[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 21 (Wednesday, January 31, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 3365-3367]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-1715]



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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-5403-3]


National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan; 
National Priorities List for Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Sites; Notice 
of Intent to Delete 29th and Mead Ground Water Contamination Site from 
the National Priorities List (NPL): Request for Comment

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of intent to delete and request for comment.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces its intent 
to delete the 29th and Mead Ground Water Contamination Site in Wichita, 
Sedgwick County, Kansas, from the National Priorities List (NPL) and 
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 of 1980 (CERCLA), as amended.
    Because of the unique circumstances surrounding the 29th and Mead 
Ground Water Contamination Site, the Agency has determined that no 
further federal steps under CERCLA are appropriate. The Site will 
instead, in a pilot project, be deferred to the State of Kansas and 
addressed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). 
EPA will consider the effectiveness and efficiency of the Site cleanup 
as well as the likelihood that a similarly favorable outcome could be 
reproduced elsewhere before determining whether such a policy will be 
considered for other sites. The rationale supporting this action is 
explained in the Basis for Intended Site Deletion section.

DATES: Comments concerning the proposed deletion of the 29th and Mead 
Ground Water Contamination Site should be submitted on or before March 
1, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Mail original and three copies of comments (no facsimiles or 
tapes) to Docket Coordinator, Headquarters; U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency; CERCLA Docket Office; (Mail Code 5201G); 401 M 
Street, SW; Washington, D.C. 20460; (703) 603-8917.
    Comprehensive information on the 29th and Mead Ground Water 
Contamination Site is maintained in the public docket, which is 
available for public review at the information 

[[Page 3366]]
repositories in three locations. Requests for appointments or copies of 
the background information from the public docket should be directed 
to:

Docket Coordinator, Headquarters, U.S. EPA CERCLA Docket Office (Mail 
Code 5201G); Crystal Gateway #1, 1st Floor; 1235 Jefferson Davis 
Highway; Arlington, VA 22202. Phone: (703) 603-9232; Hours: 9:00 a.m. 
to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday excluding Federal holidays. (Please 
note this is viewing address only. Do not mail documents to this 
address.)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region VII; 726 Minnesota Avenue; 
Kansas City, Kansas 66101. Phone: (913) 551-7959. Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 
4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays.
Wichita District Office; Kansas Department of Health and Environment; 
130 S. Market St., Suite 6050; Wichita, Kansas 67202-3802. Phone: (316) 
337-0620; Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
excluding state holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Site-specific questions should be 
directed to Kenneth Rapplean; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; 
Region VII; 726 Minnesota Avenue, Superfund Division; Kansas City, 
Kansas 66101; Tel. (913) 551-7769. General questions should be directed 
to Mary Ann Rich; Office of Emergency and Remedial Response (Mail Code 
5204G); U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; 401 M Street, SW; 
Washington, D.C. 20460; Tel. (703) 603-8825.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

I.  Introduction
II.  NPL Deletion Criteria
III.  Deletion Procedures
IV.  Basis for the Intended Deletion of the 29th and Mead Site from 
the NPL

I. Introduction

    The Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to delete 
the 29th and Mead Ground Water Contamination Site in Wichita, Sedgwick 
County, Kansas from the NPL, which constitutes Appendix B of the 
National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), 
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 should future 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 the deletion of 
this Site 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 the Agency uses to delete 
sites from the NPL. In accordance with the NCP at 40 CFR 300.425(e), 
sites may be deleted from the NPL where no further Fund-financed CERCLA 
response action is appropriate. EPA typically considers, in 
consultation with the State, whether any of the following criteria has 
been met: (i) Responsible parties or other persons have implemented all 
appropriate response actions required; (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 shown that the release poses no significant 
threat to public health or the environment, and therefore, taking of 
remedial measures is not appropriate.
    In light of the planned State action in this case, EPA finds that 
all appropriate Fund-financed response under CERCLA has been 
implemented, and no further response action by responsible parties 
under CERCLA is appropriate. Deletion under this approach does not 
indicate that the cleanup has been completed, but rather that no 
further Superfund involvement is necessary, and that the Agency expects 
the response to be completed under an Agreement between the City of 
Wichita and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). In 
the event such response action is not taken under KDHE oversight, EPA 
retains the right to take further remedial action at this site, and to 
restore this Site to the NPL. CERCLA 105(e); 40 CFR 300.425(e)(3).

III. Deletion Procedures

    The NCP at 40 CFR 300.425(e) specifies the procedures to be 
followed in deleting sites from the NPL. It directs that Notice and an 
opportunity to comment must be given before deleting sites from the 
NPL. By this Notice, EPA intends to notify the public of its proposal 
to delete the 29th and Mead Ground Water Contamination Site from the 
NPL, and it will accept comments from the public on this proposal for a 
period of thirty (30) days after the date of publication in the Federal 
Register. 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 has concurred with the proposed deletion decision 
after reviewing the deletion Notice and providing comments to EPA 
before its publication in the Federal Register. The State reviewed the 
Notice in less than the usual 30 days allotted for such review.
    (3) A notice has been published in a major 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 in the Regional 
Office and local Site information repository.
    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.
    EPA will accept and evaluate public comments before making a final 
decision to delete, and will address them in a Responsiveness Summary, 
which EPA will place in the docket for this decision.
    Because the deletion of this site presents nationally significant 
issues, the Federal Register Notice proposing to delete this Site from 
the NPL will be signed by the Assistant Administrator, Office of Solid 
Waste and Emergency Response. The NPL will reflect any deletions in the 
next final rule. Public notices and copies of the Responsiveness 
Summary will be made available to local residents by Region VII.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

