vVEPA

April
2017

Enforcement in Action

Addressing Community Needs
in Olathe, Kansas

The Value of Environmental Enforcement

At the Chemical Commodities, inc. (CCI) Superfund site
in Olathe, EPA's environmental enforcement mechanisms
and resources have played a vital role in supporting public
health protection, environmental restoration and reuse.
These outcomes are providing long-term community
benefits for nearby Olathe residents.

EPA's environmental enforcement program facilitated the
identification of the parties responsible for the cleanup
of this former chemical storage and recycling facility
and executed an agreement with the parties to pay for
and perform the cleanup. EPA enforcement staff also
required and facilitated the development of institutional
controls to safeguard the site's long-term remedy.
Effective cleanup enforcement responses as well as
extensive collaboration among EPA, its partners, and site
stakeholders ensured the cleanup would be compatible
with plans for the site's future.

Today, those plans have been realized. The site currently
hosts a colorful and varied pollinator prairie, a haven for
bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators.
The area is a beautiful community park, and stands in
stark contrast to the chemical recycling facility that once
contaminated the site.

Environmental Enforcement
Benefits the Community

Environmental and public health impacts affect people
most significantly where they live. EPA works to provide
strong, effective enforcement support to all communities.
As the Agency implements environmental and public
health improvements across the country, EPA is looking
for new ways to assist communities in environmentally
overburdened, underserved, and economically distressed
areas where the needs are greatest.

Enforcement First:
Polluters Pay, Not Taxpayers

EPA enforcement makes sure that responsible
parties - governments, businesses and other
parties - meet their obligations under the nation's
environmental laws to protect public health and the
environment. Usingtheenforcementfirstapproach,
EPA identifies parties responsible for contamination
and compels them to clean it up or pay for the
cleanup, and works with diverse stakeholders
to ensure the long-term protectiveness of public
health and the environment. The enforcement
program also supports community revitalization by
providing guidance materials and site-specific tools
that help stakeholders address liability concerns
and plan for the future.

My mom still has really bad memories of back when this place was
operating, but those days are over and it's nice now to have
a beautiful park with flowers right in our neighborhood."

- Neighborhood resident


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The site's location in Olathe, Kansas.

Site and Community Overview

The site is located in a residential neighborhood near
downtown Olathe. The surrounding neighborhoods
included mostly low to middle class income homes with
many rental properties, resulting in a largely transient
community. From 1951 to 1989, CCI stored, recycled,
repackaged and distributed chemicals on site. During
facility operations, the community grappled with a
range of challenges - several fires, explosions, and even
contaminated runoff. Area residents faced significant
health risks from soil and groundwater contamination
as well as poor indoor air quality. After the facility shut
down in 1989, the dilapidated property continued to
pose significant health risks and was a community
eyesore.

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WCMC and USGS.

Project History

1985 - 1993

Responding to Initial Concerns

CCI facility operations.

Area residents brought the site to the attention of local
authorities due to concerns about on-site operations
and contaminated runoff in their yards. After receiving
notification from local and state agencies, EPA began
site investigations. Inspections revealed the need to
redirect drainage to control surface runoff, inadequate
waste storage practices, poor general housekeeping
practices, and uncertain conditions of the underground
storage tanks. Initial enforcement activities focused on
removal actions to address urgent health hazards from
site drainage impacting residents near the site. In May
1985, EPA signed an administrative order on consent
with CCI. This agreement led to the removal of three
leaking underground storage tanks, eliminating the
source of ongoing contamination.

In 1988, afteraCCI truckcaughton fire while transporting
waste, EPA investigations and enforcement activities
resumed. Further investigations found numerous
environmental and public health threats in the form of
soils contaminated with heavy metals, polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), semi-volatile organic compounds,
polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and volatile organic
compounds (VOCs), which also impacted groundwater.

vvEPA

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Site Remediation Enforcement


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Enforcement Mechanisms

•	Administrative Settlement Order on Consent

Settlement agreement used by EPA for removal
activities, site investigations, remedy design
work and cash settlements with responsible
parties. The U.S. Department of Justice often
assists EPA in negotiating administrative order
on consent settlements.

