Cleanup progress
The site has been fully remediated. In 1990, 13 residents were taken off of their well water and placed on municipal water. Between 1991 and 1993, a groundwater extraction system was constructed onsite, which created a hydraulic barrier around the site, so that no off-site migration would occur. The original ROD also called for on-site incineration of soils and sludge materials. However, the ROD was amended in 1994 to the following:
The excavation and treatment of sludge was conducted in 1995 and 1996 and is complete. The excavation and off-site disposal of soils and sediments was conducted in 1996 and is complete. There has been an ongoing long-term remedial action with respect to the groundwater extraction system. The groundwater extraction system has been shut down because it appears that the groundwater cleanup goals have been met.
A five-year review report was submitted in September 1997, which showed that contaminant levels in the underlying aquifer had dropped steadily. The system will continue to operate until cleanup objectives are fully met. A second five-year review report was issued in September 2002. The five-year review concluded that the source material phase, the groundwater phase, and the soil and sediment phase are currently protective of human health and the environment. A final protectiveness statement cannot be made for the soil and sediment phase until further information is obtained, regarding potential impacts to aquatic organisms in the site ditch, soil settlement issues and a plugged culvert, and finalization of restrictive covenants.
A third five-year review completed in September 2007 determined that all of the issues from the second five-year review were addressed with the exception of the finalization of the property restrictive covenants. Restrictive covenants are one of several legal or administrative controls which help to minimize exposure to contaminants and are generally referred to as institutional controls. The third five-year review determined that the remedy is expected to be or is protective of human health and the environment, and in the interim, exposure pathways that could result in unacceptable risks are being controlled. However, in order for the remedy to be protective in the long-term, some further actions need to be taken, including more robust institutional controls to ensure the remedy is not disturbed in the future. A trial shut-down of the groundwater extraction system has been started by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and ground water monitoring will be performed for several more years to verify that groundwater cleanup goals have been achieved. Groundwater will also be monitored to determine if surface water is being impacted by the site. The MPCA and the EPA are in the process of implementing more institutional controls that will achieve long-term protectiveness at the site.
A fourth five-year was completed in August 2012. The review concluded that the site was protective of human health and the environment in the short term, and that to ensure the site is protective of human health and the environment in the long term, more robust institutional controls, such as restrictive covenants, should be placed on the site. The MPCA and the EPA are in the process of implementing these institutional controls, and will soon begin the process to delist the site from the National Priorities List.
Environmental remediation is the cleanup of hazardous substances dealing with the removal, treatment and containment of pollution or contaminants from environmental media such as soil, groundwater, sediment. Remediation may be required by regulations before development of land revitalization projects. Developers who agree to voluntary cleanup may be offered incentives under state or municipal programs like New York State's Brownfield Cleanup Program. If remediation is done by removal the waste materials are simply transported off-site for disposal at another location. The waste material can also be contained by physical barriers like slurry walls. The use of slurry walls is well-established in the construction industry. The application of (low) pressure grouting, used to mitigate soil liquefaction risks in San Francisco and other earthquake zones, has achieved mixed results in field tests to create barriers, and site-specific results depend upon many variable conditions that can greatly impact outcomes.
Pacific Creosoting Company was a company founded on Bainbridge Island that treated logs with creosote as a preservative.
The Hercules 009 Landfill Superfund site is a 16.5-acre (67,000 m2) property that is bordered by Georgia State Route 25 on the west; an automobile dealership on the north; a juvenile slash pine forest on the east; and several homes, a church, a school, and a strip shopping center to the south/southeast of the property. Hercules Inc. was issued a permit in 1975 by the GaEPD to use 7 acres (28,000 m2) at the northern end of the property as a landfill to dispose of toxaphene-contaminated wastewater sludge generated during the manufacturing processes. The 009 Landfill was constructed at the northern end of the property as six cells, each approximately 100 to 200 feet (61 m) wide and 400 feet (120 m) long. Toxaphene has been detected at levels exceeding 15,000 parts per million at the Hercules 009 Landfill Site.
Havertown Superfund is a 13-acre polluted groundwater site in Havertown, Pennsylvania contaminated by the dumping of industrial waste by National Wood Preservers from 1947 to 1991. The state first became aware of the pollution in 1962 and initiated legal action against the owners in 1973 to force them to cleanup the site. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranked the site the eighth worst cleanup project in the United States. The site was added to the National Priorities List in 1983 and designated as a Superfund cleanup site in the early 1990s. Remediation and monitoring efforts are ongoing and the EPA transferred control of the site to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in 2013.
