&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Contacts
For general questions or comments:
Susan Pastor
EPA Community Involvement
Coordinator
Superfund Division
EPA Region 5
312-353-1325
pastor.susan@epa.gov
For technical questions about the site:
Margaret Gielniewski
EPA Remedial Project Manager
Superfund Division
EPA Region 5
312-886-6244
gieMewski.margaret@epa.gov
Region 5 toll-free:
800-621-8431,
9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., weekdays
Region 5 address:
77 W.Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60604
For more information
The administrative record and other
documents about the site can be found
at:
Marion Public Library
445 E. Church St.
EPA website:
www.epa.gov/region5/sites/
littlescioto
Sampling, Monitoring Work to
Begin Near River
Little Scioto River Superfund Site
Marion County, Ohio
October 2010
Beginning the week of Oct. 18, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
contractors will begin ground water and sediment (mud) sampling activities
along the Little Scioto River. Workers will be testing for semi-volatile organic
compounds or SVOCs, including polyaromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs and
metals originating from the former Baker Wood Creosoting site on Holland
Road. PAHs are associated with coal tar creosote that was used to preserve
wood while the plant operated from the 1890s to the 1960s.
To collect ground water samples, temporary monitoring wells will be installed
along the bank of the Little Scioto River and its tributaries. This work, which
will last about three weeks, will cover about nine river miles. It will start at
Green Camp and move north past state Route 309. Based on the results, the
wells will either be abandoned or more wells will be added to determine how
much contamination exists and where it is headed.
Contractors will take
sediment samples from
small boats. Fish and
mussels will also be
sampled to determine if
any ecological risks
exist. This work should
take about two weeks to
complete.
A small staging area will
be temporarily located at
the closed city of Marion
Landfill near Holland
Road and state Route 95.
Work will take place
from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,
weekdays. No more than eight people using small pieces of equipment are
expected to work on-site, so there should not be any excessive noise or extra
traffic. Work is expected to continue into mid-November.
Additional sampling areas
Additional ground water and sediment samples will be collected from a three-
mile stretch of North Rockswale Ditch; two miles of Rockswale Ditch and one
mile of each tributary of Rockswale Ditch, Columbia Ditch and an unnamed
ditch to see if the creosote has traveled that far.
Samples will also be taken in the northern portion of the river, which was the--
target of cleanup work in 2002 and 2006. These new samples will provide
information about long-term protection from pollutants.
Equipment such as this Geoprobe may be used to
collect samples in the Little Scioto River.
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Soil and ground water samples will also be collected
from the Baker Wood property. Although EPA addressed
the immediate health threats in its previous cleanup
project at that location, we now need to make sure there
are no long-term health risks associated with Baker
Wood. This round of sampling will tell us if there is any
way contamination could possibly move from Baker
Wood toward the river through its tributary, North
Rockswale Ditch.
History and background
The Little Scioto River lies to the west of Marion, Ohio,
in Marion Township and Marion County. It flows south
into the Scioto River, a major tributary of the Ohio River.
Approximately four miles of river sediment is
contaminated with coal tar creosote containing toxic
SVOCs including PAHs. Waste from Baker Wood
entered the Little Scioto River from the North Rockswale
Ditch, which flows west along the south side of Holland
Road. Since 1992, Ohio Department of Health has
maintained a health advisory against swimming, wading
and eating fish from this stretch of the river.
In April 1999, EPA began cleanup activities at the Baker
Wood property. Afterward, workers drained and dredged
a 1 Vi-mile stretch of the Little Scioto River. The area was
backfilled with clean soil and the contaminated mud was
removed and dried on a pad just east of the cleanup area.
It was eventually shipped to Bucyrus, Ohio, in 2001 for
proper disposal.
The Little Scioto River cleanup project began in 2002
and was paid for by using a mix of funds from the U.S.
Coast Guard Oil Pollution Act, EPA Superfund
emergency removal program and Ohio EPA. Between
2002 and 2006 approximately 68,000 tons of sediment
were removed from about two miles of the river as well
as from a polluted shoreline area. Work ended near the
intersection of state Route 95 in November 2006 when
funding was no longer available. The cleanup had been
slated to continue along the river to state Route 739.
In September 2009, the site was added to EPA's National
Priorities List or NPL, which is a roster of hazardous
waste sites that are eligible for cleanup under the
Superfund program.
Next steps
After all of the results have been analyzed by an EPA-
approved lab, they will be documented in a remedial
investigation report, which is expected to be completed
and available to the public by the end of 2011. Based on
the information in that report, another document called a
feasibility study will be developed. It will list several
possible cleanup options for the river and Baker Wood, if
necessary.
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