[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 116 (Friday, June 14, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 30207-30209]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-14911]



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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-5519-3]


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

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of Intent to Delete the Leetown Pesticides Site in 
Leetown, Jefferson County, West Virginia, from the National Priorities 
List; Request for Comments.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region III announces 
its intent to delete the Leetown Pesticides Site (Site) from the 
National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comment on this 
proposed action. The NPL constitutes Appendix B to 40 CFR part 300. 
Part 300 comprises 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) of 1980, as amended. EPA and the West Virginia 
Division of Environmental Protection have determined that all 
appropriate CERCLA actions have been implemented and that the Site 
poses no significant threat to public health or the environment. 
Therefore, further remedial measures pursuant to CERCLA are not needed.

DATES: Comments concerning the proposed deletion of the Site from the 
NPL may be submitted on or before July 15, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted to EPA's Remedial Project Manager 
for the Leetown Pesticides Site: Melissa Whittington (3HW23), U.S. EPA 
Region III, 841 Chestnut Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, 
([email protected])
    Comprehensive information on this Site is available for viewing at 
the Site information repositories at the following locations:

U.S. EPA Region III, 9th Floor Library, 841 Chestnut Building, 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107
Old Charles Town Public Library, 200 East Washington Street, Charles 
Town, West Virginia 25414

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melissa Whittington, Remedial Project 
Manager, at the address above or by telephone at (215) 566-3235.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

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

I. Introduction

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region III announces its 
intent to delete the Leetown Pesticides Site, which is located in 
Leetown, West Virginia, from the National Priorities List (NPL), 
Appendix B to 40 CFR part 300, the National Oil and Hazardous 
Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), and requests comments on 
this decision. EPA identifies sites that appear to present a 
significant risk to public health or the environment and maintains the 
NPL as the list of those sites. As discussed in the NCP at 40 CFR 
300.425(e)(3), a site deleted from the NPL remains eligible for 
remedial action in the unlikely event that conditions at the site 
warrant such action in the future.
    EPA will accept comments on the proposal to delete this Site from 
the NPL for thirty 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 the procedures that EPA is using 
for this action. Section IV discusses the Leetown Pesticides Site and 
explains how the Site meets the deletion criteria.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    The NCP at 40 CFR 300.425(e) provides that sites may be deleted 
from or recategorized on the NPL where no further response is 
appropriate. Specifically, this section of the NCP provides that, in 
making a determination to delete a site from the NPL, EPA shall 
consider, in consultation with the State, whether any of the following 
criteria have 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 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.
    The NCP at 40 CFR 300.425(e) further provides that sites may not be 
deleted from the NPL until the State in which the site is located has 
concurred on the proposed deletion. All sites deleted from the NPL are 
eligible for further Fund-financed remedial actions should future 
conditions warrant such action. Whenever there is a significant release 
from a site deleted from the NPL, the site shall be restored to the NPL 
without application of the Hazard Ranking System.
    Deletion of a site from the NPL does not itself create, alter, or 
revoke any individual's rights or obligations. The NPL is designed 
primarily for informational purposes and to assist Agency management.

III. Deletion Procedures

    The procedures required to ensure public involvement during a 
proposal to delete a site from the NPL are enumerated at 40 CFR 
300.425(e)(4). Pursuant to that section, EPA has published this Notice 
of Intent to Delete, together with concurrent notices in the local 
newspapers in the vicinity of the Site, to announce the initiation of a 
30-day public comment period. The public is asked to comment on EPA's 
intention to delete the Site from the NPL. All documents supporting 
EPA's intention to delete the Site from the NPL are available for 
inspection by the public at the information repositories located at the 
addresses listed above.
    EPA will accept and evaluate public comments on this Notice of 
Intent to Delete before making a final decision on the deletion. If EPA 
receives any significant comments during the public comment period, the 
Agency will prepare a Responsiveness Summary to address those comments.
    A deletion occurs when the Regional Administrator places a final 
deletion notice in the Federal Register. Once this

