oEPA
                            United States
                            Environmental Protection
                            Agency
  EPA/540/SR-92/015
  October 1992
                           SUPERFUND INNOVATIVE
                           TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION
                           Technology Demonstration
                           Summary

                           SITE Program
                           Demonstration  of a Trial
                           Excavation at the
                           McColl  Superfund Site
                            Region IX of the U.S. Environmental
                           Protection Agency (EPA), in coopera-
                           tion with EPA's Air and Energy Engi-
                           neering Research Laboratory (AEERL)
                           and EPA's Superfund Innovative Tech-
                           nology Evaluation (SITE) Program, and
                           with assistance from the California De-
                           partment of Health Services  (DHS),
                           conducted  a  trial waste excavation
                           project at the McColl Superfund site in
                           Fullerton, CA.
                            In the early to mid-1940s, the McColl
                           site was used for disposal of acidic
                           refinery sludge,  and in 1982,  it was
                           placed on the National Priorities List
                           (NPL). The McColl waste is known to
                           release volatile  organic compounds
                           (VOCs) and sulfur dioxide (SO) when-
                           ever disturbed. Since 1984, the entire
                           site has been  covered with soil in an
                           attempt to minimize atmospheric emis-
                           sions of VOCs and SO .
                            In February  1989, EPA and DHS is-
                           sued a proposed plan for the McColl
                           project selecting thermal destruction,
                           either  on or offsite, as the preferred
                           remedy. An important component  of
                           this remedy is the  excavation and
                           waste-handling activities that must oc-
                           cur before thermal destruction. The
                           overall goal of the trial excavation was
 to obtain information pertaining to these
 activities that would support the selec-
 tion of thermal destruction as the pre-
 ferred remedy and that would aid in the
 design of a thermal destruction remedy.
  EPA determined that the trial exca-
 vation was necessary to ascertain if
 the McColl waste could be excavated
 with  conventional equipment without
 releasing significant amounts of VOCs
 and SO2 to the surrounding community.
 The trial excavation was also necessary
 to define the treatment needed, if any,
 to improve the handling characteristics
 of the waste as a precursor to thermal
 destruction. The trial excavation was a
 research project designed to gather in-
 formation for use in the design of the
 final  remediation for Superfund sites
 and specifically for the McColl Super-
 fund site in Fullerton, CA.
  This Summary was developed  by
 EPA's Air and Energy Engineering Re-
 search Laboratory, Research Triangle
 Park,  NC, and Risk Reduction Engineer-
 ing Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, to an-
nounce key findings  of the SITE pro-
gram  demonstration that is fully docu-
mented  in  a separate volume of the
same title (see ordering information at
back).
                                                                     Printed on Recycled Paper

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  The EPA Project Managers were J. A. McSorley, Air and Energy Engineering
      Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; J. Blevins,
      EPA Region IX, San Francisco, CA 94105; and J. Hubbard, Risk Reduc-
      tion Engineering Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH 45268 (see below).
  The complete report, entitled "SITE Program Demonstration of a Trial Excava-
      tion at the McColl Superfund Site," (Order No. PB92-226 448/AS; Cost:
      $35.00, subject to change) will be available only from:
         National Technical Information Service
         5285 Port Royal Road
         Springfield, VA 22161
         , Telephone: 703-487-4650
  For further information, J. Hubbard can be contacted at:
         Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory
         U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
         Cincinnati, OH 45268
United States
Environmental Protection Agency
Center for Environmental Research Information
Cincinnati, OH 45268

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EPA/540/SR-92/015

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