[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 93 (Monday, May 13, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 22004-22006]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-11757]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300
[FRL-5504-2]
National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan;
National Priorities List
Agency: Environmental Protection Agency.
Action: Notice of intent to delete the Alaskan Battery Enterprises Site
from the National Priorities List Update: Request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 announces
its intent to delete the Alaskan Battery Enterprises Site (Site) from
the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comment on this
proposed action. The NPL constitutes Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300
which is the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution
Contingency Plan (NCP), which EPA promulgated pursuant to Section 105
of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability
[[Page 22005]]
Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended. EPA and the State of Alaska
Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) have determined that
this Site poses no significant threat to public health or the
environment and, therefore, further remedial measures pursuant to
CERCLA are not appropriate.
DATES: Comments concerning this Site may be submitted on or before June
12, 1996.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to: Keith Rose, U. S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 1200 Sixth Avenue, Mail Stop: ECL-111, Seattle,
Washington 98101.
Comprehensive information on this Site is available through the
Region 10 public docket which is available for viewing at the Alaskan
Battery Enterprises Site information repositories at the following
locations:
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Attn: Jeffrey
Peterson, 610 University Avenue, Fairbanks, Alaska 99709-3643
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10, Environmental Cleanup
Office--Records Center, Attn: Lynn Williams, 1200 Sixth Avenue,
Seattle, Washington 98101.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Keith Rose, U.S. EPA, 1200 Sixth
Avenue, Mail Stop: ECL-111, Seattle, Washington 98101, (206) 553-7721.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
III. Deletion Procedures
IV. Basis of Intended Site Deletion
I. Introduction
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 announces its
intent to delete a site from the National Priorities List (NPL),
Appendix B of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency
Plan (NCP), 40 CFR Part 300, and requests comments on this deletion.
Sites listed on the NPL are those which present a significant risk to
human health or the environment. As described in Section 300.425(e)(3)
of the NCP, sites deleted from the NPL remain eligible for Fund-
financed remedial actions in the unlikely event that conditions at the
site warrant such actions.
EPA plans to delete the Alaskan Battery Enterprises Site at 157 Old
Richardson Highway, Fairbanks, Alaska 99709, from the NPL. EPA will
accept comments on the plan to delete this Site for thirty days after
publication of this notice in the Federal Register.
Section II of this notice explains the criteria for deleting sites
from the NPL. Section III discusses procedures that EPA is using for
this action. Section IV discusses the Alaskan Battery Enterprises Site
and explains how this site meets the deletion criteria.
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
Section 300.425(e) of the NCP provides that sites, where a release
of hazardous substances has occurred, may be deleted from, or
recategorized on the NPL, where no further response is appropriate. In
making a determination to delete a site from the NPL, EPA shall
consider, in consultation with the state, whether any of the following
criteria have been met:
(i) Responsible parties or other persons have implemented all
appropriate response actions required;
(ii) All appropriate Fund-financed responses under CERCLA have
been implemented, and no further action by responsible parties is
appropriate, or
(iii) The remedial investigation has shown that the release
poses no significant threat to public health or the environment and,
therefore, taking of remedial measures is not appropriate.
Even if a site is deleted from the NPL, where hazardous substances,
pollutants, or contaminants remain at the site above levels that allow
for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure, EPA's policy is that a
subsequent review of the site will be conducted at least every five
years after the initiation of the remedial action at the site to ensure
that the site remains protective of public health and the environment.
In the case of this Site, where hazardous substances are not above
health based levels and future access does not require restriction,
operation and maintenance activities and five-year reviews will not be
conducted. However, if new information becomes available which
indicates a need for further action, EPA may initiate remedial actions.
Whenever there is a significant release from a site deleted from the
NPL, the site may be restored to the NPL without the application of the
Hazard Ranking System.
III. Deletion Procedures
The following procedures were used for the intended deletion of
this Site: (1) EPA Region 10 issued a Record of Decision (ROD) which
documented that no further action was necessary because cleanup goals
had been achieved through removal actions prior to the ROD; (2) ADEC
concurred with the proposed deletion decision; (3) A notice has been
published in the local newspaper and has been distributed to
appropriate federal, state, and local officials and other interested
parties announcing the commencement of a 30-day public comment period
on EPA's Notice of Intent to Delete; and, (4) All relevant documents
have been made available for public review in the local Site
information repositories.
Deletion of the Site from the NPL does not itself create, alter, or
revoke any individual rights or obligations. The NPL is designed
primarily for informational purposes to assist Agency management. As
mentioned in Section II of this Notice, 40 CFR 300.425(e)(3) states
that deletion of a site from the NPL does not preclude eligibility for
future Fund-financed response actions.
For deletion of this Site, EPA's Regional Office will accept and
evaluate public comments on EPA's Notice of Intent to Delete before
making a final decision to delete. If necessary, the Agency will
prepare a Responsiveness Summary if any significant public comments are
addressed.
A deletion occurs when the Regional Administrator places a final
notice in the Federal Register. Generally, the NPL will reflect
deletions in the final update following the Notice. Public notices and
copies of the Responsiveness Summary will be made available to local
residents by the Regional office.
IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion
The following Site summary provides the Agency's rationale for the
intention to delete this Site from the NPL.
A. Site Background
The Alaskan Battery Enterprises (ABE) facility was a 0.5 acre
battery recycling facility located at 157 Old Richardson Highway at the
southern edge of Fairbanks, Alaska. The area surrounding the site is
primarily mixed residential and light commercial property.