[[Page 30208]]

has occurred, each subsequent publication of the NPL will reflect that 
the Site has been deleted. Public notices and copies of the 
Responsiveness Summary, if any, will be placed in the Site information 
repositories listed above.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

    The following site summary provides EPA's rationale for the 
proposal to delete the Leetown Pesticides Site from the NPL:

A. Site Background

    The Site is located in Leetown, Jefferson County, West Virginia, in 
the extreme northeastern portion of the state, approximately 8 miles 
south of Martinsburg, West Virginia. The Site consists of three 
separate parcels in the vicinity of the town of Leetown which were 
contaminated with pesticides: the former Pesticide Pile Area, the 
former Pesticide Mixing Shed, and the Crimm Orchard Packing Shed.
    The former Pesticide Pile Area is alleged to have received 
pesticide-contaminated debris from a fire at a local chemical company 
in 1975. The contamination at the former Pesticide Pile Area was the 
residue left after the removal of approximately 160 cubic yards of 
pesticide-contaminated debris in June of 1983.
    The former Pesticide Mixing Shed was used during the active 
operation of the Jefferson Orchard to formulate pesticides for use at 
the orchard. The eastern portion of the Crimm Orchard Packing Shed was 
used for the formulation of pesticides for application at the former 
Crimm Orchard and for storing containers of pesticides, most of which 
were open and leaking.
    The contaminants of concern at the Site included DDT and its 
metabolites, DDD and DDE, and the alpha, beta, delta, and gamma isomers 
of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCCH). Gamma HCCH is also known as Lindane.

B. History and Characterization of Risk

    Evidence of hazardous waste activity was first brought to the 
attention of EPA in 1981 by representatives of the National Fisheries 
Center in nearby Kearneysville, West Virginia. Between 1980 and 1983, 
EPA conducted a number of investigations which included sampling of the 
debris pile in the former Pesticide Pile Area and locations in the 
immediate vicinity of the Pesticide Pile Area, including residential 
wells, the Fisheries Center, the Grey and Bell Springs, and the 
Jefferson County solid waste landfill. The Site was proposed for 
inclusion on the original Superfund NPL in December of 1982, and 
officially placed on the NPL in September of 1983.
    EPA conducted sampling for the Remedial Investigation (RI) between 
1984 and 1985. The RI focused on areas in the vicinity of Leetown where 
the surface disposal of pesticides, agricultural use of pesticides or 
the landfilling of pesticides had occurred. The areas to be 
investigated were identified through an aerial photographic survey 
conducted by EPA and information received from local sources. After 
evaluating the results of the RI sampling, EPA narrowed the areas of 
concern to the former Pesticide Pile Area, the former Pesticide Mixing 
Shed, and the Crimm Orchard Packing Shed. The RI determined the extent 
of contamination and the risks to human health and the environment 
posed by the contamination in these areas. The RI was followed by a 
Feasibility Study (FS), also conducted by EPA, which identified cleanup 
alternatives to address those risks.
    The RI and FS reports were released to the public for review on 
March 6, 1986. This marked the beginning of the public comment period 
which closed on March 27, 1986. During the comment period, EPA 
recommended Alternative 7 from the FS as EPA's preferred remedial 
alternative. A public meeting to discuss EPA's preferred remedial 
alternative was held on March 20, 1986. On March 31, 1986, a Record of 
Decision (ROD) was issued which identified Alternative 7 as the 
Selected Remedy. Alternative 7 consisted of the following actions: (1) 
Demolition and off-site disposal of the eastern portion of the Crimm 
Orchard Packing Shed and its contents; and (2) anaerobic biodegradation 
of the pesticide-contaminated soils from the former Pesticide Pile 
Area, the former Pesticide Mixing Shed and the soils from under the 
Crimm Orchard Packing Shed. A total estimated volume of 3,600 cubic 
yards of soil were to be consolidated and placed in treatment beds to 
be constructed on-site.
    The demolition and off-site disposal of the eastern portion of the 
Crimm Orchard Packing Shed and its contents began on February 24, 1988 
and was completed on April 22, 1988. EPA performed treatability studies 
for the bioremediation of the consolidated soils on two separate 
occasions. The first treatability study, which tested the effectiveness 
of anaerobic biodegradation, was performed from May 1986 to April 1987. 
This study was not successful in meeting the cleanup levels specified 
in the ROD. EPA performed treatability studies for two other biological 
treatment processes from April 1989 to January 1990. One process 
utilized white rot fungus; the other process utilized a combination of 
aerobic and anaerobic biodegradation. Again, neither of these processes 
were able to successfully treat the soils to meet the cleanup levels 
specified in the ROD.
    In 1990, as part of the second phase of treatability studies, EPA 
reviewed the cleanup levels established in the ROD to determine if 
these levels continued to be appropriate to protect human health and 
the environment. During this review, it was discovered that the 
methodology used in the 1986 risk assessment was no longer utilized by 
EPA in determining risks to human health. Specifically, the 1986 risk 
assessment was based on the maximum human exposure to the contaminants 
at the Site, including the maximum observed concentrations. However, 
the Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund (RAGS) which EPA issued in 
December of 1989, EPA/540/1-89/002, stated that quantitative risk 
assessments should be based on Reasonable Maximum Exposure (RME) 
scenarios. Because the 1986 risk assessment appeared to be overly 
conservative compared to a risk assessment that would result from 
utilizing RAGS, EPA recalculated the risks to human health using the 
RME scenarios and determined that the contaminants of concern at the 
Site did not pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the 
environment.
    On February 6, 1992, as a result of the revised risk assessment 
described above, EPA issued a Proposed Remedial Action Plan (Proposed 
Plan) which identified ``No Further Action'' as EPA's preferred 
remedial alternative for this Site. Issuance of this Proposed Plan 
marked the beginning of the public comment period. On February 20, 
1992, a public meeting was held at the National Fisheries Center to 
answer questions from community members and facilitate public input on 
the Proposed Plan. The public comment period closed on March 6, 1992. 
On April 7, 1992, EPA issued a ROD Amendment which identified No 
Further Action as the Selected Remedy for the Site.
    On April 7, 1992, EPA also issued a Superfund Preliminary Site 
Closeout Report. This closeout report indicated that all remedial 
action activities required for protection of human health and the 
environment had been satisfactorily completed. The ROD Amendment did 
not provide any provisions for long-term monitoring of the Site because 
the only portion of the originally selected remedial action which was 
completed was off-site

