Monroe County EPA Brownfields Assessment Grant

Former Gulf Ordnance Plant (GOP)

Public Meeting September 29, 2015 4:00—7:00 pm

Meeting Minutes

Attendees:

Cindy Quast--Stanley Consultants

Jeanette Verduin--EPA Reg 4

Mike King—Monroe County Brownfields Project Manager

Norm Kennel--EarthCon Consultants

Richard Ball--MDEQ

Gary Gann--EarthCon Consultants

Jason McIlwain--EarthCon Consultants

George Mayo—EarthCon Consultants

Cecil Belle, Mayor--City of Aberdeen

Laura Carothers

Dorothy Ewing

Eric M Jonas

Evan Adams--Monroe County

Dr. Carol Crawford--Monroe County

Skip Scaggs--Chamber of Commerce/Economic Development

Barbara Wilson

Jimmy Spencer--Cook-Coggin Engineers

James Coggin, Jr--Monroe County

Charles Donaldson

Fulton Ware--Monroe County

Norm Kennel of EarthCon made a presentation (attached) discussing the EPA Brownfields grant, the investigation process, work completed so far, and work yet to be done. Several questions arose during the presentations. The questions and answers to the major items of discussion are provided below:

1)Q: Will the County get a certificate to show that the site is clear?

A: After the Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs), the consultant will evaluate the health risk caused by contamination found on the site. If the health risk is below what EPA and MDEQ allow, then both EPA and MDEQ will approve the Phase II ESA indicating they concur that the health risk is low enough for the intended future use of the site. If the health risk is above what EPA and MDEQ allow, then cleanup may be required.

If cleanup is required, Monroe County can go after an EPA Brownfields cleanup grant and coordinate cleanup with EPA and MDEQ in MDEQ’s voluntary cleanup program. At the successful completion of the voluntary cleanup program, MDEQ will issue a certificate to Monroe County stating that the site is cleaned up enough for the intended future use.

2)Q: What was found at Prairie Metals?

A: According to public documents, EPA discovered chromium, arsenic and lead.

3)Q: Why wasn’t Prairie Metals a Superfund Site?

A: The history of the Prairie Metals site, (from the EPA Superfund website) is as follows:

  • In 1984, MDEQ did a Preliminary Assessment (PA) of the Prairie Metals site determining that it was a low priority site.
  • As a result of MDEQ’s PA, EPA filed a discovery in 1984. (Discovery of a potential National Priority List (NPL) site.)
  • In 1986, EPA did a Site Inspection (SI) and classified the Prairie Metals site as an “N,” meaning that an NPL listing was not warranted based upon current information. (This is what excluded the site from Superfund.)
  • In 1988, EPA initiated a removal action that was completed in 1992. EPA classified the site as “cleaned up.”
  • In 1992, an EPA Administrative Record was compiled for the removal event.

4)Q: What is the risk to groundwater?

A: The municipal drinking water wells for the City of Aberdeen are several hundred feet deep. We will be testing shallow groundwater (approximately 25 feet below ground surface) at the site. If contamination of shallow groundwater is found, we will do a health risk evaluation to determine if there is any risk to the municipal wells. If a risk is identified, a plan will be developed to eliminate the risk. (Because of the depth of the municipal wells, we are not expecting any potential impacts to the City’s drinking water wells.)

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