Office of Site Remediation
Enforcement (2271 A)
Washington, DC 20460
Fall 2004
EPA300-N-04-007
Issue #18
Environmental Protection
Agency
inside
^^^^•H
Rocky Flats
I
cleanupne
^^^_
New N PL Sites
Green Building SEPs
Oregon Metallurgical
' Ultra Scientific
2002 TRI Data
NewATF Building
In the Courts
United Airlines Violations
USv. JG-24
Tidbits
New Bedford Facility Opens
Correction
Calendar
Glossary
CleanupNews is a quarterly
newsletter highlighting hazardous
waste cleanup cases, policies,
settlements and technologies.
EPA Region 10
Administrator lani Resigns
On July 21, EPA Region 10
Administrator John lani
announcedhe was resign-
ing and returning to practicing law.
The resignation became effective
August 7. Ron Kreizenbeck, the
Deputy Administrator for Region
10, is serving as Acting Adminis-
trator pending appointment of a re-
placement.
lani was appointed by President
Bush in September 2001 and spent
his three years as Administrator
tackling oil and gas exploration is-
sues, sewage issues in Portland, and
metals contamination in Lake
Roosevelt. One of his most signifi-
cant accomplishments was the sign-
ing of a Record of Decision (ROD)
outlining a cleanup plan for part of
the Bunker Hill Superfund site in
the Coeur D'Alene River Basin of
Idaho. lani worked toward consen-
sus on the ROD by bringing together
local governments, environmental
groups, the governors of Washing-
ton and Idaho, and state congres-
sional delegations.
Prior to serving as Administrator,
lani was the Vice President for Cor-
porate Affairs and General Coun-
sel at UniSea Corporation, a large
seafood company, and served as
President of the Pacific Seafood Pro-
cessors Association.
For additional information, contact Bill
Dunbar, EPA Region 10, (206) 553-1203.
Portfields Project Gets
$5 Million Boost
| assachusetts Lieutenant
Governor Kerry Healey
announced a $5 million
state grant for improving New
Bedford Harbor on August 5. The
City of New Bedford and Town of
Fairhaven will use the money for
navigational dredging, one of the
Portfields objectives for the harbor.
Removing the silt that has gradu-
ally filled in the area over the years
will allow larger vessels to navigate
more easily. The state recognized
the incredible value of dredging to
improving use of the harbor and en-
couraging future business growth.
New Bedford is one of the busiest
ports on the Eastern seaboard and
a thriving area for the seafood pro-
cessing industry.
New Bedford is one of three pilot
sites selectedthrough the Portfields
Initiative, an interagency agree-
ment between the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration
(which is the lead agency), EPA, the
US Army Corps of Engineers, and
other federal agencies to redevelop
brownfields located in and around
ports. Portfields developed out of
the 2002 Brownfields Federal
Partnership Action Agenda, a
continued on page 7
Printed on recycled paper
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Rocky Flats Building Demolished
Crews work to demolish a building at Rocky Flats.
On July 15, Building 771 on
the Rocky Flats site was dis-
mantled after a 10-year decontami-
nation and removal process. The
building had once been so contami-
nated with hazardous and radioactive
waste that the media referred to it as
"the most dangerous building in
America." DOE Secretary Spencer
Abraham referred to the demolition
as "a historic milestone in closing
Rocky Flats and the most significant
cleanup accomplishment to date in the
DOE complex."
The 175,000-square-foot
building was one of the
original four manufacturing
buildings constructed on the
site. Starting in May 1953,
Building 771 produced com-
ponents for plutonium
weapons and re cove red plu-
tonium from recycled mate-
rials. Once other buildings
were constructed, Building
771 was used solely for plu-
tonium recovery. On Sep-
tember 11, 1957, a fire ig-
nited in a plutonium resi-
due can. The fire spread
to the building's second
floor where vapors collecting
in the main exhaust
duct exploded, spreading
plutonium
contamination
throughout
the building.
