[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 129 (Thursday, July 6, 1995)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 35160-35162]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-16419]



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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-5254-1]


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

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of Intent to Delete Brown Wood Preserving Site from the 
National Priorities List; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), announces its 
intent to delete the Brown Wood Preserving Superfund Site (Site) in 
Live Oak, Suwannee County, Florida, from the National Priorities List 
(NPL) and requests public comment on this action. The NPL is codified 
as Appendix B of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution 
Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR Part 300, which EPA promulgated pursuant 
to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, 
Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). EPA and the State of 
Florida (State) have determined that all appropriate responses under 
CERCLA have been implemented and that no further cleanup by responsible 
parties is appropriate. Moreover, EPA and the State have determined 
that the remedial actions conducted at the Site to date have been 
protective of public health, welfare, and the environment.

DATES: Comments on the Notice of Intent to Delete the Site from the NPL 
should be submitted on or before August 7, 1995.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to: Joe Franzmathes, Director, Waste 
Management Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IV, 
345 Courtland Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30365.
    Comprehensive information on this Site is maintained in the public 
docket, which is available for viewing at the information repositories 
in two locations. Requests for appointments or copies of the background 
information from the public docket should be directed to:

Ms. Debbie Jourdan, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IV, 
345 Courtland Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30365, Phone: (404) 347-
3555, ext. 6217, Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday--
By Appointment Only.
Suwannee River Regional Library, 207 Pine Street, Live Oak, Florida 
32060, Phone: (904) 362-2317, Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday and 
Thursday; 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday; 8:30 
a.m.-4:00 p.m., Saturday.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Randall Chaffins, U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, Region IV, Waste Management Division, South 
Superfund Remedial Branch, 345 Courtland Street, N.E. Atlanta, GA 
30365, (404) 347-2643 ext. 6260.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

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

I. Introduction

    EPA announces its intent to delete the Site from the NPL, which 
constitutes Appendix B of the NCP, 40 CFR Part 300, and requests 
comments on this proposed deletion. 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 
Section 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP, any site deleted from the NPL remains 
eligible for Fund-financed remedial actions in the event that 
conditions at the site warrant such action.
    EPA will accept comments concerning this Site for thirty (30) 
calendar 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 Site meets the deletion 
criteria.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    The NCP establishes the criteria that EPA 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, in consultation with the State, considers whether 
any of the following criteria have been met:
    (i) Responsible or other persons have implemented all appropriate 
response actions required; or
    (ii) All appropriate Fund-financed response under CERCLA has been 
implemented and no further response action by responsible parties is 
appropriate; or
    (iii) The remedial investigation has determined that the release 
poses no significant threat to public health or the environment; and, 
therefore, taking of remedial measures is not appropriate.
III. Deletion Procedures

    EPA will accept and evaluate public comments before making a final 
decision to delete the Site. Comments from the local community may be 
the most pertinent to deletion decisions. The following procedures were 
used for the intended deletion of this Site:
    (1) EPA has recommended deletion and has prepared the relevant 
documents.
    (2) The State of Florida has concurred with the deletion decision.
    (3) Concurrent with this Notice of Intent to Delete, a notice has 
been published in a local newspaper and has been distributed to 
appropriate Federal, State, and local officials, and other interested 
parties.
    (4) EPA has made all relevant documents available at the 
information repositories.
    Deletion of a site from the NPL does not itself create, alter, or 
revoke any individual rights or obligations. The NPL is designated 
primarily for information purposes and to assist EPA 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.
    The comments received during the public comment period will be 
evaluated before the final decision to delete the Site. EPA will 
prepare a Responsiveness Summary, if necessary, which will address the 
comments received during the public comment period.
    A deletion occurs when the Regional Administrator of EPA places a 
Notice of Deletion in the Federal Register. Any deletions from the NPL 
will be reflected 

[[Page 35161]]
in the next NPL update. Public notices and copies of the Responsiveness 
Summary will be made available to local residents by EPA.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

