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U S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY REGION	November 1999

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has chosen a final cleanup plan for the Palermo Wei I field
Superfund site. The Record of Decision (ROD), the official document outlining this plan, was signed on
November 16, 1999. During the public comment period on the Proposed Plan, EPA received comments that
led to a revision to the cleanup plan. This fact sheet summarizes those comments, as well as the different
parts of the selected cleanup.

Community Comments and Concerns

From August 6 through September 6,1999, EPA
invited public comment on the Proposed Plan
for cleanup of the Palermo Wellfield Superfund
site. On August 17, a public meeting was held
at the Tumwater City Hall to receive and docu-
ment community comments on the Proposed
Plan. During this meeting, EPA discussed the
Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS)
performed at the site. The RI/FS is where EPA
studies the problem and assesses possible
solutions. EPA used certain criteria to evaluate
and compare possible cleanup options for
Palermo. At the public meeting, EPA reviewed
the proposed options for cleaning up contami-
nants in soil, groundwater, surface water, and
indoor air.

While generally supportive of EPA's proposed
cleanup plan, community members raised many
issues which were addressed at the public
meeting and/or in the ROD'S Responsiveness
Summary, which is part of the ROD.

Specific questions about the french drain alter-
native focused on noise, safety, when it would
be completed, increased traffic during construc-
tion, and protecting the wildlife and trees in the
area. People also asked whether residents and
their children would be protected from contami-
nants during construction.

Revision to Cleanup Plan

During the comment period, EPA received some
new information that prompted a revision to the
Palermo cleanup plan. Several residents of the
Palermo neighborhood indicated that there are
houses beyond the west side of Rainier Avenue
which contain standing water in their crawl
spaces during wet seasons. The french drain
remedy in the Proposed Plan only addressed
houses along the west side of Rainier Avenue,
and would have had little or no effect on the
groundwater table in the rest of the Palermo
Valley neighborhood. Based on these com-
ments, EPA revised the cleanup plan. As the
cleanup remedy is designed, EPA will investi-
gate the groundwater table throughout the
entire Palermo neighborhood. If standing water
is found to contain contaminants of concern
and unacceptable risks are discovered, EPA will
either lower the groundwater table or ventilate
the crawl spaces in order to protect the resi-
dents.

Overview of EPA's Selected Cleanup
Remedies

For Groundwater Contamination

EPA constructed and tested an air stripping
treatment system at the Palermo Wellfield.
In March 1999, EPA turned this system over


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to the City of Tumwater for operation and
maintenance. The selected remedy includes
continuing to run this system, until the ground-
water consistently meets drinking water stan-
dards in all wells at the Wellfield.

For Soil Contamination atSouthgate Mall

The soil vapor extraction (SVE) system, installed
to remove a source of tetrachloroethylene (PCE)
from beneath the Southgate Mall area near
Southgate Cleaners, has removed approximately
410 pounds of PCE to date. To prevent further
groundwater contamination, EPA will continue
to operate this system until soils meet cleanup
levels. This is expected to take less than one
year, after which the SVE system will be taken
down. After this time, EPA does not anticipate
the need for any land use restrictions due to the
Superfundsite.

For Surface Water and Indoor Air

The cleanup remedy chosen for surface water
and indoor air problems is to install a french
drain to collect groundwater seepage at the
base of Palermo bluff. This will prevent con-
taminated water from collecting in crawl spaces
of homes in the Palermo Valley, as these con-
taminants can potentially evaporate into the
indoor air and pose a health risk to residents.
The french drain will route this water through a
storm drain to the Tumwater Valley Municipal
Golf Course where it will be agitated by two
surface aerators to remove the contaminants.
This treatment structure will look like a vigor-
ously bubbling pond with two fountains.

Treated water will drain through the storm
water ditch system, eventually discharging to
the Deschutes River.

EPA will also monitor trends in trichloroethylene
(TCE) and PCE concentrations in groundwater
and surface water, the effectiveness of natural
recovery, and the effectiveness of the treatment
system. Studies indicate that it will take be-
tween five to thirty years to reduce contami-
nants in the groundwater enough to meet

Palermo Wellfield	November 1999

drinking water standards. EPA does not antici-
pate any land use restrictions due to the
Superfund site. Property owners, government
officials, and well drillers will be notified of the
groundwater contamination plume boundaries
to assure that no supply wells will be inadvert-
ently drilled into the contamination.

The Contaminants

Trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene
(PCE) are common chlorinated organic solvents
that are used for metal degreasing, solvent
extraction, dry cleaning, and as a fumigant. TCE
and PCE belong to a family of chemicals known
as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which
move easily through the environment and may
be harmful to people who are exposed to them.
Potential health problems from exposure de-
pend on a variety of things, including how the
chemical entered the body, how long and how
often you have been exposed, and how sensi-
tive you are to its effect.

Background

The Palermo Wellfield, located just east of
Interstate 5 near the intersection of Trosper
Road and Capitol Boulevard, consists of six wells
that provide up to 50% of the drinking water for
the city of Tumwater. In 1993, routine sampling
of the Palermo Wellfield detected the solvent
trichloroethylene (TCE) in three of the city wells.
At this time, the city removed the three contami-
nated wells from service.

On April 1,1997, the Palermo Wellfield site was
added to EPA's National Priorities List (NPL) of
contaminated sites identified for potential long-
term cleanup. Further investigations revealed
the presence of TCE and PCE in soil and ground-
water at the site.

EPA discovered a plume of groundwater con-
taminated with PCE and TCE. This plume began
at a commercial area east of the site, extending
through a residential area to the Wellfield.
Studies also found PCE and TCE in surface water
in the residential area next to the Wellfield.

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Palermo Wellfield

November 1999

EPA WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU

EPA strives to provide you with useful
environmental information. Please
feel free to call, write or email us to let
us know how we can improve our
fact sheets to suit your needs. You
can email Debra Packard at
packard.debra@epamail.epa.gov.

We are exploring electronic distribu-
tion of fiuture fact sheets. Would you
like to be notified by email that this
information is available on our web
site?

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Who Can I Call
If I Have Questions?

Where Can I Get
More Information

Robert Kievit,

EPA Remedial Project Manager at
(360)753-9014

The Administrative Record, for this site, is
available for your review at the Information
Repositories located at the

Debra Packard,

EPA Community Involvement Coordinator at
(206)553-0247

EPA can also be reached by calling toll-free
1-800-424-4372

To ensure effective communication with everyone, additional services
can be made available to persons with disabilities by contacting one
of the numbers above.

Tumwater Public Library,

7023 New Market Street

and

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Seattle Office
1200 Sixth Avenue
Records Center (7th Floor)

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SEB^_

United States
Environmental Protection
Agency

Region 10(ECO-081)
1200 Sixth Avenue
Seattle WA 98101

BULK RATE
POSTAGE & FEES PAID
U.S. EPA
Permit No. G-35

SUPERFUND FACT SHEET

Palermo Wellfield
Tumwater, Washington


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