In 1989,pro-
duction activi-
ties ceased
due to safety
and environ-
mental con-
cerns, andthe
site was added
to EPA's Na-
tional Priorities
List. Building
771 is the sec-
ond of five facilities that contained plu-
tonium contamination to be demol-
ished at the site and the first major
building of its type and magnitude to
ever be decommissioned. Over the next
18 months, DOE plans to decommis-
sion, demolish, and complete environ-
mental remediation at approximately
450 structures and facilities within
the Rocky Flats Site.
The 6,000-acre Rocky Flats site is
located just 16 miles from Denver,
Colorado. Original estimates for the
"More than half of the
805 buildings/
structures onsite have
been demolished."
cleanup were that it would take
65 years to complete and cost tax-
payers over $36 billion. Through
streamlining efforts by the contrac-
tor, Kaiser-Hill Company, the site is
on an accelerated cleanup schedule.
Current estimates are that the site
will close in 2006 at a cost of $7 bil-
lion. An article about the accelerated
cleanup plan for Rocky Flats ap-
peared in the Spring 2003 issue of
CleanupNews, available online at:
http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/
resources/newsletters/cleanup/
cleanupl2.pdf.
The accelerated cleanup plan and
details about the cleanup to date are
available on the Rocky Flats Closure
Project website at:
http ://ww w. rfets. gov/doe.
For additional information, contact Bill
Badger, Kaiser-Hill, (303) 966-5754.
Plutonium contamination requires the wearing of safety equipment as buildings are
demolished.
deanupnews
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Sites Added to National Priorities List *-
EPA added nine new sites to the
Superfund National Priorities
List (NPL) on July 22. The new sites
are: Jacobsville Neighborhood Soil
Contamination, Evansville, IN; An-
napolis Lead Mine, Annapolis, MO;
Picayune Wood Treating, Picayune.
MS; Grants Chlorinated Solvents
Plume, Grants, NM; Diaz Chemical
Corporation, Holley, NY; Peninsula
Boulevard Groundwater Plume.
Hewlett, NY; Ryeland Road Arsenic.
Heidelberg Township, PA; Cidra
Ground Water Contamination, Cidra.
PR; and Pike Hill Copper Mine,
Corinth, VT.
Some of the highlights include the
Annapolis Lead Mine, an inactive
mine in Annapolis, Missouri where
lead-containing ore was mined be-
tween 1920 and 1940. Over one mil-
lion tons of waste were generated dur-
ing that time. The site was added to
the NPL due to heavy metal contami-
nation on the property and in a nearby
wetland. At the Cidra Ground Water
Contamination site in Cidra, Puerto
Rico, volatile organic compounds from
an unknown source have contaminated
groundwater. Between March 1996
and August 2000, four public supply
wells had to be closed by the Puerto
Rico Department of Health due to con-
tamination. EPA Region 2 conducted
Expanded Site Inspections in 2002 and
2003 and determined that five indus-
trial sites were potential sources of the
contamination.
The Diaz Chemical Corporation in
Holley, New York is a former chemical
manufacturing facility known to be re-
sponsible for multiple hazardous
waste releases into a nearby commu-
nity. In January 2002, an overheated
reactor vessel ruptured at the Diaz fa-
cility causing the unintended release
of chemicals. As a result, drops of
2-chloro-6-fLuorophenol fell in a resi-
dential area over a quarter mile from
the facility, and some local residents
had to be relocated. Among several
response activities associated with
this release, EPA continues to pro-
vide relocation assistance to the dis-
placed residents. As of July 2004.
EPA had removed 2,400 drums and
40,000 gallons of bulk chemicals
abandoned when the company de-
clared bankruptcy in June 2003.
First published in September 1983.
the NPL identifies hazardous waste
sites that EPA has determined pose
the greatest risk to human health and
the environment. There are currently
1,245 sites on the NPL, and 56 sites
are waiting to be finalized.