Groundwater remediation is the process that is used to treat polluted groundwater by removing the pollutants or converting them into harmless products. Groundwater is water present below the ground surface that saturates the pore space in the subsurface. Globally, between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of the world's drinking water is drawn from boreholes and dug wells. Groundwater is also used by farmers to irrigate crops and by industries to produce everyday goods. Most groundwater is clean, but groundwater can become polluted, or contaminated as a result of human activities or as a result of natural conditions.
In 1990, the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan was declared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be a Superfund site – in other words, an abandoned industrial site containing significant amounts of toxic waste. The EPA and companies responsible for the waste in this area, which includes a three-mile section of Portage Creek as well as part of the Kalamazoo River, into which it flows, are currently involved in an effort to reduce the amount of toxic waste at the site, which is contaminated by PCBs from paper mills and other factories.
The Escambia Wood Treating Company (ETC) site is located at 3910 Palafox Highway, northeast of the intersection of Fairfield Drive in Pensacola, Florida, and is in a mixed industrial, commercial, and residential area. The site includes the 26-acre property of the former wood preserving facility and over 60 acres of nearby neighborhoods. The facility was in operation from 1942 until 1982, then abandoned by the owner in 1991. During its operation, ETC treated utility poles, foundation pilings, and lumber with creosote and pentachlorophenol. Production byproducts were dumped into on-site, unlined containment pits where they seeped into the surrounding soil and groundwater. Escambia Wood Treating Company
The Baytown Township Groundwater Plume is a Superfund site located east of the village of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, United States. The plume extends into Baytown and West Lakeland Townships and continues eastward approximately four miles to the St. Croix River. Baytown Township is a rapidly developing rural/suburban residential area on the eastern edge of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The contaminated groundwater is primarily in the Prairie du Chien-Jordan aquifer, which is the major source of drinking water for many residents in the area through private and residential wells. The Lake Elmo Airport is located near the western end of the plume and is administered by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC). An estimated 8,000 people live in the area; 80 percent of the residents use private wells for their water supply.
The Oakdale Dump is an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site located in Oakdale, Minnesota, and comprises three non-contiguous properties that were used for dumping from the late 1940s until the 1950s by the 3M corporation. The properties are named the Abresch, Brockman, and Eberle sites for their respective property owners at the time of disposal activities. The Abresch site is the largest of the three properties at about 55 acres. The Brockman site is located immediately southwest of the Abresch site and encompasses 5 acres. The Eberle site is located roughly 2,500 feet north of the Abresch site and encompasses 2 acres.
The FMC Corporation (Fridley Plant) is a United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site of 18 acres (7.3 ha) in Anoka County, Minnesota, United States, several hundred feet east of the Mississippi River. Solvents, paint sludge, and plating wastes were generated and disposed of in an on-site dump from the 1940s until 1969. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) staff sampled site surface and groundwater in the early 1980s and confirmed that ground and surface water were contaminated by industrial solvents. In the 1980s, solvents from the site were detected in the city of Minneapolis drinking water system intake that is located downgradient of where the FMC site groundwater contaminant plume enters the river.
The 70-acre Burlington Northern is a former railroad tie treatment plant by Burlington Northern Railroad in northern Minnesota, USA. The unlined creosote and fuel oil lagoons, which had been used to treat the ties contaminated groundwater. In 1985, the site was listed as a United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund. Contaminated soils were excavated and capped and a groundwater gradient pump -out well is in place.
T.H. Agriculture & Nutrition Company (THAN) was a California chemical company. It operated a pesticide-formulating facility from 1962 until 1981 that is now a Superfund site. Other companies formulated pesticides on the site from 1950 to 1962. During the 1950s and 1960s, on-site landfills were used for disposal of wastes generated from site operations, including pesticides from cleaning equipment. Waste was spilled on the surface of the site and left in piles on the ground. Sampling at the site conducted by the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) detected pesticides in soil and groundwater. The site was listed on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1986. Cleanup activities at the site were completed in 2003 and included soil vapor extraction; demolition and removal of various structures; excavation and management of impacted soils; construction of a low-permeability containment cover to minimize the potential for movement of residual chemicals from Site soils to other media; implementation of access controls and land use restrictions; demonstration and maintenance of appropriate financial assurances; monitored natural attenuation of groundwater; provision of as-needed alternative drinking water supplies; and performance of ongoing operation, maintenance, and monitoring activities. Approximately 30,000 people live within 3 miles of the site, with the closest resident being 500 feet from the site. Approximately 35,000 people depend on groundwater as a source of drinking water.
