2020-13301. National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan; National Priorities List: Partial Deletion of the Allied Chemical & Ironton Coke Superfund Site

AGENCY:

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION:

Proposed rule; notification of intent.

SUMMARY:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 is issuing a Notice of Intent to Delete soil (land), lagoon, and sediment portions of the Allied Chemical & Ironton Coke Superfund Site (Site) in Ironton, Ohio, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comments on this proposed action. The NPL, promulgated pursuant to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended, is an appendix of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP). The EPA and the State of Ohio, through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), have determined that all appropriate response actions identified for these Site media, other than operation and maintenance, monitoring, and five-year reviews, have been completed. However, this deletion does not preclude future actions under Superfund.

DATES:

Comments must be received by July 24, 2020.

ADDRESSES:

Submit your comments, identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-1983-0002, by one of the following methods:

https://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments. Once submitted, comments cannot be edited or removed from Regulations.gov. EPA may publish any comment received to its public docket. Do not submit electronically any information you consider to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Multimedia submissions (audio, video, etc.) must be accompanied by a written comment. The written comment is considered the official comment and should include discussion of all points you wish to make. EPA will generally not consider comments or comment contents located outside of the primary submission (i.e., on the web, cloud, or other file sharing system). For additional submission methods, the full EPA public comment policy, information about CBI or multimedia submissions, and general guidance on making effective comments, please visit https://www.epa.gov/​dockets/​commenting-epa-dockets.

Email: [e-mail].

Written comments submitted by mail are temporarily suspended and no hand deliveries will be accepted. We encourage the public to submit comments via email or at https://www.regulations.gov.

Instructions: Direct your comments to Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-1983-0002. EPA's policy is that all comments received will be included in the public docket without change and may be made available online at https://www.regulations.gov,, including any personal information provided, unless the comment includes information claimed to be Confidential Business Information (CBI) or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Do not submit information that you consider to be CBI or otherwise protected through https://www.regulations.gov or email. The https://www.regulations.gov website is an “anonymous access” system, which means EPA will not know your identity or contact information unless you provide it in the body of your comment. If you send an email comment directly to EPA without going through https://www.regulations.gov,, your email address will be automatically captured and included as part of the comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the internet. If you submit an electronic comment, EPA recommends that you include your name and other contact information in the body of your comment and with any disk or CD-ROM you submit. If EPA cannot read your comment due to technical difficulties and cannot contact you for clarification, EPA may not be able to consider your comment. Electronic files should avoid the use of special characters, any form of encryption, and be free of any defects or viruses.

Docket: All documents in the docket are listed in the https://www.regulations.gov index. Although listed in the index, some information is not publicly available, e.g., CBI or other information whose disclosure is restricted by statute. Certain other material, such as copyrighted material, will be publicly available only in hard copy. Publicly available docket materials are available electronically at https://www.regulations.gov and at https://www.epa.gov/​superfund/​allied-chemical-ironton or you may contact the person identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT section for additional availability information.

The EPA is temporarily suspending its Docket Center and Regional Records Centers for public visitors to reduce the risk of transmitting COVID-19. In addition, many site information repositories are closed and information in these repositories, including the deletion docket, has not been updated with hardcopy or electronic media. For further information and updates on EPA Docket Center services, please visit us online at https://www.epa.gov/​dockets.

The EPA continues to carefully and continuously monitor information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local area health departments, and our Federal partners so that we can respond rapidly as conditions change regarding COVID-19.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Karen Cibulskis, NPL Deletions Coordinator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5, at [phone] or via email at [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

This partial deletion pertains to the soil (land) portion of the Goldcamp Disposal Area (Operable Unit 1, or OU1); the soil (land) and lagoon portion of the Coke Plant/Lagoon Area (OU2), except for the OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 located within the bermed area of the East Tank Farm (see Figure 3 in the Docket); and all of the Tar Plant area (OU3), which addresses contaminated soil and sediment at the Tar Plant and in the adjacent Ohio River.

The OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 located within the bermed area of the East Tank Farm contains components of the groundwater treatment system and will not be remediated until after the groundwater cleanup is complete.

Therefore, the OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 is not being considered for deletion as part of this action. The contaminated groundwater at the Site, which is present below all three OUs but is being addressed as part of the OU1 and OU2 cleanup remedies, is undergoing a long-term cleanup and is also not being considered for deletion as part of this action. The OU2 ROD Soils Area 2 and the groundwater portions of the Allied Chemical Site (i.e., the groundwater portion of OU1 and OU2, which includes the contaminated groundwater below OU3) will remain on the NPL.

In the “Rules and Regulations” section of today's Federal Register, we are publishing a direct final Notice of Partial Deletion of the Allied Chemical & Ironton Coke Superfund Site without prior Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion because EPA views this as a noncontroversial revision and anticipates no adverse comment. We have explained our reasons for this deletion in the preamble to the direct final Notice of Partial Deletion, and those reasons are incorporated herein. If we receive no adverse comment(s) on this partial deletion action, we will not take further action on this Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion. If we receive adverse comment(s), we will withdraw the direct final Notice of Partial Deletion, and it will not take effect. We will, as appropriate, address all public comments in a subsequent final Notice of Partial Deletion based on this Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion. We will not institute a second comment period on this Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion. Any parties interested in commenting must do so at this time.

For additional information, see the direct final Notice of Partial Deletion which is located in the “Rules and Regulations” section of this Federal Register.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 300

• Environmental protection
• Air pollution control
• Chemicals
• Hazardous substances
• Hazardous waste
• Intergovernmental relations
• Penalties
• Reporting and recordkeeping requirements
• Superfund
• Water pollution control
• Water supply

Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.; 42 U.S.C. 9601-9657; E.O. 13626, 77 FR 56749, 3 CFR, 2013 Comp., p. 306; E.O. 12777, 56 FR 54757, 3 CFR, 1991 Comp., p. 351; E.O. 12580, 52 FR 2923, 3 CFR, 1987 Comp., p. 193.

Dated: June 11, 2020.

Kurt Thiede,

Regional Administrator, Region 5.