Additional information about the new
NPL sites is available through the
Superfund website at: http://
www. epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/
newfin.htm.
Green Building Supplemental
Environmental Projects
byK.C. Schefski, Office of Site Remediation Enforcement
On July 27, 2004, the Office of
Site Remediation Enforce-
ment and the Office of Regulatory En-
forcement jointly issued a fact sheet
entitled, "Supplemental Environmen-
tal Projects: Green Building on Con-
taminated Properties." This fact
sheet provides infor-
mation on supplemen-
tal environmental
projects (SEPs) that
can serve to prevent
and minimize the en-
vironmental impacts
associated with redeveloping former
contaminated properties. The fact
sheet explains the environmental im-
pacts associated with buildings, sum-
marizes the "green building SEP on
contaminated properties" concept, and
provides resources and suggestions for
pursuing a green building SEP. The
fact sheet is part of Office of Enforce-
ment and Compliance Assurance's
comprehensive effort to identify and
develop incentives for environmentally
responsible rede-
velopment and
reuse of contami-
nated properties
(ER3).
A SEP is an
environmentally
beneficial project a defendant/respon-
dent agrees to undertake in settlement
of a civil penalty action, but that the
party is not otherwise legally required
to perform. In return, a percentage of
"Green building SEPs
address pollution
sources from building
or construction."
the SEP's value is considered when
the amount of a final cash penalty is
being determined. SEPs enhance the
environmental quality of communi-
ties that have been put at risk by vio-
lations. While penalties play an im-
portant role in deterring environmen-
tal and public health violations.
SEPs can play an additional role in
securing significant environmental
and public health protection and
improvement.
A green building SEP would ad-
dress one or more sources of pollution
typically generated by a building or
construction project. A green build-
ing SEP would involve an environmen-
tal violator agreeing to support and
continued on page 7
cleanup 3
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o
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Oregon Metallurgical to Complete SEPs
Valued at $500,000
^^^F n June 30, Oregon Metallurgi-
cal Corporation of Albany, Oregon
agreed to pay EPA $250,000 and com-
plete two Supplemental Environmen-
tal Projects (SEPs) worth nearly
$500,000 to resolve several Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) violations. Oregon Metallur-
gical is completing the SEPs—envi-
ronmentally-beneficial projects—in
exchange for a reduction in penalty.
The SEPs Oregon Metallurgical has
agreed to complete will both reduce
the amount of hazardous waste pro-
duced by the facility and conserve wet-
lands. The first SEP calls for the ter-
mination of a titanium chip washing
process that creates a hazardous acid.
Instead, the corporation will use a sup-
plier that sells chips cleaned using a
non-hazardous process. The second
SEP requires that an Oregon Metal-
lurgical affiliate, TDY Industries Inc..
deed twelve acres of land at its
Millersburg, Oregon facility to the
City of Albany. The land, which
runs along the Willamette River.
has been used for wastewater
treatment and other industrial
activities. According to the agree-
ment, part of the land will be pro-
tected as wetlands and the rest will
be used to extend the existing area
"SEPs are
environmentally-
beneficial projects that
EPA considers when
calculating a penalty."
parkland and hiking trail. The con-
servation agreement specifically
prevents the land from being al-
tered through processes such as
removal of soil, trees, or vegetation.
except as necessary or appropriate for
maintenance and research. Oregon
Metallurgical will reimburse its affili-
ate for the donation of this land.
The RCRA violations Oregon Metal-
lurgical is resolving through the com-
pliance agreement were identified dur-
ing an April 2000 EPAinspection, which
was conducted at the request of the Or-
egon Department of Environmental
Quality. Inspectors found that the fa-
cility had been operating a hazardous
waste surface impoundment, or acid
sump, without a permit for at least five
years; operating an acid spray pad with-
out a permit for at least five years; stor-
ing an open and unmarked container of
sulfuric acid; and storing hazardous
waste containers without sufficient
aisle space.