•	Unilateral Administrative Consent EPA can

issue a unilateral administrative consent order
when it finds there may be an imminent and
substantial endangerment to the public health
or the environment. The order requires parties
to undertake a response action, either a short
or long-term cleanup.

•	Action Memorandum Document provides a
written record of the selection and approval of a
removal action, and substantiates the need for
a removal action.

•	Consent Decree Legal document that
formalizes an agreement between EPA and
PRPs that describes actions that PRPs are
required to perform.

To ensure necessary cleanup actions continued, EPA
issued a unilateral administrative order in April 1989.
The order required CCI to perform cleanup actions but
the company did not fully comply with cleanup requests.
To keep cleanup moving forward, EPA signed an action
memorandum in July 1989. The action memorandum
supported the use of federal funds to conduct the
necessary cleanup actions.

Both CCI and CCI's sole proprietor filed for bankruptcy
in 1991. CCI had no remaining assets at the time, and
Kansas bankruptcy law made it difficult to obtain assets
from the sole proprietor. EPA then stepped in and used
federal funds for the cleanup. In 1991, EPA and CCI
entered into a settlement agreement to reimburse EPA
for its past cleanup costs, resulting in EPA receiving
paymentsfrom insurance policies. While EPA successfully
recovered some costs through these proceedings, it was
important to Identify a long-term PRP who would be able
to support the site's cleanup work.



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" Neighbors and the community were tired

of living near an overgrown eyesore.
It was a good time to plan for the future. "
- Terrie Bogusbi,

TOSC Technical Assistance Specialist

1994 - Present

Identifying Additional Responsible Parties,
Achieving Long-Term Protection of Public Health
and the Environment

EPA listed the site on the Superfund program's National
Priorities List (NPL) in May 1994. In September 1994,
EPA identified Rockwell International Corporation as a
PRP. Rockwell recycled its solvents used to clean rocket
engines at CCI. In 1996, the Boeing Company acquired
Rockwell.

With CCI unable to fund remaining cleanup needed at
the site, EPA's identification of additional PRPs was
critical to protect the community from contamination.
In addition to Boeing, EPA identified over 12 other
PRPs who had contributed to the contamination to
undertake the site's long-term cleanup plan. Without
EPA enforcement's tireless efforts to identify responsible
parties, taxpayer dollars would have been used to pay
for the cleanup. Instead, a PRP-iead cleanup allowed
for the fast cleanup of the site, minimizing risks to
the community. To streamline communication and
facilitate a more efficient cleanup process, Boeing
stepped forward to lead the PRP group and conduct the
cleanup work, which included waste characterization,
risk assessments, time-critical removal actions, indoor

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In 2013, the prairie was certified through the Corporate Lands
for Learning program by the Wildlife Habitat Council.

Integrating Cleanup and Reuse

Based on the site's remedial investigation and
feasibility study, site stakeholders decided the remedy
could support a community park or open space.

Light recreational or ecological reuses were ideal
not only for the community but for Boeing, as the
PRP.

These greenspaces could incorporate native
vegetation on the cap; meaning the plants
would not only help keep the cap in place and
prevent erosion, they would likely require less
maintenance than non-native plantings. Native
vegetation provides habitat for local species,
including many pollinators, and is well-suited to
endure local weather.

air ventilation system installations, and completing the
final cleanup.

For years, residents had sought assistance, "Some had
seen impacts to their homes or yards, but they had not
received answers, no meaningful responses," explained
EPA site attorney Barbara Peterson. During the long-
term remedial planning phase in 2001, the community
came together to form the CCI Citizens Advisory Group.
EPA provided independent technical assistance through
its Technical Outreach Services for Communities (TOSC)
program to help the advisory group stay informed.
EPA legal counsel attended community meetings and
assisted by answering community member questions
whenever possible. Residents sought guidance and
information regarding their obligations as property
owners and potential sellers in the area as well as other
legal questions.

The final cleanup included excavation, treatment and
disposal of contaminated soils, backfilling and capping
of excavated areas, chemical oxidation of contaminated
groundwater, monitored natural attenuation, ventilation
system operation and maintenance, and institutional
controls. EPA signed an action memorandum in
2002 for a time-critical removal action calling for
the installation of ventilation systems and sampling
to determine the need for additional systems, thereby
minimizing the risks from contaminated indoor air
in nearby residences. Boeing initially installed and
monitored these systems; EPA has since taken over the
indoor air program as a way to support Boeing in its
cooperative approach as a PRP.

