U.S. EPA Region 8 RCRA Corrective Action Program ChevronTexaco Refinery, Casper, Wyoming Facility Success Story Contacts: Ed Wilson, ChevronTexaco, Jerry Breed, WDEQ, Tom Aalto, EPA Region 8 August 2004 The former Texaco Refinery in Casper, Wyoming is the subject of a series of major site stabilization and restoration activities that began about seven years ago. Through these activities, the site gained recognition as one of US EPA's Showcase Pilot Projects for innovative approaches to RCRA Corrective Action (http://www.epa.aov/epaoswer/hazwaste/ca/showcase.htm). It is a major RCRA corrective action success story. The company had initially effectively addressed corrective action under two WDEQ orders. In June of 2003, the site was accepted into Wyoming's Voluntary Remediation Program (VRP). Now, corrective action will be conducted in accordance with the VRP process and will include risk assessment, corrective measures study, final remedy selection and remedy implementation. The company project team estimates that, working collaboratively with the State under the VRP approach, it has taken less than half the amount of time it would have taken under the old program, to develop a framework for completing corrective action and to initiate the risk assessment. Two large-scale containment and stabilization projects have been successfully completed and two additional projects are underway. Collectively, these four projects form the backbone of ChevronTexaco's initiative to achieve long-term protection of human health and the environment at the former refinery site and create opportunities for beneficial re-use of the property by surrounding communities. The first project completed was the owner's ambitious four-year program to completely decommission the 200-acre area that housed the former processing units, storage tank farms and various maintenance facilities. This program involved removal of all refinery structures, including more than 200 miles of subsurface refinery piping, thousands of tons of concrete, and more than 100,000 cubic yards of petroleum-contaminated soils and source materials. The second project involved installation of a state-of-the-art Waterloo Barrier® to provide reliable, long-term protection of surface water quality in the North Platte River. The North Platte forms the northern, down- gradient border of the former refinery site and is highly valued as a regional water supply, fishery and recreational resource. A third project, now underway, involves ChevronTexaco's site-wide effort to remove and stabilize source materials remaining in certain areas of the property, and restore soil quality to a set of risk-based standards that are commensurate with future re-use planning. Construction and operation of a RCRA Corrective Action Management Unit (CAMU) is providing the avenue for ChevronTexaco to conduct the work in a safe and economic manner, and will eventually dovetail with re-use planning under Wyoming's VRP. The fourth project is being conducted by ChevronTexaco as a key component of its RCRA groundwater remediation program for the site. ChevronTexaco's efforts at the site helped to inspire formation of USEPA's NAPL Clean-Up Alliance, one of six active working groups under the agency's Remediation Technology Development Forum (RTDF). As a core member of the Alliance, ChevronTexaco will be working with other member industries and agencies to develop improved scientific and regulatory approaches to remediation of groundwater and soils at large, complex sites that have been impacted by petroleum hydrocarbon type NAPLs. The Alliance will create and test an improved decision-making framework, using scientific principles and innovative technologies, to identify reasonable and practicable cleanup goals that are acceptable to regulatory and public interests (http://www.rtdf.org/public/napl/). The first phase of the decision-making framework is an improved Site Conceptual Model (SCM) which ChevronTexaco expects to complete and share with the RTDF during fourth quarter 2004. The former Casper refinery is highlighted as the only active remediation site formally participating in one of the Alliance's Technical Working Groups. ------- |