do the extensive sampling needed to find the best ways to address the contamination and protect people’s health.”

The ground water pollution has impacted several public water supply wells. The Orange Park and Gist Place wells serve a combined population of more than 10,000 people. After discovering the contamination in the early 1980s, the Orange Water Department installed a treatment system on the wells to remove the contaminants and provide the community with safe drinking water. Water from these wells is regularly monitored to ensure that the treatment system is effective and that people’s health continues to be protected. The former Brook Lane public supply well, which is located between the Orange Park and Gist Place wells, was taken out of service to protect the public from the contamination.

In 2011, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection asked EPA to consider the Orange Valley Regional Ground Water site for inclusion on the federal Superfund list. EPA conducted an initial assessment and is today proposing that the site be included on the list. The EPA is continuing its investigation to identify sources of the ground water contamination.

Nationwide, EPA is proposing to add 10 other sites to the Superfund list today and is designating nine others as final on the list.

With the proposal of this site to the Superfund list, a 60-day comment period will begin during which the EPA is soliciting public input on this proposed action. For instructions on how to submit comments, go to: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/pubcom.htm.

For the Federal Register notice and supporting documents on the proposed Superfund listing, on the day of publication, visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm. Comments can be submitted, identified by Docket number EPA-HQ-SFUND-2011-0068, by one of the following methods:

· Online: http://www.regulations.gov - Follow the online instructions for submitting comments.

· Email: superfund.docket@epa.gov

Mail: Mail comments (no facsimiles or tapes) to Docket Coordinator, Headquarters; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; CERCLA Docket Office; (Mail Code 5305T); 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW; Washington, DC 20460

Hand Delivery or Express Mail: Send comments (no facsimiles or tapes) to Docket Coordinator, Headquarters; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; CERCLA Docket Office; 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW; EPA West, Room 3334, Washington, DC 20004. Such deliveries are only accepted during the Docket’s normal hours of operation (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays).

For more information on the Superfund listing process, visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/npl_hrs.htm or contact Ildefonso Acosta, Region 2 NPL Coordinator, at 212-637-4344, acosta.ildefonso@epa.gov.

For more information on Superfund, go to http://www.epa.gov/superfund/.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

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News Release from EPA Region 7

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7

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

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

EPA Adds Compass Plaza Well TCE Site in Rogersville, Mo., to Superfund's National Priorities List

Contact Information: Ben Washburn, (913) 551-7364, washburn.ben@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., March 13, 2012) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing the addition of the Compass Plaza Well TCE Site to the federal Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). An NPL listing notifies the public that EPA believes a site requires further study and cleanup under EPA's Superfund program.

The Compass Plaza Well TCE Site consists of contaminated ground water that has impacted domestic and irrigation wells. The site includes a small cluster of wells in Greene County near Compass Plaza, a commercial area of Rogersville, Mo. In 2010, following routine public drinking water monitoring by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), trichloroethylene (TCE) was detected in the Compass Plaza strip mall drinking water well and at two nearby public wells. Municipal wells belonging to the City of Rogersville are not contaminated with TCE.

TCE is used in industrial solvents and degreasers as well as household products such as correction fluids, paints, paint removers, adhesives, rug cleaners, metal cleaners and spot removers.

People can be exposed to TCE by breathing contaminated air at home or in the workplace; by drinking, swimming or showering in contaminated water; or through contact with contaminated soil. Industrial emissions of TCE stem mostly from metal degreasing plants and steel pipe and tube manufacturing.

The addition of the Compass Plaza Well TCE Site to the NPL makes the site eligible for federal funds to comprehensively investigate and address site contamination. These funds also guarantee the public an opportunity to fully participate in cleanup decisions.

EPA will work to identify companies or people, potentially responsible parties (PRPs), responsible for the contamination at the site, and require them to conduct or pay for the cleanup. If no viable PRPs are found, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site.

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News Release from EPA Region 2

Drums from the Lehigh Valley Railroad Derailment Superfund Site in Le Roy, New York To Be Removed by Friday

Contact: Mary Mears (212) 637-3673; mears.mary@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. – February 22, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that the removal of 235 drums from the Lehigh Railroad Derailment Superfund site in Le Roy, N.Y. will begin today. The EPA reviewed the sampling results for the contents of all the drums and in all cases considers them to be non-hazardous. The drums, which contain soil and rocks generated when wells were drilled at the site, were sampled during the past month.

A December 1970 train derailment resulted in the release of liquid trichloroethene (TCE) and cyanide crystals. The material in the drums was tested for these and other contaminants. No tested contaminants were detected in materials from 203 of the drums. In 32 of the drums, some detectable concentrations of contaminants were found.

Specifically, eight drums had detectable levels of TCE only, eight others had detectable levels of cyanide only and eight drums had detectable levels of both. One drum had detectable levels of TCE and cis-1,2-dichloroethene, which is a breakdown product of TCE. The remaining 7 drums primarily had detections of either common lab contaminants or contaminants typically associated with petroleum products. These contaminants include: acetone, carbon disulfide, ethylbenzene, toluene, total xylenes, methylcyclohexane, and 2-butanone (MEK). In all cases the levels of these contaminants were low and are below health-based levels.

While the EPA considers the drums non-hazardous and eligible for disposal as non-hazardous waste, the Lehigh Valley Railroad has arranged for material to be disposed of at a landfill that is permitted to accept hazardous waste. The facility set to accept the waste is EQ-Wayne Disposal Inc. Landfill in Belleville, Michigan. Drum removal from the site will begin this morning and is expected to be completed by the end of the week. The Lehigh Valley Railraod will pay the cost of disposing of the drums, not tax payers.

For more information about the site visit: http://www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/npl/lehighvalley/.

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

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EPA Reaches Settlement with Companies to Pay Cleanup Costs

News Release from EPA Region 3:

EPA reaches settlement with companies to pay cleanup costs for Occidental Chemical Corp. Superfund site

       PHILADELPHIA (January 25, 2012) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that current and former owners and operators of the Occidental Chemical Corporation Superfund Site in Lower Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery County, Pa. have agreed to pay $2.1 million in past cleanup costs for the site.

In a consent decree filed in federal court by the Justice Department on behalf of EPA, the companies also assumed responsibility for all future cleanup costs at the site. The companies included Occidental Chemical Corporation (OxyChem), Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations and Glenn Springs Holdings, Inc.

Under the “Superfund” law, the landowners, waste generators and waste transporters that are responsible for the contamination of a Superfund site must either clean up the site, or reimburse the government or other parties for cleanup activities.

OxyChem currently owns the site where it manufactured polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic resins from 1980 to 2005. OxyChem purchased the site from Firestone Tire & Rubber Company(now known as Bridgestone Americas Tire operations), which manufactured tires and PVC there from approximately 1945 to 1980. Settling defendant Glenn Springs Holdings, Inc., a corporate affiliate of OxyChem, is the current operator of the site.   Glenn Springs assumed management of the site in 2005 after OxyChem closed its PVC-manufacturing facility.

From 1942 to 1985, operators used the site for disposal of industrial wastes including cutting oils, metal filings, tires, and PVC sludge resins. In 1989, EPA placed the site on its Superfund list of the nation’s most contaminated sites to address unsafe levels of trichloroethylene (“TCE”), vinyl chloride, and other hazardous substances in the soil and groundwater. OxyChem, under EPA oversight, performed remedial action at the site and completed construction in 2008.

            Additional information on the site is available at: http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/sites/PAD980229298/index.htm .