[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 108 (Tuesday, June 6, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 29814-29816]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-13789]



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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-5216-7]


National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan; 
National Priorities List

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of intent to delete the Action Anodizing, Plating and 
Polishing Superfund site from the National Priorities List; Request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region II announces 
its intent to delete the Action Anodizing, Plating and Polishing (AAPP) 
site from the National Priorities List (NPL) and 
[[Page 29815]] requests public comment on this 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 Act (CERCLA), as amended. EPA and 
the State of New York have determined that no further action is 
appropriate at the AAPP site under CERCLA. Moreover, EPA and the State 
have determined that activities conducted at the AAPP site to date have 
been protective of public health, welfare, and the environment.

DATES: Comments concerning the deletion of the AAPP site from the NPL 
may be submitted on or before July 5, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to: Kathleen C. Callahan, Director, 
Emergency and Remedial Response Division, U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, Region II, 290 Broadway, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10007.
    Comprehensive information on this site is available through the EPA 
Region II public docket, which is located at EPA's Region II Office in 
New York City, and is available for viewing, by appointment only, from 
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. For 
further information or to request an appointment to review the public 
docket, please contact: Ms. Janet Cappelli, Remedial Project Manager, 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region II, 290 Broadway, 20th 
Floor, New York, NY 10007, (212) 637-4270.
    Background information from the Regional public docket related to 
the AAPP site is also available for viewing at the information 
repositories noted below:

Copiague Memorial Library, 50 Deauville Boulevard, Copiague, New York 
11726
  and
Town of Babylon, Department of Environmental Control, 281 Phelps Lane, 
Control Room 23, North Babylon, New York 11703.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
III. Deletion Procedures
IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

I. Introduction

    EPA Region II announces its intent to delete the AAPP site from the 
NPL and requests public comment on this action. The NPL constitutes 
Appendix B to the NCP, which EPA promulgated pursuant to Section 105 of 
CERCLA. EPA identifies sites that appear to present a significant risk 
to public health, welfare, or the environment and maintains the NPL as 
the list of those sites. Sites on the NPL may be the subject of 
remedial actions financed by the Hazardous Substances Superfund 
Response Trust Fund (Fund). Pursuant to Sec. 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP, 
any site deleted from the NPL remains eligible for Fund-financed 
remedial actions, if conditions at such sites warrant such action.
    The EPA will accept comments concerning the AAPP 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 how the AAPP site meets the deletion 
criteria.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    The NCP establishes the criteria that the Agency uses to delete 
sites from the NPL. In accordance with 40 CFR 300.425 (e), sites may be 
deleted from the NPL where no further response is appropriate. In 
making this determination, EPA will consider whether any of the 
following criteria has been met:
    (i) EPA, in consultation with the State, has determined that 
responsible or other parties have implemented all appropriate response 
actions required; or,
    (ii) All appropriate Fund-financed responses under CERCLA have been 
implemented and EPA, in consultation with the State, has determined 
that no further cleanup by responsible parties is appropriate; or,
    (iii) Based on a remedial investigation, EPA, in consultation with 
the State, has determined that the release poses no significant threat 
to public health or to the environment and, therefore, taking remedial 
measures is not appropriate.

III. Deletion Procedures

    The NCP provides that EPA shall not delete a site from the NPL 
until the State in which the release was located has concurred, and the 
public has been afforded an opportunity to comment on the proposed 
deletion. Deletion of a site from the NPL does not affect responsible 
party liability or impede Agency efforts to recover costs associated 
with response efforts. The NPL is designed primarily for informational 
purposes and to assist Agency management.
    EPA Region II will accept and evaluate public comments before 
making a final decision to delete. The Agency believes that deletion 
procedures should focus on notice and comment at the local level. 
Comments from the local community may be most pertinent to deletion 
decisions. The following procedures were used for the intended deletion 
of the AAPP site:
    1. EPA Region II has recommended deletion and has prepared the 
relevant documents. EPA has also made all relevant documents available 
in the Regional office and local AAPP site information repositories.
    2. The State of New York has concurred with the deletion decision.
    3. Concurrent with this national Notice of Intent to Delete, a 
notice has been published in local newspapers and has been distributed 
to appropriate Federal, state and local officials and other interested 
parties. This notice announces a thirty (30) day public comment period 
on the deletion package starting on June 5, 1995 and concluding on July 
5, 1995.
    4. The Region has made all relevant documents available in the 
Regional Office and local site information repositories.
    The comments received during the comment period will be evaluated 
before any final decision is made. If necessary, EPA Region II will 
prepare a Responsiveness Summary which will address any comments 
received during the public comment period.
    If, after consideration of these comments, EPA decides to proceed 
with deletion, the EPA Regional Administrator will place a Notice of 
Deletion in the Federal Register. The NPL will reflect any deletions in 
the next final update. Public notices and copies of the Responsiveness 
Summary will be made available to local residents by Region II.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

