FACT SHEET
,OrEPA
^1^ Region 7
Ace Services Superfund Site

Colby, Kansas
June 2001
Public Meeting
and
Public Comment Period
Announcement
EPA will hold a public meeting 7 p.m.,
Monday, July 9, 2001 at the Colby
Community Building, 285 East Fifth
Street, Colby, Kansas.
The purpose of the meeting is to take
written and oral comments on the
Proposed Plan for Amendment to the
ROD that deals with the clean up of the
contaminated ground water from the
Ace Services site.
The 30-day comment period opened
June 27, 2001 and closes July 27, 2001.
You may submit comments to EPA
through July 27, 2001.
What's Going On?
The EPA is proposing to amend the Record
of Decision (ROD) for the Ace Services
Superfund Site, 345 Convesse Avenue,
Colby, Kansas. The amended ROD is to
address the chromium contaminated ground
water at the site.
What Happened at Ace Services?
Ace Services operated a chrome plating
facility on its two and a half acres from 1954
to 1990. They applied chrome plating to
farm implement parts. Chrome plating
wastewater was produced during the
operations. It was poured on the ground
immediately west of the unnamed tributary
to Prairie Dog Creek.
The facility eventually installed concrete
retention vats and an evaporation lagoon.
These measures were taken to collect the
discharged wastewater. The evaporation
lagoon was not lined. Chromium
contaminated wastewater contaminated the
soil, seeped into the ground, and
contaminated the ground water.
The site currently includes two buildings, a
former plating shop and a former machine
shop, an inactive ground water recovery
well, and an area of soil and concrete rubble
that was placed to fill a former lagoon.
Why's EPA Proposing to Amend the
Record of Decision?
The EPA signed a ROD in May 1999. The
ROD called for extraction of contaminated
ground water using extracting wells,
chemically treating the contaminated ground
water, and discharging the treated ground
water to the Prairie Dog Creek or to the
city's water system for reuse.

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The EPA later determined that the
contamination plume is larger than originally
thought. The remedial action had to be
expanded to treat the larger-than-expected
plume.
The EPA is now proposing to:
•	install additional extraction wells to
address a larger contaminated plume,
•	use an ion exchange treatment
process to clean
the ground water, and,
•	provide a way to supply drinking
water to residences, in the
contaminated plume area, that may
be affected in the future.
The EPA's final decision will be published in
a ROD Amendment. It will include a
responsiveness summary, the agency's
response to comments received during the
public comment period.
Under the Amendment, five or more
extraction well nests will be installed and
used with the Public Water Supply Well #8
to reach cleanup goals. An ion exchange
treatment process will be used instead of the
electrochemical process described in the
1999 ROD.
The existing buildings on the site will be torn
down and the contaminated soils under the
buildings will be removed. A new building
will then be built on the Ace Services
property to house the treatment units. This
proposal will cost about $5.1 million to
construct.
All work at this site is being done under the
Superfund program. The Superfund
program was established by Congress to
clean up hazardous waste sites.
Where	Can	I	Get	More	Information?
EPA encourages community members to comment on the Proposed Plan to Amend the
ROD for the Ace Services Site and the accompanying documents. The documents are in
the Administrative Record File (a single file of all documents about the remedial action).
The Administrative Record File is available for public review at the following information
repositories, during normal business hours:
Pioneer Memorial Library	EPA Region 7 Docket Room
375 West 4th Street	901 N. 5th Street
Colby, Kansas	Kansas City, Kansas
Comments can be submitted at the public meeting, orally or in writing. Written comments
(postmarked by July 27, 2001) and questions about the site should be directed to:
Hattie Thomas, EPA Office of External Programs
901 N. 5th St.
Kansas City, Kansas 66101
1-913-551-7003 or Toll-free: 1-800-223-0425
Fax: 1-913-551-7066
E-mail: thomas.hattie@epa.gov

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