The Atlas Asbestos Mine Superfund Site is located within the Clear Creek Management Area near Fresno County, eighteen miles northwest of Coalinga, California. The mine started operating in 1963, covering 435 acres of a large naturally occurring asbestos deposit. The mine closed in 1979 and was placed in the EPA's National Priorities List (NPL) in 1983 due to the pollution of asbestos in the surrounding soil, air and water creating potential health hazards for local populations and environment.
The Koppers Co., Inc. (KCI) Superfund Site is one of three Superfund sites in Oroville, California, along with Louisiana Pacific Sawmill and Western Pacific Railyard. The KCI Superfund Site is a 200-acre site which served as a wood treatment plant for 50 years. Wood was treated with many chemicals to prevent wood deterioration. The accumulation of these chemicals from spills, fires, and uses has caused this site to be contaminated with the hazardous waste material. Due to soil and groundwater contamination, the site was placed on the National Priorities List in 1984 for remedial action plans to clean up the site to protect surrounding residential areas concerning environmental and human health risks.
The Waste Disposal Inc. Superfund site is an oil-related contaminated site in the highly industrialized city of Santa Fe Springs in Los Angeles County, California. It is approximately 38 acres (15 ha), with St Paul's high school immediately adjacent to the northeast corner of the site. Approximately 15,000 residents of Santa Fe Springs obtain drinking water from wells within three miles (4.8 km) of the site.
The California Gulch site consists of approximately 18 square miles in Lake County, Colorado. The area includes the city of Leadville, parts of the Leadville Historic Mining District and a section of the Arkansas River from the confluence of California Gulch downstream to the confluence of Two-Bit Gulch. The site was listed as a Superfund site in 1983.
The Burnt Fly Bog Superfund Site is located in Marlboro Township in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Contamination began in the 1950s and 1960s. It was used as a dumping ground for hazardous chemicals and oils. This site was used to reprocess or recycle oil, and it was also used as a landfill during the 1950s. The contamination affected the surface water and soil. The EPA got involved in the 1980s and addressed the situation. Human health concerns were a main part of the EPA getting involved because residents lived only about 1,000 to 2,000 feet around the site. Major components of the remedy included excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated soil from Northerly Wetlands, Tar Patch Area. The back filling of the areas addressed, monitoring of the surface water and sediments, and biological sampling in the Westerly Wetlands. The current status of the site is complete. The remedial stages were completed in the late 1990s and a five-year monitoring of the surface water was completed around 2004.
Barrels, Inc. is a Superfund site located in Lansing, Michigan. The site's surface soils and groundwater have been contaminated from a storage tank and drum reclamation processes. Today the area is fenced in while cleanup options are being discussed in order to limit direct contact with the potential risks. In 1961, Barrels Inc. began working on the site, and continued until the owner abandoned the site in 1980.
The G&H Industrial Landfill is a Superfund site located in Shelby Charter Township near Utica, Michigan. The 60-acre (24-hectare) landfill, with about 10 to 20 acres of adjacent property, operated as a waste oil recovery facility from 1955 to 1967. From 1955 to 1974 the site was used as an industrial and municipal landfill. Contaminated soil, surface water, and groundwater with hazardous chemicals have been left behind as a result of the disposal of waste solvents, waste oil and paint sludge. Operation and maintenance activities are ongoing following the cleanup.
Ohio River Park is a Superfund Site located in Neville Island, Pennsylvania. Between the 1920s-1970s, the Site was used for municipal waste, pesticide manufacturing, coke sludge disposal, cement manufacturing disposal, and pesticide waste. In 1977, Neville Land Company donated the Site to Allegheny County who started developing the Site as a community park. In 1979, Allegheny County found various hazardous contaminants on the Site. On August 30, 1990, the Site was determined to be a Superfund Site due to VOCs, SVOCs, inorganics, and pesticides being present in the surface soil, subsurface soil, surface water, river sediment, and groundwater. Soil remediation began in February 1998 and ended in September 1999. Today, Ohio River Park has the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center and Coraopolis Bridge on top of it. Additionally, benzene continues to be monitored because it is still present in the Site's groundwater.
