EPA INFORMATION SHEET
RESULTS OF THE POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYL (PCB) CONGENER STUDY,
CHEMICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT KETTLEMAN HILLS FACILITY
DECEMBER 2010
&
PRCA
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 (EPA)
is publishing this information sheet to inform community
members of the results of the Polychlorinated Biphenyls
(PCB) Congener Study at the Chemical Waste Management
(CWM) Kettleman Hills Facility.
The PCB Congener Study was completed by CWM at EPA's
request to both respond to Kettleman City community
concerns and to ensure that the PCB operations at the
Facility do not present an unreasonable risk of injury to
human health or the environment. The community's
concerns are that wind-blown PCB particles from facility
operations could either be deposited offsite and taken up
into the food chain (either through ingestion of crops or
consumption of beef or milk from nearby grazing cattle),
or could migrate from the facility from air emissions and
impact Kettleman City, which is approximately 3.5 miles
northeast (Figure I).
EPA requested CWM to collect soil, vegetation, and air
samples at the perimeter of the facility and use the data
results to assess risk to human health and the environment
from PCB operations at the facility (these studies are
collectively referred to as the "PCB Congener Study").
Typically, PCBs are analyzed for Aroclors, which are a
mixture of PCBs; however EPA required the use of the
most sensitive analytical methods for PCB congeners, or
individual PCBs, to look for the most toxic forms of PCBs
that are the most significant risk drivers. Because this
was the first time EPA had requested such a study at a
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulated hazardous
waste landfill, EPA worked closely with CWM to design the
study and review and approve its sampling plan to assure
that EPA's standards and protocols are met. EPA sampling
experts witnessed the CWM field sampling team and
confirmed that the sampling was performed as specified in
the plan.
EPA concludes that based on the results
of the PCB Congener Study:
>	There is no evidence suggesting that PCB congeners
from operations at the Kettleman Hills Facility are
migrating offsite at concentrations that would
adversely affect the health of local community
residents or the environment.
>	PCB concentrations measured in soil at the
perimeter of the Kettleman Hills Facility are
consistent with background (anthropogenic)
concentrations of PCBs in soil in rural areas
without known PCB activity or sources.
>	Risk of health impacts from PCB concentrations
measured in soils, vegetation, and air near the
Kettleman Hills Facility are in the same range as
risk of health impacts in other rural areas without
known PCB activities or sources.
>	PCB concentrations measured in soils, vegetation,
and air near the Kettleman Hills Facility do not
adversely affect ecological species.
	S
What is the facility history? The CWM Kettleman
Hills Facility is a commercial hazardous waste treatment,
storage, and disposal facility, located in Kings County,
California, southwest of the intersection of Interstate 5 and
Highway 41 (Figure I). CWM handles both PCB and non-
PCB hazardous waste at the Facility.
CWM has applied to the California Department of Toxic
Substances Control (DTSC) for a Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit to expand its hazardous
waste landfill, Unit B-18 by 14 acres (increase of 26%).
DTSC is authorized under federal law to permit RCRA
hazardous waste landfills in California. CWM also applied
to EPA to renew and expand their TSCA PCB permit for
this landfill.
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EPA sampling oversight and extensive Quality Assurance/
Quality Control protocols to ensure data of known quality.
Additionally, EPA required that CWM perform an air
dispersion and deposition model. This model identified
locations that were expected to have the maximum impact
from facility PCB operations.
Why and where were samples collected? EPA
required that CWM use a muiti-incremental sampling
(MIS) methodology for the collection of soil and vegetation
samples (Figure 2). This approach is specifically designed to
characterize contaminants over large areas such as those
potentially impacted by broad-based air emissions. EPA has
applied this sampling methodology at other sites where
the purpose of the study is similar to that intended at the
Kettleman Hills Facility.
Figure 1: Location of CWM Kettleman Hills Facility
What are PCBs? PCBs are a group of man-made
chemicals that contain 209 individual compounds (known
as congeners) with varying potentially harmful effects.
Different mixtures of these 209 congeners were used
worldwide on a large scale beginning in 1929. PCBs are
liquids that were used in electrical transformers, capacitors,
circuit breakers, voltage regulators/switches, plasticizers,
and additives in lubricating and cutting oils.
Although now banned because of suspected links to cancer,
decades of PCB use in a wide variety of applications has
resulted in the worldwide distribution of PCBs in the
ambient environment.
Why analyze for PCB Congeners? In recent years
researchers have determined that 12 of the 209 congeners
(identified by the World Health Organization) are the most
toxic to human health and the environment. EPA required
CWM to analyze the PCB samples for these most toxic
congeners.
How was the PCB Congener Study designed? Based
on community concerns and the necessity to determine
the safety of the facility underTSCA, EPA requested CWM
to evaluate the potential for off-site health and ecological
impacts of PCBs.
EPA formulated the technical design of the study and
requested that CWM implement the work plan. The
design incorporated on-site meteorological data (wind
direction and speed), landfill design characteristics,the most
sensitive laboratory analytical method/procedures, direct
Surface soil sampling was designed to measure PCBs that
may have been deposited and accumulated in the surface
soil around the perimeter of the facility from handling PCB
contaminated waste at the Facility.
Vegetation sampling was designed to measure PCBs that
may have accumulated in the surface soil, and may have
been taken up by the vegetation, or deposited on the leaf
tissue, or taken up in gaseous form through leafy tissue.
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Figure 2: Soil, vegetation, and air sampling locations.

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A total of 720 soil samples (and 720 vegetation samples)
representative of the entire facility perimeter were
collected (Figure 2).
Air sampling was designed to measure PCBs emissions
continuously over a 12-month period to characterize
present-day conditions at the perimeter of the facility
Monitoring included upwind and downwind stations.