[[Page 30209]]

disposal. Therefore, no operation and maintenance activities are 
required.
    Although the remedial action was completed in April of 1988, the 
monitoring wells installed and utilized during the RI had to be 
properly abandoned prior to deletion of the Site from the NPL. In the 
spring of 1995, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District 
was tasked under an interagency agreement with EPA to properly abandon 
all monitoring wells except those which Jefferson County chose to 
retain for use in monitoring the groundwater in the vicinity of its 
solid waste landfill. This work was completed in June of 1995. On 
August 24, 1995, EPA accepted the Corps of Engineers' report entitled 
``Closure Report: Abandonment of Monitoring Wells, Leetown Pesticides 
Superfund Site, Leetown West Virginia'' as a final document.
    EPA is required to review remedial actions every five years if 
hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants remain at the site 
above levels that allow for unrestricted exposure and unlimited use. 
Since neither of these conditions exists at this Site, further five-
year reviews are not warranted and will not be conducted.

C. Conclusion

    The NCP at 40 CFR 300.425(e)(ii) provides that EPA may delete a 
site from the NPL if ``all appropriate Fund-financed response under 
CERCLA has been implemented, and no further action by responsible 
parties is appropriate.'' EPA, with the concurrance of the State of 
West Virginia, believes that this criterion for deletion has been met. 
Therefore, EPA is proposing deletion of this Site from the NPL. 
Documents supporting this action are available in the Site information 
repositories listed previously in this document.

    Dated: June 4, 1996.
Stanley L. Laskowski,
Acting Regional Administrator, U.S. EPA Region III.
[FR Doc. 96-14911 Filed 6-13-96; 8:45 am]
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