&EFK Region 10 1200 Sixth Avenue Seattle WA 98101 Alaska Idaho Oregon Washington Superfund Fact Sheet Queen City Farms Maple Valley, Washington June 16, 1998 This fact sheet is an overview of activities on the Queen City Farms site to control contamination that has impacted the ground water in the area. Construction at the Queen City Farms Site is Complete! The Queen City Farms site is located along Cedar Grove Road, approximately three miles northwest of Maple Valley, in King County, Washington. The area is predominately rural, wooded, with some residential neighborhoods. The site is a former pig farm owned by Queen City Farms, Inc. From approximately 1955 until the late 1960's, liquid industrial waste from local industries were disposed of in three of the on-site ponds. These wastes included paint., petroleum products, organic solvents, and oils. The LJ. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Washington Department of Ecology began investigation of the soil, water and sediments in 1980. In 1984, the site was listed on EPA's National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites. In 1985, contaminated liquids and sludge were removed from the ponds. The area was then filled with clean soil and capped. Ground water monitoring continued to identify contamination in the shallow ground water beneath the area. The ground water and soil beneath the ponds were still acting as a contamination source to the ground water. The solution was the construction of a vertical barrier wall (slurry wall) around the old pond area to prevent clean ground water from coming into contact with either contaminated soil or contaminated ground water which remained in the area. A Consent Decree was signed in 1994 with the Boeing Company, a Potentially Responsible Party i'PRP), which began the process for designing and constructing the vertical barrier wall around the contamination source. The wall construction occurred during the summer of 1996 with the cap fully in place by December. The ground water in the area reacted immediately to the placement of the wall. Water level measurements and water quality analysis have proved that this action is a very effective control measure for contamination as well as an effective barrier to the ground water movement both inside and outside the wall. The contaminated ground water within the walled area fused to the bentonite clay material (from the wall construction) which bound the water and contaminants, further reducing the chance of contaminant migration. No dewatering within the walled area appears to be required to control the remaining contaminant source. The wall is expected to be the last construction action required to control the source of contamination that has been impacting the ground water in the area. Ground water monitoring, both inside the wall and throughout the site, has already demonstrated that the barrier wall is reducing ground water flow into the contaminated soil and contaminated ground water beneath the old waste pond area. This action reduces the amount of water that can be contaminated and reduces the spread of the contaminants. Contaminated ground water has migrated into a lower aquifer but since the water flow through the contaminated area has been greatly reduced, the contamination does not appear to be migrating to any areas off- site. With the source of the contamination contained by the vertical barrier wall, ------- ground water outside of the wall is no longer being impacted. Some reduction in the contaminant concentration levels has already been detected. Sampling will continue to monitor the contaminants in the ground water and their movement. For More Information If you have questions or would like more information, please contact one of the following: As part of the Consent Decree, Boeing continues to regularly take samples from monitoring wells throughout site which includes several private residential wells. This is being done to ensure that contamination is not entering drinking water wells. Sample test results show that contamination from the Queen City Farms site is not impacting the local domestic water wells. During the investigation for the Vertical Barrier Wall system, some additional contaminated soil and some buried drums were located. These contaminated areas were simply cleaned up; drums taken off-site for proper disposal, and the slightly contaminated soil that could be contained on-site was treated and placed under the cap as an approved (Ecology) solid waste disposal unit. Information Repository To review documents concerning activities at the Queen City Farms site, you may visit the information repository located in the Maple Valley Public Library, 23730 Maple Valley Road, Maple Valley, Washington Neil Thompson, EPA Project Manager (206) 553-7177 Jeanne O'Dell, EPA Community Relations Coordinator, (206) 553-6919 Brian Anderson, Boeing Company Queen City Farms Remediation Project Manager (425) 391-3753 EPA representatives can also be reached toll free by calling 1-800-424-4372. For those with impaired hearing or speech, please contact EPA's telecommunication device for the hearing impaired (TDD) at (206) 553-1698. To ensure effective communication with everyone, additional services can be made available to persons with disabilities by contacting one of the EPA. numbers listed above. ------- SEFft United States Region 10 (ECO-081) Environmental Protection 1200 Sixth Avenue Agency Seattle WA 98101 BULK RATE POSTAGE & FEES PAID U S EPA Permit No. G-35 Superfund Fact Sheet Queen City Farms Maple Valley, Washington ------- |