[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 141 (Monday, July 22, 1996)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 37876-37878]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-18180]


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[[Page 37877]]


ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-5538-8]


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

Agency: Environmental Protection Agency.

Action: Notice of intent to delete McChord Air Force Base Washrack 
Treatment Area from the National Priorities List Update: Request for 
comments.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10, 
announces its intent to delete the McChord Air Force Base Washrack 
Treatment Area (Washrack Treatment Area) Site from the National 
Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comment on this proposed 
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) of 
1980, as amended. EPA and the State of Washington Department of Ecology 
(Ecology) have determined that all appropriate remedial response to the 
extent practicable has been taken and that the Site poses no 
significant threat to public health or the environment. Therefore, 
further remedial measures pursuant to CERCLA are not appropriate.

DATES: Comments concerning this Site may be submitted on or before 
August 21, 1996.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to: Kathleen Stryker, Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Sixth Avenue, Mail Stop: ECL-115, Seattle, 
Washington 98101.
    Comprehensive information on this Site is available through the 
Region 10 public docket which is available for viewing at the McChord 
Air Force Base Washrack Treatment Area information repositories at the 
following locations:

Pierce County Library, Lakewood Branch, 6300 Wildaire Road SW Lakewood, 
WA 98499.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 Office of 
Environmental Cleanup--Records Center, Attn: Dawn Musgrove, 1200 Sixth 
Avenue, Mail Stop, ECL-076, Seattle, Washington 98101.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Kathleen Stryker, U.S. EPA Region 10, 
1200 Sixth Avenue, Mail Stop: ECL-115, Seattle, Washington 98101, (206) 
553-1171.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

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

I. Introduction

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 announces its 
intent to delete a site from the National Priorities List (NPL), 
Appendix B of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Contingency 
Plan (NCP), 40 CFR part 300, and requests comments on this deletion. 
EPA identifies sites on the NPL that appear to present a significant 
risk to human health or the environment. As described in 
Sec. 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP, sites deleted from the NPL remain 
eligible for remedial actions in the unlikely event that conditions at 
the site warrant such actions.
    EPA plans to delete the McChord Air Force Base Washrack Treatment 
Area Site (``Site'') in Tacoma, Washington, from the NPL.
    EPA will accept comments on the plan to delete this Site until 
August 21, 1996.
    Section II of this document explains the criteria for deleting 
sites from the NPL. Section III discusses procedures that EPA is using 
for this action. Section IV discusses the Washrack Treatment Area Site 
and explains how the Site meets the deletion criteria.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    Section 300.425(e) of the NCP provides that ``releases'' (sites) 
may be deleted from, or recategorized on the NPL where no further 
response is appropriate. 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 parties have implemented all 
appropriate response actions required;
    (ii) All appropriate responses under CERCLA have 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.
    Even if a site is deleted from the NPL, where hazardous substances, 
pollutants or contaminants remain at the site above levels that allow 
for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure, EPA's policy is that a 
subsequent review of the site will be conducted at least every five 
years after the initiation of the remedial action at the site to ensure 
that the site remains protective of public health and the environment. 
In the case of the Washrack Treatment Area Site, hazardous substances 
above health-based levels do not remain on the site, therefore, 
periodic five-year reviews are not required. In addition, whenever 
there is a significant release from a site deleted from the NPL, the 
site may be restored to the NPL without the application of the Hazard 
Ranking System.

III. Deletion Procedures

    The following procedures were used for the intended deletion of 
this Site: (1) The Air Force completed all appropriate response actions 
required for the site. EPA Region 10 issued a memo to document that no 
further active remedial response is necessary at the site thus 
qualifying the Site for inclusion on the Superfund Site Construction 
Completion List, and a final close out report that documents the 
achievement of cleanup goals; (2) Ecology concurred with the proposed 
deletion decision; (3) A notice has been published in the local 
newspaper and has been distributed to appropriate federal, state, and 
local officials and other interested parties announcing the 
commencement of a 30-day public comment period on EPA's Notice of 
Intent to Delete; and, (4) All relevant documents have been made 
available for public review in the local Site information repositories.
    Deletion of the Site from the NPL does not itself, create, alter or 
revoke any individual rights or obligations. The NPL is designed 
primarily for informational purposes to assist Agency 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 response actions.
    EPA's Regional Office will accept and evaluate public comments on 
EPA's Notice of Intent to Delete before making a final decision. The 
Agency will prepare a Responsiveness Summary if any significant public 
comments are received.
    A deletion occurs when the Regional Administrator places a final 
action in the Federal Register. Generally, the NPL will reflect 
deletions in the final update following the final action. Public 
notices and copies of the Responsiveness Summary will be made available 
to local residents by the Regional office.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

    The following site summary provides the Agency's rationale for the 
intention to delete this Site from the NPL.