How were samples analyzed? Samples collected by
CWM were analyzed by Test America Laboratories, located
in West Sacramento, CA, a State certified laboratory The
analytical methods used are EPA approved methods for the
analysis of PCB congener concentrations at the parts per
trillion (ppt) level. One ppt is roughly I grain of sand in
730,000 pounds of sand (enough to cover a football field
with 1.5 inches of sand).
How were PCB concentrations results used to
evaluate potential risk to Human Health and the
Environment? EPA directed CWM to use the soil,
vegetation, and air PCB congener data in an EPA-approved
multi-pathway risk model to assess potential risk to human
health and the environment.
Human Health Risk Assessment: A risk assessment is
a scientific tool used by EPA to estimate the likelihood of
developing health impacts (cancer and non-cancer effects)
from exposure to chemical substances through multiple
exposure routes (inhalation, ingestion, and skin contact).
What were the results and what do they
mean?
>	PCB congeners in soil at the facility are
consistent with concentrations reported in
an EPA national study (April 2007) for rural
areas not near hazardous waste facilities across
the United States (Figure 3).
>	PCB congeners in soil at the facility are 2,000
times below the Agency's residential clean-up
levels, based on their toxicity (Figure 3).
>	PCB congeners in vegetation were consistent
with those found in Kettleman Hills Facility
soils.
>	PCB congeners in air at the facility are within
EPA's human health screening levels.
U) ^ 0.00010 -f-
o o
Residential Clean-up Level
12 PCB Congeners indentifided by WHO
Figure 3: Average PCB soil concentration found at the
Kettleman Hills Facility vs. average PCB soil concentrations
found in rual area across the U.S, expressed as toxicity.
J
Potential health impacts from calculations through risk
assessment are compared to EPA's "Acceptable Risk Range"
guidelines. The guidelines for acceptability span from one
additional case of cancer (above the background rate) in
a population of one-million similarly exposed individuals
(often expressed as I x 10-6) to 100 additional cases of
cancer in a population of one-million similarly exposed
individuals (often expressed as I x 10-4 ) Figure 4.
The human health risk evaluation was modeled to respond
to community concerns regarding risk to residents from
wind-blown PCB particles from facility operations being
deposited offsite and taken up into the food chain (either
through ingestion of crops or consumption of beef or milk
from nearby grazing cattle) or from airborne emissions.
To address these concerns, EPA directed CWM to
evaluate several different exposure scenarios including a
hypothetical resident living at the fence line of the facility
and a hypothetical subsistence resident rancher living at the
fence line of the facility. A subsistence resident rancher
would consume home-grown beef, food crops, and dairy
products over 30 continuous years.
EPA concludes that the likelihood of developing cancer
under any of these scenarios is within the Agency's range of
acceptability (Figure 4).
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Residential Exposure Scenario

further action.
EPA's Acceptable Risk Range
a million
(10-6) |
(3 x 10-6)
Risk of hypothetical resident
living on the fenceline at
the Kettleman Hills Facility
a million
(10-5)
UNACCEPTABLE
J"*-
100 in
a million
(10-4)
s action)'
1,000 in
a million
(5 x 10-5)
Risk of hypothetical future subsistence
resident rancher living on the fenceline
at the Kettleman Hills Facility
Figure 4: Risk of a Hypothetical Resident Living at the Fence
Line Compared to the EPA's Acceptable Risk Range
Ecological Risk Assessment: EPA also required CWM
to prepare an ecological risk assessment that considered a
broad range of animal types and exposure mechanisms and
selected those that EPA thought would be the most highly
exposed and the most susceptible to PCB toxicity (such as
the San Joaquin Kit Fox).
EPA concludes that the PCB concentrations measured
would have no ecological effects.
In summary how do the results of the PCB
Congener Study respond to community concerns?
Risk of health impacts to Kettleman City Residents from
PCB concentrations measured in soils, vegetation, and air
near the Kettleman Hills Facility are in the same range as
risk of health impacts in other rural areas without known
PCB activities or sources.
EPA therefore concludes there is no evidence suggesting
that PCB congeners from operations at the Kettleman Hills
Facility are migrating offsite at concentrations that would
adversely affect the health of local community residents or
the environment.
How is this study related to the permit application
pending before EPA? EPA has not yet made a decision on
whether to grant or to deny CWM's request for a renewal
of its PCB permit for landfill B-I8 or for the expansion for
that landfill.
EPA will carefully consider not only the results of the PCB
Congener Study but also the results of other studies being
conducted by various State agencies, as well as a complete
review of the facility's PCB permit application and their
onsite PCB activities, before making a proposed decision.
When EPA makes a proposed decision on whether to grant
or to deny CWM's PCB permit application, EPA will hold a
public meeting to announce our proposal and open a 45-
day public comment period for the public to comment on
our proposed decision.
To receive notification of EPA public meetings for this site,
please contact the Community Involvement Coordinator
listed below to add your name to our facility mailing list.
Who can I contact with questions?
U.S. EPA Contact Information
Chip Poalinelli
415-972-3390
Poalinelli. Edwin@epamail. epa.gov
Project Manager
David Cooper
415-972-3245
Cooper. David@epamail. epa.gov
Community Involvement Coordinator
Nahal Mogharabi
415-947-4307
Mogharabi. Nahal@epamail. epa.gov
Press Contact
Bi-Lingual Message Phone Line
1-800-231-3075
J
How can I review a copy of the PCB Congener
Report, or other EPA documents related to this
Facility?
A copy of the Final PCB Congener Study Report
and other key project documents are available at the
Kettleman Hills Library, Hanford Library, and theAvenal
Library and is also available on-line at:
http://www e pa.gov/regi o n 9/kettl e man.
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