    The Action Anodizing Plating and Polishing (AAPP) site is located 
at 33 Dixon Avenue in the Hamlet of Copiague in the Town of Babylon, 
Suffolk County, New York. It is approximately one acre in size and is 
one mile east of the Nassau-Suffolk County line and one-half mile south 
of Sunrise Highway.
    For approximately thirty years prior to 1968, a commercial laundry 
facility operated on the Site's premises. Since 1968, AAPP has operated 
at the Site as a small metal-finishing shop. AAPP's operations 
primarily involve sulfuric acid anodizing of aluminum parts for the 
electronics industry, cadmium plating, chromate conversion coatings, 
metal dyeing and vapor degreasing. Liquid wastes from these operations 
[[Page 29816]] include rinses of spent caustic and acidic solutions 
contaminated with cadmium, chromium, zinc and sodium cyanide. According 
to the operator of the facility, prior to 1980, rinse water was 
reportedly stored in a concrete waste holding trough in the floor of 
the facility from which it was pumped into a low pressure steam boiler. 
The steam was then condensed and reused as process make-up water. The 
solids from the rinse water were allowed to build up in the boiler 
tubes until the tubes became plugged, at which time, the boiler would 
be replaced with a new unit.
    The concrete trough had previously been used by the commercial 
laundry as part of its drainage system. The trough was connected to a 
septic tank on the north side of the building. Tank overflow fed into a 
series of six leaching pits on the east side of the building. The 
bottoms of the pits were reportedly several feet below ground.
    During an inspection of the Site by the Suffolk County Department 
of Health Services (SCDHS) in January 1980, it was discovered that 
rinse water from AAPP's operation was discharging to the leaching pits 
rather than the low pressure steam boiler. SCDHS sampled the leaching 
pits, process tanks, surface soils, and septic tank on the Site. The 
results showed elevated levels of several metals, notably cadmium, 
chromium and nickel in the leaching pits. AAPP was told by SCDHS to 
cease discharge to the leaching pits immediately and remove the soils 
and sediments of the entire leaching system.
    In the spring of 1980, AAPP contracted with the Patterson Chemical 
Company for the cleanup and closing of the leaching system. This work 
was supervised and approved by SCDHS. In September 1980, SCDHS notified 
AAPP that the leaching pits could be back-filled with clean sand and 
gravel. A 7,500 foot equipment storage area, built in 1984, lies 
directly on top of the former leaching pits. AAPP reports that its 
industrial waste is currently hauled off-site for disposal.
    In January 1986, the New York State Department of Environmental 
Conservation (NYSDEC) issued a Phase I Investigation Report which 
summarized past investigations and included a Hazard Ranking System 
(HRS) score for the Site. Although groundwater contamination was not 
documented as part of the Phase I investigation, the potential for 
groundwater contamination by wastewater discharges to the leaching 
pools prior to 1980 was the major contributor to the HRS score. Based 
on the HRS score, the Site was proposed for inclusion on the NPL in 
June 1988 and was placed on the NPL in March 1989.
    Under the direction of EPA, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. conducted a 
remedial investigation (RI) from July 1989 to April 1992 to 
characterize the geology, groundwater hydrology and chemical quality of 
the soils and groundwater at the AAPP site. The investigation consisted 
of drilling borings and constructing monitoring wells, collecting soil 
and groundwater samples, a geophysical survey, and an air-monitoring 
survey. All sampling results, both organic and inorganic, were compared 
with New York State and Federal applicable or relevant and appropriate 
requirements (ARARs). The data were also utilized to prepare a baseline 
risk assessment for the site.
    The risk assessment indicated that the levels of contaminants in 
the soil, air and groundwater at the Site presented risks which fell 
within or below the Superfund remediation range. In addition, sampling 
results indicated the majority of contaminants did not exceed MCLs in 
the groundwater, or background levels in the soil and air. It appeared 
that the 1980 SCDHS-ordered remediation of the leaching pits removed 
the most significant contamination known to exist at the Site.
    EPA released the Proposed Plan, detailing the RI results, on April 
3, 1992 and held two public meetings and a public availability session 
for the community before closing the public comment period. At the 
conclusion of the RI process, EPA, in consultation with the State of 
New York, issued a Record of Decision (ROD) on June 30, 1992, which 
determined that the AAPP site does not pose a significant threat to 
human health or the environment and that no further action was 
required. However, the ROD did call for a one-year groundwater 
monitoring program to ensure that the remedy is protective of human 
health and the environment.
    As specified in the ROD, a groundwater monitoring program, 
consisting of two rounds of samples from four monitoring wells, was 
conducted by EPA. Samples from both rounds were analyzed for organic 
and inorganic contaminants. The first round of sampling was conducted 
in May 1993. Chromium, which had been of concern during the RI, was not 
detected above New York State or Federal drinking water or groundwater 
standards, nor were any other inorganics. No volatiles or semi-volatile 
organic compounds were detected. Only trace levels of two pesticides, 
both unrelated to past production activities at the Site, were 
detected. The second round of sampling was conducted in March 1994. 
During the second round, DEC split samples with EPA for analysis of 
pesticides only. As with the first round, no contaminants were detected 
above allowable levels. DEC's analysis verified EPA's findings that 
pesticides are present in trace levels only. EPA and DEC have 
determined that no further monitoring is necessary. Having met the 
deletion criteria, EPA proposes to delete the AAPP site from the NPL.

    Dated: March 28, 1995.
William J. Muszynski,
Acting Regional Administrator.
[FR Doc. 95-13789 Filed 6-5-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P