[[Page 37878]]

Site Location and History

    McChord Air Force Base (AFB) is an active 4,616-acre military 
installation located seven miles south of downtown Tacoma. The Washrack 
Treatment Area (WTA), a 22-acre area where airplanes were washed and 
drained of fuel, is located within the northern industrial and 
operational portion of the base along the western portion of the 
instrument runway. The site includes the former washrack (now 
inactive), two leach pits (now backfilled), an oil/water separator 
(skimmer), storm drainage infiltration ditches (now backfilled) and a 
layer of floating fuel on shallow groundwater in the vicinity.
    The two Department of Defense (DOD) Installation Restoration 
Program (IRP) sites that comprise the WTA (SD-54, the leach pits; and 
DP-60, infiltration ditches) were originally identified during the 1982 
Phase I record search (CH2MHIll. 1982) conducted by McChord. The phase 
two IRP investigation (SAIC, 1985) measured low level organic 
contamination at Site DP-60 and the adjacent IRP Site SD-54.
    As a result of the IRP record search and investigation, further 
studies were recommended to confirm contaminant characteristics and 
distribution. The EPA designated Site SD-54 as the Washrack Treatment 
Area in 1984 and nominated it for inclusion on the NPL. The site was 
listed in 1987. In 1989 the Air Force entered into a three party 
Federal Facilities Agreement (FFA) with Region X of the EPA and Ecology 
for conducting an investigation and cleanup of contaminants posing an 
unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.
    A remedial investigation, which was completed in 1992, investigated 
source areas for the floating fuel and evaluated the nature and extent 
of contamination in all potentially affected media. Based on evaluation 
of the RI and the baseline risk assessment, the EPA determined and 
documented in the Record of Decision (ROD) for the WTA that no remedial 
action under CERCLA was necessary for soil, surface water or sediment 
to ensure protection of human health and the environment. The ROD 
selected passive removal of the floating fuel to address the 
unacceptable risk posed by benzene associated with the floating fuel 
layer, and monitoring to evaluate the need for remediation of the 
residual fuel in the soil.
    A remedial design pilot study for recovery of the floating fuel or 
Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (NAPL) was performed in 1993 and 1994 to 
determine if the layer of floating fuel could be removed. The NAPL 
Pilot Test Study (EA Engineering, 1994) concluded that passive removal 
of the fuel was not feasible due to the small amount of fuel present 
and that original estimates of fuel available for recovery were 
overestimates. The study also concluded that the soil was not a 
significant continuing source of contamination to groundwater and that 
there is an active population of bacteria present in the soil capable 
of naturally degrading the petroleum.
    In light of the findings of the Pilot Study an Explanation of 
Significant Differences (ESD) was prepared. The ESD described the 
results of the pilot study and the changes that were made to the ROD as 
a result. The ESD changed the final remedy to a combination of natural 
attenuation and long-term monitoring of the groundwater. Natural 
attenuation consists in part of allowing the hydrocarbons in the 
shallow groundwater to be consumed by the naturally occurring bacteria 
present at the site and to allow the lighter portions of the 
hydrocarbons to volatilize. The shallow groundwater below the floating 
fuel would be monitored, as well as the shallow groundwater up- and 
down gradient of the floating fuel.
    The installation of one test trench and ten test pit observation 
wells as part of the pilot test for the passive removal of the floating 
fuel constituted the only active remedial action that occurred at the 
site. EPA concurred in a March 1995 addendum to the ROD that no further 
active remedial response under CERCLA is necessary at the WTA. This 
addendum served to signify construction completion.
    Eleven rounds of groundwater samples have been collected at the 
floating fuel area since September 1990. All of the groundwater samples 
were analyzed for the six compounds for which Remedial Action 
Objectives (RAOs) were established in the ROD. With the exception of 
total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH), levels of these compounds detected 
in the seven rounds conducted since completion of the ROD have been 
consistently below the RAOs. Semi-annual monitoring reports conducted 
since the ROD for the WTA are available in the site repository.

Public Participation

    Community input has been sought by McChord Air Force Base 
throughout the cleanup process for the Site. Community relations 
activities have included public meetings prior to the signing of the 
ROD, several public notices in local newspapers, and routine 
publication of progress fact sheets. A copy of the Deletion Docket can 
be reviewed by the public at the Pierce County Library, Lakewood Branch 
or the EPA Region 10 Superfund Records Center. The Deletion Docket 
includes this Notice, the ROD, ESD, Remedial Action Construction 
Report, Memo documenting that no further remedial action is necessary, 
and Final Site Close-Out Report. EPA Region 10 will also announce the 
availability of the Deletion Docket for public review in a local 
newspaper and informational fact sheet.
    One of the three criteria for deletion specifies that EPA may 
delete a site from the NPL if ``responsible parties or other persons 
have implemented all appropriate response actions required''. EPA, with 
the concurrence of Ecology, believes that this criterion for deletion 
has been met. Ground water data from the Site confirm that the ROD 
cleanup goals have been achieved. It is concluded that there is no 
significant threat to human health or the environment and, therefore, 
no further remedial action is necessary. Subsequently, EPA is proposing 
deletion of this Site from the NPL. Documents supporting this action 
are available from the docket.

    Dated: July 8, 1996.
C. Findley,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 10.
[FR Doc. 96-18180 Filed 7-19-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P