For additional information, contact Kevin
Schanilec, EPARegion 10, (206) 553-1061.
Rhode Island Company to Pay $500,000
Scientific, Inc., a chemical
standards laboratory in North
Kingstown, Rhode Island, will pay a
$500,000 penalty for hazardous
waste handling violations at its
Quonset Point Industrial Park facil-
ity, EPA announced on July 7. An
August 2002 inspection of the facil-
ity by EPA and the Rhode Island
Department of Environmental Man-
agement (DEM) uncovered numerous
violations. A follow-up inspection.
requested by the DEM, took place in
September 2002 and revealed that
the company had not addressed vio-
lations identified during the first
inspection. During the second in-
spection, fire safety code violations
were also identified by the North
Kingston fire department and
building officials.
The federal and state hazardous
waste management violations
discovered included operating a
treatment facility without a
permit, improper labeling of waste
containers, open containers, and
lack of employee training in
hazardous waste management
methods. EPA and RI DEM also
discovered that chemicals had been
improperly stored outside the
"EPA and RI DEM
identified numerous
violations at the
facility."
building resulting in exposure to ex-
treme temperatures and the co-stor-
ing of several incompatible wastes
that can ignite or produce toxic gas if
mixed.
Following the inspection, over 80
gallons and 400 pounds of toxic chemi-
cals were removed and properly dis-
posed of to protect human health and
the environment.
deanupnews
-------
Annual Toxics Release Inventory Issued
n June 23> EPA released the
2002 Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
data. The TRI tracks the release of
over 650 toxic chemicals to air, wa-
ter, or land by facilities, including
through disposal and other methods
of release (e.g., air emissions). Ac-
cording to the 2002 data, over 24,000
facilities released 4.8 billion pounds
of TRI chemicals.
The public can download the 2002
TRI data at: http://www.epa.gov/tri/
tridata/index.htm or search the data
using TRI Explorer. TRI Explorer is
accessible at: http://www.epa.gov/
triexplorer and allows users to search
by geographic area, facility, or chemi-
cal and view a variety of reports. TRI
Explorer also provides state fact
sheets for each of the states. The fact
sheets offer detailed information
about each state's releases and an in-
teractive map for users to get addi-
tional details by county.
The TRI Program was established
through the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act of
1986 (EPCRA), which aims to inform
the public of chemical hazards in their
New ATF Building to
Stand on Old LUST
Site in DC
On July 26, several OUST staff and OSWER interns vis-
ited an old leaking underground storage tank site under-
going remediation in the northeast section of the Dis-
trict of Columbia. Five USTs had been removed from
the site in 1991, and the presence of petroleum hydrocar-
bons and other contaminants was discovered over much
of the site. A re mediation system is in place, and the DC
LIST program is working with the U.S. General Services
Administration to clean up and prepare the site to be-
come the new national headquarters of the federal Bu-
reau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
The building planned for the site is projected to house
approximately 1,100 ATF personnel and open in 2005.
community. Under EPCRA, facilities
that release significant amounts of
certain types of toxic chemicals are
required to track these releases and
lishes this data to inform citizens of
toxic chemical management practices
in their community and to encourage
companies to properly manage toxic
provide the data to EPA. EPA pub- chemicals.
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cleanup 5
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United Airlines Agrees to Pay $850,000 for Violations
o
o
0)
On July 12, EPA announced that
United Airlines, Inc. will pay an
$850,000 civil penalty for hazardous
waste violations observed at its San
Francisco International Airport air-
craft maintenance facility. In addition,
United and EPA created an environ-
mental compliance management sys-
tem to help achieve ongoing compli-
ance with hazardous waste regula-
tions.
The violations, which were uncov-
ered through EPA inspections in 1999
and2001, spannedboth state andfed-
eral hazardous waste laws. The is-
sues found included
open hazardous waste
containers, improp-
erly labeled hazard-
ous waste containers,
and storage of haz-
ardous waste for
longer than legally
permitted.
