v>EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA needs your help EPA wants to talk with area residents and other interested parties one-on-one about the Aircraft Components site. Agency staff wants to get a better understanding of the community, concerns residents may have, and how EPA can communicate site updates. The information gathered during these interviews will help EPA in writing a community involvement plan. Interviews will be scheduled Oct. 22, 23, and 24. To participate in an interview, contact EPA's contractor, Cheryl Vaccarello at 312-201-7791 or cheryl. vaccarello@tetratech. com. Public meeting EPA is holding a meeting to give residents an update on site activities. The meeting will be: Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. Business Growth Center 200 Paw Paw Ave., Room 116 Benton Harbor, MI People who need special accommodations should contact EPA representative Don de Blasio (contact information below) by Oct. 19. For more information If you have questions about the Aircraft Components project, please contact: Jennifer Cheever EPA Remedial Project Manager 312-353-4627 cheever.jennifer@epa.gov Don de Blasio EPA Community Involvement Coordinator 312-886-4360 deblasio .don@epa.gov EPA toll-free 800-621-8431, 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., weekdays EPA Gathers Public Input On Cleanup Site Aircraft Components, Inc. Superfund Site Benton Harbor, Michigan October 2012 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is holding a public meeting to update the community on activities at the Aircraft Components, Inc. (ACI) site. EPA will also be talking with area residents and other interested parties one- on-one. These interviews are an important part of EPA's process in writing a community involvement plan (CIP). The CIP is EPA's "game plan" on how to include residents in EPA's cleanup process while giving them information they want. The interviews help EPA get a better understanding of the community and its concerns about the cleanup process. See the left-hand box on ways you can participate in the decision-making process on the ACI site. History of site activities EPA has been working at the site to clean up pollution since 1997. The Agency completed a three-phase removal action at the Aircraft Components location between November 1997 and March 2000. The cleanup activities included the following: • Demolition of Buildings 1 and 2 (recessed concrete foundations). • Disposal of materials affected by radium-226 (painted gauges, etc.). • Decontamination of concrete floor of large Quonset Hut (10,000 square feet). Between October 2002 and May 2003, EPA conducted additional cleanup activities that included: • Removal of waste located within remaining buildings or on-site. • Asbestos abatement and removal. • Demolition of Building 1 and 2 foundations. • Demolition of Buildings 3, 4, and 5, Auxiliary Building 2, and small Quonset Hut. • Demolition of Building 3, 4, and 5 foundations. A ground water sampling project in May 2004 determined concentration levels of the site contaminants of concern, which are tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, cis-1,2-dichlorocthcnc. and vinyl chloride. Ground water is an environmental term for underground supplies of fresh water. In August 2004, the first round of treatment using a hydrogen release compound (HRC) mixture injected into the ground occurred at 423 points identified throughout the site. Ground water monitoring was performed quarterly between October 2004 and April 2007 to evaluate the effectiveness of the treatment. In June 2007, development of the site for inclusion of the Harbor Shores golf course began. As a result of site development and well abandonment activities, quarterly ground water sampling was suspended from April 2007 through June 2008. In December 2007 and March 2008, Harbor Shores injected additional HRC at 100 location points. Since June 2008, quarterly or bi-annual ground water sampling continues to be done to evaluate the effectiveness of the additional treatment. ------- As a result of the HRC injections, increased methane has been produced, and contaminant concentrations have not been reduced to below acceptable levels. Therefore, a different type of injection (an oxidizing substrate) is proposed for the site. A pilot test to study the effectiveness of such a compound is scheduled for early 2013. Site background The ACI site is on the outskirts of Benton Harbor at 671 North Shore Drive in Benton Township, Berrien County, Michigan. The site is a 17-acre parcel of land bounded on the south and southeast by the Paw Paw River, to the east by a wooded area, to the west by North Shore Drive and to the north by Ridgeway Drive. The site is primarily flat, although Ridgeway Drive, which marks the northern boundary of the site, is atop a steep 50-foot bluff. Prior to cleanup, the bluff was littered with discarded household appliances, tires and other items that indicated unrestricted dumping. A narrow grassy bank drops about 10 feet to the Paw Paw River along the south and southeastern boundary of the site. The eastern part of the ACI site is wooded and includes several wetlands. A culvert that drains a spring from the Ridgeway Road area at the top of the bluff discharges into the wetlands. Originally, the western portion of the ACI site had five interconnected buildings on it. Four of the buildings were partly-dilapidated, single-story brick structures with concrete basements. One building was a two-story glass sided structure with a concrete basement. The site also had two Quonset huts and other structures on it. Constructed in the 1910s, the main buildings were used by various manufacturing concerns, including a plating facility, until the mid-1950s. From the mid-1950s until the site was sold to D&L Sales, Inc., in the early 1990s, ACI bought and sold World War II-era military aircraft gauges and other components and used the ACI site as a warehousing, storage and shipping center. Some of the aircraft gauges were marked with luminescent paint containing radium-226, a naturally occurring radionuclide. Natural decay of radium-226 causes radio-emissions of alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma radiation and the formation of radon-222, all of which are health hazards. Site investigations showed that some of the luminescent paint was beginning to deteriorate into a powder. This meant that the radium-226 could leak out of the aircraft gauges into the environment and could create an inhalation risk to anyone who handled them. oEPA United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 Superfund Division (SI-7J) 77 W. Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL 60604-3590 AIRCRAFT COMPONENTS, INC. SUPERFUND SITE COMMUNITY INTERVIEWS AND PUBLIC MEETING SCHEDULED ------- |