B. Site History
The facility conducted battery recycling and manufacturing
operations of automobile batteries from 1961 until about 1992. During
its operation, crushed battery casings were used as fill material in
low-lying areas of the ABE property and in the construction of the
septic cribs along the southern property boundary. Used battery acid
was also discharged directly to the ground on the ABE property.
Investigations conducted by the Alaska Department of Transportation
(ADOT) in 1986, and by the EPA technical Assistance Team in 1988,
identified high levels of lead contamination in soil on the ABE
property and on the adjacent right-of-way owned by ADOT. In August
1988, EPA initiated an emergency removal action at the Site. Soils with
lead
[[Page 22006]]
concentrations in excess of 1,000 mg/kg were excavated and disposed of
at an off-site hazardous waste disposal facility. Excavation was
completed in the summer of 1989 with a total of 3,760 cubic yards of
contaminated soil removed and disposed off-site. Excavated areas were
backfilled with clean soil.
In the summer of 1991 EPA initiated a Remedial Investigation (RI)
for the Site. The results of the RI indicated that there were two
locations in the surface soil and one location in the subsurface soil
where lead concentrations still posed a potential human health risk.
Groundwater sampling conducted during the RI found elevated lead
concentrations in unfiltered samples, but lead was not detected in
filtered samples, indicating that lead was bound to soil particles and
not mobile in the groundwater.
In the spring of 1992 the ABE site was selected for the
demonstration of an innovative soil washing technology by EPA's
Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program. All soil
containing lead concentrations exceeding 1,000 mg/kg, which was a total
of about 130 cubic yards, was excavated and treated by the soil washing
system. Treated soil which met the cleanup goal was backfilled into the
excavated areas, and soil which did not meet the cleanup goal was sent
to an off-site disposal facility.
EPA completed the RI, a Human Health Risk Assessment, and
Feasibility Study (FS) for the Site in August, 1992. A Record of
Decision (ROD) for the Site, which declared that no further action was
necessary, was signed on March 2, 1993. However, the ROD specified that
two years of groundwater monitoring would be required to verify that
groundwater at the Site was not contaminated with lead at levels which
would pose a human health risk. This groundwater monitoring program,
which was completed in September 1995, determined that lead
concentrations in the groundwater were below EPA's drinking water
standard of 15 g/kg, and therefore the groundwater did not
pose a human health risk.
During the removal activities at this Site, EPA kept the community
informed of its cleanup actions primarily through fact sheets,
newspaper articles, and personal communications with EPA's On-Scene
Coordinator. Following the removal action, EPA representatives met with
local officials, congressional representatives, the facility owner, and
members of the community on numerous occasions to identify community
concerns to support development of a Community Relations Plan, and to
explain EPA's process for conducting a further investigation of the
Site. EPA representatives also met several times with the Potentially
Responsible Parties to discuss their potential liability for cleanup
costs at the Site. A Proposed Plan for the Site, which called for no
further cleanup action, was issued on October 29, 1992, and subject to
public comment for 30 days. This Proposed Plan was mailed to
individuals on EPA's mailing list and was also announced in a local
newspaper notice. EPA also held a public meeting on the Proposed Plan
in Fairbanks. In general, those who commented on the Proposed Plan
supported EPA's no further action decision. EPA responded to all
comments received in the Responsivesness Summary, which is attached to
the ROD.
C. Characterization of Site Risk
Based on data collected during the RI, a risk assessment was
conducted to identify exposure pathways and potential human health
risks resulting from exposure to lead contamination remaining on-site
after the removal actions conducted in 1988-89. The potential pathways
for human health exposure to lead contamination at the Site were
accidental ingestion of soil and ingestion of groundwater. A model was
used to determine that a lead cleanup goal of 490 mg/kg for surface
soil would be protective of potentially exposed children. For
subsurface soils, EPA determined that a cleanup goal of 1,000 mg/kg,
which was based on an industrial exposure, would be protective of
workers who might be exposed to contaminated soil for a short duration.
A risk assessment was not conducted for ingestion of lead in
groundwater because a federal drinking water standard (15 ug/kg)
already existed which was protective of human health.
Confirmational monitoring of soil and groundwater demonstrate that
no significant risk to public health or the environment is posed by
residual lead contamination remaining at the Site. Long-term operation
and maintenance activities are not required at the Site. Based on the
actions taken at the Site prior to the ROD, EPA and ADEC believe that
hazardous substances have been removed from the Site so as to allow for
unlimited use and unrestricted exposure within the Site, that
conditions at the Site are protective of public health and the
environment, and that no further remedial action or institutional
controls are needed at the Site. Accordingly, EPA will not conduct
``five-year reviews'' at this Site.
One of the three criteria for deletion specifies that EPA may
delete a site from the NPL if ``all appropriate Fund-financed response
under CERCLA has been implemented, and no further action by responsible
parties is appropriate.'' EPA, with concurrence of ADEC, believes that
this criterion for deletion has been met. The groundwater and soil data
confirm that the ROD goals have been met. It is concluded that there is
no significant threat to public health or the environment and,
therefore, no further remedial action is necessary. Subsequently, EPA
is proposing deletion of this Site from the NPL. Documents supporting
this action are available from the docket.
Dated: April 30, 1996.
Chuck Clarke,
Regional Administrator, Region 10.
[FR Doc. 96-11757 Filed 5-10-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P