For additional
information, contact
Cameron McDonald,
EPARegion9,
(415) 972-3308.
An open oil/solvent 50-gallon drum.
Court Grants Full Recovery and Assesses Penalties
Against Fiberglass Manufacturer
by David Dowton, Office of Site Remediation Enforcement
The district court for Puerto Rico
has awarded the United States
roughly $3 million in response costs
and has assessed over $1 million in
penalties for RCRA and CERCLA vio-
lations at the J&G and Catano sites
(2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16000).
After a preliminary inspection of the
site revealed leaking drums, EPA
made a number of attempts to obtain
voluntary access to undertake a more
comprehensive inspection and perform
initial sampling. EPAs efforts were
unsuccessful. Access was eventually
obtained via a warrant and an inven-
tory of stored hazardous substances,
and an initial sampling was per-
formed. Later EPA issued an admin-
istrative order directing defendants to
comply with EPAs request for access.
EPA also issued the defendants a
RCRA information request seeking
detailed information of the materials
used on site. The defendants failed to
comply with either the order or the in-
formation request.
With defendants refusing to comply
with EPAs order, access was once again
obtained via a warrant. Subsequent
inspection of the sites found hundreds
of drums containing hazardous sub-
stances haphazardly stored. Many
drums were in a deteriorated state and
were leaking. Sampling indicatedthat
a number of drums were leaking ac-
etone, styrene, and arsenic among
other things. The material in many
drums was also considered a RCRA
hazardous waste because of its low
flash point. Based on the site investi-
gation and sampling, EPA determined
that a removal action was appropri-
ate. The Agency incurred roughly
$3 million in excavating the drums and
contaminated soil and transporting it
for off-site disposal. The United
States brought suit seeking recovery
of all response costs as well as the civil
penalties for failure to comply with
various provisions of CERCLA and
RCRA.
Finding that EPAs removal ac-
tion was not arbitrary and capri-
cious and was not inconsistent
with the NCP, the court awarded
the United States all response
costs including sampling and in-
vestigation costs and indirect
costs. In addition, the court as-
sessed a penalty of $750,000 for
various RCRA violations includ-
ing the storage and disposal of
RCRA hazardous wastes without
a permit. The court found that
the defendant's failure to provide
access to the sites was a violation
under Section 104 of CERCLA and
assessed a $102,000 penalty. Fi-
nally, the court assessed the de-
fendants a penalty of $263,200 for
failure to comply with the RCRA
information request. The court
also found that the defendants are
still obligated to respond to the
request and ordered the defen-
dants to comply with the informa-
tion request within 30 days.
cleanup
-------
EPA Opens New Bedford Facility
At the New Bedford press
conference to announce the
state's new Portfields
grant, EPA Region 1 Deputy Admin-
istrator Ira Leighton marked the
opening of EPAs new $25 million
sludge dewatering facility that is criti-
cal to the PCB cleanup of New
Bedford Harbor. The facility will re-
ceive desanded sediments from an-
other facility through submerged pipe-
lines. The water will then be ex-
tracted, treated to stringent stan-
dards, and pumped back into the har-
bor. The remaining dewatered sedi-
ment will be properly disposed of ei-
ther through landfilling at an ap-
proved facility or in a confined dis-
posal facility along the shoreline. Ap-
proximately 900,000 cubic yards of
sediments will be removed from the
harbor and treated by the facility.
Dredging is scheduled to start within
a month of the announcement. Once
the harbor dredging is complete, EPA
Green Buildings, continued from page 3
use green building technologies at the
redevelopment of a nearby contami-
nated property in exchange for penalty
mitigation credit. The violations may
arise under a variety of statutory au-
thorities, and the SEP will generally
take place on property not owned by
the violator. For example, a company
with air violations located in the vi-
cinity of a brownfield redevelopment
could purchase energy efficient mate-
rials/systems or low VOC emitting
materials for the redeveloper to help
minimize air emissions from the new
development.
