vvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
For more information
For questions or comments about
the Bennett's Dump site and the
selected cleanup plan you may
contact these EPA representatives:
Thomas Alcamo
EPA Remedial Project Manager
(800) 621-8431 Ext. 67278
alcamo.thomas@epa.gov
Stuart Hill
EPA Community
Involvement Coordinator
(800) 621-8431 Ext. 60689
hill.stuart@epa.gov
Chicago office
EPA Region 5
77 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604-3590
Read the documents
An official site file has been set
up at the Monroe County Public
Library, 303 E. Kirkwood,
Bloomington, where you can read
all the past engineering reports and
studies as well as EPA documents
such as the record of decision
amendment.
On the Web
http ://cfpub .epa.gov/supercpad/
cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0501343
EPA Picks Cleanup Plan
For Polluted Dump Site
Bennett's Dump Superfund Site
Bloomington, Indiana
December 2006
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made a decision on how to modify
a previous cleanup plan for the Bennett's Dump Superfund site so PCBs, or
polychlorinated biphenyls, do not continue to pollute a nearby creek.
EPA held a public meeting last February over the proposed cleanup options
and received a number of public comments up until the April deadline. After
considering all the input, EPA decided to stay with its preferred cleanup
option. That option - listed as Alternative 5 in official documents - will cost
$1.2 million. It calls for drawing down the water level in what is called the
Wedge Quarry Complex and maybe in another pit called Icebox Quarry. An
800-foot-long trench 8 feet deep lined with carbon would also be built next to
Stout's Creek to intercept and treat contaminated spring water. Both actions
will help reduce or stop PCBs from flowing into the creek. Four small springs
on the site and the underground water (called ground water in environmental
terms) that is flowing underneath Bennett's Dump are picking up PCBs
leaking from electrical equipment disposed of there 40 years ago. EPA and
state partner Indiana Department of Environmental Management concluded
that if nothing is done, the PCBs leaking from the electrical equipment in
Bennett's Dump pose cancer and non-cancerous health risks to people and
animals who eat fish from Stout's Creek, which runs along the western border
of the site.
EPA's cleanup decision is contained in a document called a record of decision
amendment or ROD amendment. The ROD amendment contains much more
detail about the site and selected cleanup plan than this fact sheet. The ROD
amendment and another EPA document called a responsiveness summary,
which contains the Agency's responses to all the public comments received,
can be viewed at the Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington. A large
majority of the public comments supported the selected cleanup plan although
a few individuals wanted EPA to pick the cleanup option that called for
digging up underground quarries on the site. The Agency decided that option
would cost too much for the little amount of extra protection it would provide.
Next steps
Actual cleanup work could take 18 months to complete and won't begin until
EPA and IDEM finish negotiations with CBS Corp. (formerly Westinghouse
and Viacom) to pay for the cleanup at Bennett's Dump and five other disposal
sites in the area. CBS has been identified as the potentially responsible party
for the pollution. The negotiations with CBS could be lengthy. If an
agreement cannot be reached, EPA may have to go to court.
A major housing subdivision called North Park is being developed two miles
from the dump site, but homes are on city water and not affected by the
pollution. Scientists looking at health risks in Stout's Creek, however, did
assume that children will be wading in the creek and sunfish and suckers
caught from there will be eaten. The selected cleanup measures are designed
to make the creek safe for wading and fishing.
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ICE BOX
QUARRY
Sate I lite Are a
GRAVEL ACCESS
ROAD
WEDGE
QUARRY
This map shows the quarries that are part of the selected cleanup plan for Bennett's Dump.
About Bennett's Dump
A former Westinghouse Corp. capacitor plant in Bloomington used part of Bennett's Limestone Quarry during the
1960s to dump parts containing PCBs. The dump site covers about 4 acres, 2!/2 miles northwest of Bloomington.
EPA investigated the site in 1983, and the Agency took immediate cleanup measures such as erecting a fence,
removing capacitors and capping the area with clay and topsoil.
The dump site was placed on EPA's Superfund list in 1984. An initial cleanup plan for Bennett's Dump called for
an on-site incinerator to burn PCB-contaminated waste, but public opposition stopped that plan. In 1999, PCB-
contaminated soil and creek mud were dug up and disposed of in an off-site landfill or burned in a Texas
incinerator. However, testing done after the cleanup showed even deeper pockets of PCBs are polluting
underground water supplies and the four springs that run through the dump site. This latest cleanup plan is meant
to supplement the 1999 cleanup and manage the ground water contamination.
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