    The following Site summary provides the Agency's rationale for the 
intended deletion of this Site from the NPL.
    The Site is located at the intersection of Sawmill Road and 
Goldkist Road, approximately two (2) miles west of the City of Live 
Oak, Suwannee County, Florida. The 51 acre Site is situated in the 
northwest quarter of Section 22, Township 2 South, Range 13 East. The 
topography on-site varies in elevation from 85 feet above mean sea 
level to 111 feet above mean sea level. The area surrounding the Site 
is considered rural and light agricultural. A sawmill and a 
construction company are located to the west and east of the Site, 
respectively. The county airport is also located west of the site. 
Domestic water in the vicinity of the Site is produced by means of 
wells into the Floridan Aquifer, the closest private well is 
approximately 1000 feet downgradient, to the south.
    Currently, the Site consists of a land treatment area enclosed by a 
six foot high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, a lagoon area 
to the southwest, and a grassed eastern section. The land treatment 
area consists of an office, a four-acre clay lined and bermed treatment 
area which has been seeded with native grasses, and a 750,000 gallon 
capacity retention pond.
    The Site was proposed for the NPL in 1982. Two potentially 
responsible parties (PRPs), the James Graham Brown Foundation and AMAX 
Environmental Services, presently the Cyprus AMAX Minerals Company, 
signed an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) with EPA in September 
1983 to conduct a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS). 
From December 1987 through March 1988, while the RI/FS was underway, 
AMAX/Brown removed the contents of the sludge lagoon during the winter 
dry season and dismantled the plant facility. EPA approved of AMAX/
Brown's proposed activities and began negotiating a Consent Order while 
the removal proceeded. The Consent Order was completed in January 1988, 
and the removal activities were completed in March 1988.
    The removal activities consisted of the following: removal of 
approximately 15,000 tons of creosote sediments/sludge; treatment of 
200,000 gallons of lagoon water; and the dismantling, decontamination, 
and disposal of the entire plant facility. The creosote sediments/
sludge, which came primarily from the lagoon area, were shipped to the 
hazardous waste landfill in Emelle, Alabama. The removal cleanup 
criteria for the contaminated soils was 5,000 mg/kg total creosote 
substances.
    Residents near the Site are generally aware that the Site was a 
wood treating facility sometime in the past and that it is a hazardous 
waste site. The administrative record was placed in the information 
repository in Live Oak, Florida on September 29, 1987. A notice 
regarding the administrative record and a future public meeting was 
placed in the local newspaper on October 1, 1987. The public comment 
period began on November 25, 1987 and ended on December 16, 1987. The 
public meeting on the RI/FS results and the presentation of the 
selected remedy took place on December 9, 1987 in Live Oak, Florida. 
The public meeting was attended by very few local citizens. EPA 
received no comments from the public on the proposed selected remedy or 
on any other facet of the project. However, reports from the Florida 
Department of Environmental Protection's (FDEP's) local liaison and 
from a local newspaper reporter indicated that the community is pleased 
that EPA, FDEP and AMAX/Brown moved so rapidly to cleanup the Site.
    The Record of Decision (ROD), signed on April 18, 1988, determined 
cleanup at the Site was needed and determined the selected remedy of 
sludge treatment and land treatment would adequately protect public 
health, welfare, and the environment.
    During the preparation of the Remedial Design/Remedial Action (RD/
RA) Work Plan and the filing of the Consent Decree, a fact sheet and a 
press release were distributed to the public. The RD/RA Work Plan for 
the land treatment area was approved September 15, 1988.
    The Remedial Action (RA) construction of the land treatment area 
began in October 1988 and the Consent Decree was entered on October 24, 
1988. During RA construction, another fact sheet was generated to 
explain RA progress at the Site.
    After the pre-final RA construction inspection on December 14, 
1988, another updated fact sheet was generated and distributed to the 
public announcing the final RA construction inspection to be held on 
January 19, 1989. Subsequent to the final inspection, a press release 
was distributed and the appropriate Congressional members were notified 
of the pending action. The only comments received were from the Florida 
Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and the Suwannee 
County Coordinator. No local citizens attended the inspection except 
the Mayor of Live Oak and the Suwannee County Coordinator.
    The pre-final RA construction inspection was held on-site on 
December 14, 1988. The final RA construction inspection meeting was 
held on-site on January 19, 1989, as required for the approval of the 
RA Construction Report and subsequent certification of RA construction 
completion. The RA construction was completed according to the approved 
design in the RD/RA Work Plan. Upon certification of RA construction 
completion in April of 1989, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) activities 
began and continued for five (5) years, as set forth in the ROD and 
Final Site Closeout Report.
    The Final Site Closeout Report was approved by the Regional 
Administrator of EPA on December 31, 1991. In May 1992, Remediation 
Technologies, Inc. (RETEC) submitted a Supplemental Risk Assessment for 
AMAX/Brown to include toxicological information which was not available 
at the time of the Baseline Risk Assessment. O&M ended with the 
submittal of the Semi-Annual Status Report in July 1994.
    O&M of the source control action involved two (2) years of soil 
degradation monitoring. A six to eight inch lift of contaminated soil, 
which had been stockpiled on-site, was added to the land treatment area 
approximately every three months, until all of the contaminated soil 
was in the land treatment area. The soils in the land treatment area 
were monitored and sampled quarterly to determine effectiveness for the 
remainder of the two (2) year O&M period for soils. At the conclusion 
of O&M, all soil samples complied with concentrations set forth in the 
ROD. The O&M for the groundwater began after the certification of RA 
construction completion in April 1989, and consisted of semi-annual 
sampling for a period of five (5) years. At the conclusion of O&M, all 
groundwater samples complied with Federal health-based standards and 
those set forth in the ROD.
    On March 30, 1995, the Five-Year Review Report recommended that the 
Site be deleted from the NPL since it complies with all deletion 
requirements.
    The results of the five year O&M program show that there are no 
contaminants of concern existing above health based criteria levels in 
the soil or groundwater. All aspects of the selected remedy have been 
implemented and are protective of human health and the 

[[Page 35162]]
environment. Therefore, no unacceptable health risk is associated with 
the Site.
    EPA, with concurrence of the State, has determined that all 
appropriate Fund-financed responses under CERCLA at the Site have been 
completed, and that no further cleanup by responsible parties is 
appropriate. Therefore, EPA proposes the deletion of the Site from the 
NPL.

    Dated: June 19, 1995.
Patrick M. Tobin,
Acting Regional Administrator, USEPA Region IV.
[FR Doc. 95-16419 Filed 7-5-95; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P