The fact sheet is available online at:
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/re-
sources/policies/cleanup/brownfields/
sep-redev-fs.pdf.
For additional information, contact
K.C. Schefski, Office of Site Remediation
Enforcement, (202) 564-8213.
EPA's new sludge dewatering facility at New Bedford.
will turn the sludge dewatering facil-
ity, pier, and rail spur over to the city
for its use.
New Bedford Harbor has been on
EPAs National Priorities List since
1983. From the 1940s to the 70s, two
electrical component manufacturing
plants dumped PCB waste directly
into the harbor creating widespread
contamination. Fish and lobster ad-
visories have been posted to protect
human health.
To date, EPA has spent over $189
million on planning and engineering
the remedy for New Bedford.
Portfield, continued from page 1
commitment by federal agencies to
work together to more effectively re-
develop brownfields.
The New Bedford dredging project
will involve dredging sediments with
contamination levels below Superfund
levels.
The Portfields fact sheet for New
Bedford is available through the
NOAA website at:
http://www.brownfields.noaa.gov/pdf/
nb_projects_lpager.pdf
Correction
Correction: The above photo appeared in CleanupNews Summer 2004
with the National Corrective Action Conference article. The caption with
the photo incorrectly stated that Dwight Bedsole is with Dow Chemical
Company. He is with Dupont Engineering.
cleanup
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September 20-22, 2004
Brownfields 2004: "Gateway to
Revitalization"
St. Louis, MO
http://www,brownfie cls2004,org
September 21-23, 2004
Wastecon 2004
Phoenix, AZ
http://www,swana,org/sections/
wastecon/
October 7-8,2004
2004 ASTSWMO Annual
Meeting
Arlington, VA
http: 7/www, astswmo.org
Of
Glossary
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and OUST
Explosives pQg
DOE Department of Energy
EPCRA Emergency Planning and Community
Right-to-KnowAct
ER3 Environmentally responsible redevelopment
and reuse
NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration
WL National Priorities List
OSRE Office of S ite Remed iation E nforcement
OSWER Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response
RCRA
RIDEM
SEP
TH
UST
WC
Office of Underground Storage Tanks
Polychlorinated biphenyls
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management
Record of Decision
Supplemental Environmental Project
Toxics Release Inventory
Underground storage tank
Volatile organic compound
cleanup
CleanupNews is a publication of EPA's Office of Site Remediation Enforcement, in
cooperation with the Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation,
Office of Underground Storage Tanks, and Office of Emergency Prevention,
Preparedness and Response. CleanupNews II is an electronic supplement to the
CleanupNews print edition. The print issue is available four times a year, and the
newsletter will be delivered electronically eight times a year (four issues consisting of the
print edition and four issues consisting of supplemental news). Past issues of CleanupNews can be
found at: http://www.epa.qov/coiiipliaiice/resoiirces/iiaAisletters/cleaiiiip/cleaiiiipiiews.htiiil
To comment on the newsletter contact Richard W. Popino, PhD REM, at MC-2271A, U.S. EPA, 1200
Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20460, emaihpopino.rick@epa.gov.
To be added to or deleted from the subscriber list, contact Anne Politis at:
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To receive CleanupNews by email, subscribe at: http://www.epa.qov/compliance/resources/
list serv/cleanup.html.
^^^enaflo^mpliance/about/offices/osre.html
Richard W. Popino, PhD REM, Editor in Chief
EPA Review Board; Diane Bartosh, Paul Connor,
Sandra Connors, Karen Ellenberger, Elliott
Gilberg, Jeff Heimerman, Kenneth Patterson, Neilima
Senjalia, Suzanne Wells
Christine Rueter, Jam! Habluetzel, and Anne Politis,
DPRA Inc..writers
RuthColville,
DPRA Inc., designer
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