    The 29th and Mead Ground Water Contamination Site is located in 
northern Wichita, Kansas and includes a mixture of residential, 
commercial, and industrial development. The Site is a ground water 
plume that covers approximately 1,440 acres. Among contaminants 
detected in significant concentrations in the ground water are volatile 
organic compounds (VOCs), including trichloroethylene, carbon 
tetrachloride, toluene, benzene, ethylbenzene, methylene chloride, 
trans- and/or cis-1,2-dichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, and 1,1,1-

[[Page 3367]]
trichloroethane. The Site was placed on the NPL on February 21, 1990 
(55 FR 6154).
    On July 30, 1994, the City of Wichita, Kansas, petitioned the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to remove the 29th 
and Mead Ground Water Contamination Site from the NPL, in effect, by 
revising the Site's Hazard Ranking System (HRS) score. On November 29, 
1994, EPA denied the petition, in part because there was no reason to 
change the HRS scoring of the Site.
    The Agency, however, recognizes that legitimate issues were raised 
regarding the overall process for Site cleanup developed by the City 
and State, and has reconsidered its decision not to delete the Site 
from the NPL. This decision is not based on any re-evaluation of the 
Site or the Hazard Ranking System score but rather on the City's 
previous successful development of a strategy for cleanup of the 
Gilbert and Mosley Site, a site that was deferred to the State, and the 
expectation that the City and the State, through their enforceable 
agreement, can accomplish the same results at the 29th and Mead Ground 
Water Contamination Site without additional federal intervention. The 
reasoning for this decision is described below. EPA will use the 
results of this pilot project to evaluate the efficiency and 
effectiveness of the Site cleanup before determining whether to grant 
future deletions of final NPL sites based on deferrals to states.
    EPA finds that, because the City and the State have agreed to 
address the contamination at the 29th and Mead Site, no further 
response action under CERCLA is necessary at this Site due to the 
following circumstances:
    First, Kansas is one of seven states to pilot and successfully 
implement EPA's state deferral program. The purpose of the deferral 
program is to encourage qualified, interested States to address, under 
State laws, the large number of sites now in EPA's listing queue, 
thereby accelerating cleanup. Kansas has worked actively with EPA and 
Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) to ensure successful cleanup of 
these sites.
    Second, the cleanup of the 29th and Mead Ground Water Contamination 
Site will be patterned after another pilot site, Gilbert and Mosley, 
one of ten sites that was deferred to the State prior to proposal to 
the NPL under EPA's Superfund Administrative Improvements Program. The 
City of Wichita, in partnership with KDHE, successfully developed a 
strategy for cleanup of that site. Specifically, the City:
    (1) Entered into an enforceable agreement with KDHE;
    (2) Has secured agreement from one of the principal PRPs at Gilbert 
and Mosley (Coleman Company) to pay their part of the cleanup;
    (3) Issued Certificates of Release to property owners participating 
in the cleanup strategy which ensure that no contribution suits will be 
filed by parties participating in the settlement;
    (4) Developed an agreement with financial institutions to re-
establish lending in the area, and obtained up-front financial 
commitments to fund the capital investment of the clean-up costs and 
studies required;
    (5) Implemented a tax increment financing (TIF) district where, 
after improvements were made, the higher restored property values 
provided the tax base to pay for the improvements; and
    (6) Established a Technical Advisory Committee and a Citizens 
Steering Committee to facilitate citizen involvement;
    (7) Agreed to plan and ensure implementation of a remedial 
investigation, remedial design and cleanup of the site.
    The City of Wichita received the 1992 Ford Foundation and Kennedy 
School of Government Innovations in State and Local Government Award 
for its creative solutions to the Gilbert and Mosley Superfund site. 
The remedial design for an interim groundwater containment and 
treatment system is now being developed pursuant to the Gilbert and 
Mosley agreement, and the project is ahead of the schedule proposed in 
that agreement.
    Third, the two sites are adjacent and the principal PRP has been 
cooperative at both sites.
    Fourth, based on this experience, EPA expects that KDHE and the 
City of Wichita will undertake similar efforts that will be protective 
of human health and the environment at the 29th and Mead Ground Water 
Contamination Site.
    The City of Wichita has now entered into an enforceable agreement 
with KDHE under which the City will assume responsibility for funding 
and developing a cleanup strategy at the 29th and Mead site. A copy of 
the Agreement is available for review at the three docket locations 
listed in the Addresses section above.
    This action is consistent with EPA's reinvention of environmental 
regulation to achieve the best results at the least cost through 
emphasis on performance-based management. In particular, this action 
reflects the goals of the XL Program (FRL-5197-9; May 23, 1995) by 
providing flexibility to replace current requirements with alternative 
strategies that achieve better bottom line environmental results. This 
action also reflects the goals of EPA's community-based environmental 
protection initiative by empowering state and local officials to better 
meet the needs and priorities of the communities.
    For these reasons EPA proposes to delete the 29th and Mead Ground 
Water Contamination Site from the NPL.
    Should conditions change (i.e., insufficient progress toward 
cleanup), nothing shall preclude the Environmental Protection Agency 
from restoring this facility to the NPL in the future should the Agency 
determine, after consultation with the State, that such listing will 
facilitate the implementation of response actions in a timely manner. 
Should that be deemed necessary and EPA determines that there is a 
significant release from the Site, the Agency may take remedial action 
at the site, and may restore the Site to the NPL without application of 
the HRS under 40 CFR 300.425(e)(3).

    Dated: December 14, 1995.
Elliott P. Laws,
Assistant Administrator.
[FR Doc. 96-1715 Filed 1-30-96; 8:45 am]

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