Boeing worked with the advisory group to make sure the
cleanup would be compatible with recreational uses such
as a community park or open space. The advisory group
had conducted a survey in 2005 which indicated that
most respondents preferred future site reuses that could
include open space with components like landscaping,
benches and walkways. In 2009, after Boeing and other
site PRPs signed a consent decree with EPA to complete
the site's cleanup, remedial design began.

Under EPA oversight, and with Boeing's coordination,
the cleanup finished under budget and a year ahead of
schedule.

vvEPA

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Site Remediation Enforcement


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Institutional Controls

Non-engineered instruments such as administrative
and legal controls that help minimize the potential for
human exposure to contamination and/or protect the
integrity of the remedy.

Examples include zoning restrictions, local ordinances
and restrictive covenants, institutional controls can
document restrictions on property use, including
types of land development, excavation depths or
groundwater use.

Ongoing collaboration among EPA, Boeing, the state of
Kansas, the City of Olathe, community members, the
Advisory Group, Monarch Watch, and the Pollinator
Partnership made the site's reuse possible. The area is
now home to the Olathe Pollinator Prairie, a community
park offering opportunities for habitat restoration,
environmental education and recreation. Walking paths
with informational signage wind through a garden of
native species that attract pollinators such as bees, birds
and butterflies. The prairie is also along a migrational
corridor for Monarch butterflies. An area for tagging
migrating Monarch butterflies helps researchers to learn
more about their migration patterns and survival rates.
The pollinator prairie illustrates how suburban areas can
support species conservation and biodiversity.

Ensuring Site Access and Long-Term
Protectiveness

In addition to the cleanup plan's engineering and
physical components, EPA included institutional
controistoadd layers of protectiveness. EPAenforcement
staff required and facilitated the development of the
site's 2006 restrictive covenant, which precludes
commercial, residential and industrial uses, prohibits
disturbance of the property's surface or subsurface,
restricts livestock grazing and food production, and
prohibits water wells on site. In addition, the PRPs
and the city recognize that a 2006 zoning designation
restricts the area to recreational green space and
prohibits the construction of residences. The site's
2009 consent decree also ensures that EPA will
have ongoing access to the property to make sure the

Informational placards throughout the pollinator prairie share
the history of the area and information about native pollinators.

Community members watching pollinators in the site's habitat
garden.

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site remains safe for users, area residents, and the
environment. Groundwater extraction for domestic use
is restricted via a city ordinance.

Enforcement Makes a Difference

EPA's environmental enforcement program has
helped make a difference in thousands of communities
impacted by hazardous waste contamination. At sites
like the Chemical Commodities, Inc. Superfund site,
the program helps ensure that viable liable parties
perform and pay for prompt and protective cleanups
that integrate future site reuse and consider long-term
protectiveness through the use of institutional controls.
In Olathe, Kansas, collaboration among site PRPs
and federal agencies, sustained engagement with the
community and forward thinking have allowed for the
safe and sustainable use of the Chemical Commodities,
Inc. Superfund site as a pollinator prairie, benefitting
visitors, local residents and native wildlife alike.

The Importance of a Pollinator Habitat

Pollinators provide pollination services to over
180,000 different plant species and more than
1,200 crops. Most flowering plants need help
from pollinators to survive but many pollinator
populations are in decline. This decline is attributed
most severely to a loss in feeding and nesting
habitats, EPA is working with potentially responsible
parties and community groups at Superfund sites
across the country to restore, create and protect
pollinator habitat. Native pollinator gardens,
meadows and educational prairies, like the one at
the CCI site, not only provide much-needed habitat,,
the educational component helps spread the word
about why pollinators are so important and how
to help them. To learn more about how EPA is
supporting pollinators, visit: https://www.epa.eov/
pollinator-protection/epa-actions-protect-pollinators.

"Our priority was low-maintenance
green space that would beautify the
neighborhood."

- Janell Andrews,

CCI Citizens Advisory Group

For More Information, Contact

Elisabeth Freed

freed .el isabeth@epa .gov
(202) 564-5117

vvEPA

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Office of Site Remediation Enforcement


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