United States
                  Environmental Protection
                  Agency
* * ^Proposed Site ***
                              NATIONAL PRIORITIES LIST (NPL)
                        PECK IRON AND METAL
Portsmouth, Virginia
                                  OSWER/OSRTI
                                  Washington, DC 20460
                                          April 2009
   Site Location:
The former Peck Iron and Metal facility (Peck Iron) is located at 3850 Elm Avenue in Portsmouth, Virginia.

£L Site History:	
From 1945 to 1999, Peck Iron purchased, processed, stored, and shipped metal scrap from various military bases;
other Federal, state, and local government agencies; and local businesses. Scrap metal handled at the facility included
damaged and obsolete equipment, attachments, parts, and other miscellaneous materials, including scrapped naval
vessels. Some of these scrap materials contained cadmium (automobile parts), poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCB)
(insulated wire, gaskets, fluorescent lights and transformer oils) and lead (scrapped bridge sections and automobile
batteries). PCB-containing transformers were disassembled at the facility and the wires were burned to remove
insulation.

§ Site Contamination/Contaminants:	
The primary contaminants are PCBs and lead.

dfr Potential Impacts on Surrounding Community/Environment:	
PCBs and lead have been detected in a wetland on the southwest border of facility and the bank of Paradise Creek.
Paradise Creek, a tidal estuary of the lower Chesapeake Bay, is  a human food chain fishery and is used for recreation
activities, including swimming, boating crabbing and fishing.

t^ Response Activities (to date):	
Between approximately 2004 and 2007, the current owner of the facility conducted a study to determine the extent of
the contamination on the facility and in the Paradise Creek wetland.

B Need for NPL Listing:	
Other federal and state cleanup programs were evaluated but were not viable at this time. EPA received a letter of
support for placing this site on the NPL from the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[The description of the site (release) is based on information available at the time the site was evaluated with the HRS. The description may change
as additional information is gathered on the sources and extent of contamination.]

For more information about the hazardous substances identified in this narrative summary, including general information regarding the effects of exposure to these
substances on human health, please see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs. ATSDR ToxFAQs can be found on the
Internet at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html or by telephone at 1-888-42-ATSDR or 1-888-422-8737.

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