[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 55 (Friday, March 21, 1997)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 13568-13570]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-7066]



[[Page 13568]]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------


ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-5711-3]


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

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of intent to delete the Cheshire Ground Water 
Contamination site from the National Priorities List: request for 
comments.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region I announces 
its intent to delete the Cheshire Ground Water Contamination site 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, as amended by 
the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (CERCLA). EPA and the 
State of Connecticut have determined that all appropriate CERCLA 
actions have been implemented and that no further clean up at the site 
is appropriate. Moreover, EPA and the State of Connecticut have 
determined that remedial activities conducted at the site to date have 
been protective of public health, welfare, and the environment.

DATES: Comments concerning this site may be submitted on or before 
April 21, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to: Jane Dolan, Remedial Project 
Manager, U.S. EPA Region I (HBT), JFK Federal Building, Boston, MA 
02203.
    Comprehensive information on this site is available through the EPA 
Region I public docket, which is located at EPA's Region I office and 
is available for viewing by appointment only from Monday through 
Friday, excluding holidays. Requests for appointment or copies of the 
contents from the Regional public docket should be directed to the EPA 
Region I Records Center.
    The address for the Region I Records Center is: EPA Records Center, 
90 Canal Street, 1st Floor, Boston, MA 02114, (617) 573-5729.
    A copy of the Regional public docket is also available for viewing 
at the Cheshire Ground Water Contamination site information repository 
at: Cheshire Public Library, 104 Main Street, Cheshire, CT 06410, (203) 
272-2245.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jane Dolan, Remedial Project Manager, 
U.S. EPA Region I (HBT), JFK Federal Building, Boston, MA 02203, (617) 
573-9698.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

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

I. Introduction

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region I announces its 
intent to delete the Cheshire Ground Water Contamination Site, 
Cheshire, Connecticut, from the National Priorities List (NPL), which 
constitutes Appendix B of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances 
Pollution Contingency Plan, 40 CFR part 300 (NCP), and requests 
comments on this deletion. The 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 Substance 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 the site 
warrant such action.
    The EPA will accept comments concerning this proposal for thirty 
(30) days after publication of this notice in the Federal Register.
    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 history of the site and how 
the site meets the deletion criteria.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    The NCP establishes criteria that the Agency uses to delete sites 
from the NPL. In accordance with 40 CFR 300.425(e)(1), sites may be 
deleted from or recategorized on the NPL where no further response is 
appropriate. In making a determination to delete a release 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 response action by responsible parties is 
appropriate; or
    (iii) the response action has shown that the release poses no 
significant threat to public health or the environment and, therefore, 
taking of remedial measures is not appropriate.
    Prior to deciding to delete a site from the NPL, EPA must determine 
that the remedy, or existing site conditions at sites where no action 
is required, is protective of public health, welfare, and the 
environment.
    Deletion of a site from the NPL does not preclude eligibility for 
subsequent Fund-financed actions if future site conditions warrant such 
action. Section 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP states that Fund-financed 
actions may be taken at sites that have been deleted from the NPL.

III. Deletion Procedures

    In the NPL rulemaking published on October 15, 1984 (49 FR 40320), 
the Agency solicited and received comments on whether the notice of 
comment procedures followed for adding sites to the NPL also should be 
used before sites are deleted. Comments also were received in response 
to the amendments to the NCP proposed on February 12, 1985 (50 FR 
5862). Formal notice and comment procedures for deleting sites from the 
NPL were subsequently added as a part of the March 8, 1990 amendments 
to the NCP (55 FR 8666, 8846). Those procedures are set out in 
Sec. 300.425(e)(4) of the NCP. Deletion of sites 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.
    Upon determination that at least one of the criteria described in 
Sec. 300.425(e)(1) has been met, EPA may formally begin deletion 
procedures. The following procedures were used for the intended 
deletion of this site:
    (1) EPA Region I and the State of Connecticut agreed, in the No 
Action Record of Decision, that the five-year review was not warranted.
    (2) EPA Region I has recommended deletion and prepared the relevant 
documents.
    (3) The State of Connecticut has concurred with the deletion 
decision.
    (4) Concurrent with this National Notice of Intent to Delete, a 
local notice has been published in local newspapers and has been 
distributed to appropriate Federal, State and local officials, and 
other interested parties.
    (5) The Region has made all relevant documents available in the 
Regional Office and local site information repositories.
    These procedures have been completed for the Cheshire Ground Water 
Contamination site. This Federal Register document, and a concurrent

[[Page 13569]]

notice in the local newspaper in the vicinity of the site, announces 
the initiation of a 30-day public comment period and the availability 
of the Notice of Intent to Delete. The public is asked to comment on 
EPA's intention to delete the site from the NPL; all critical documents 
needed to evaluate EPA's decision are included in the information 
repository and deletion docket.
    Upon completion of the 30-day public comment period, the EPA 
Regional Office (Region I) will evaluate these comments before the 
final decision to delete. The Region will prepare a Responsiveness 
Summary , which will address comments received during the public 
comment period. The responsiveness summary will be made available to 
the public at the information repository. Members of the public are 
welcome to contact the EPA Regional Office to obtain a copy of the 
responsiveness summary, when available. If EPA still determines that 
deletion from the NPL is appropriate after receiving public comments, a 
final notice of deletion will be published in the Federal Register. 
However, it is not until a notice of deletion is published in the 
Federal Register that the site would be actually deleted.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletions

    The following summary provides the Agency's rationale for deleting 
the Cheshire Ground Water Contamination site from the NPL.
    The Cheshire Ground Water Contamination site which is located in 
the northwestern corner of Cheshire, New Haven County, Connecticut, 
includes the industrial property at 604 West Johnson Avenue where 
disposal of waste material was conducted and, in addition, those places 
where waste material emanating from the property has come to be located 
in the groundwater. The Site is immediately bounded by vacant land to 
the east, industrial property to the south, and Knotter Drive and Route 
691 to the west and north, respectively.
    EPA involvement with the Site commenced in 1985 after the Site was 
identified through a review of background information for another 
property in Cheshire. EPA sampled ground water from on-site monitoring 
wells, subsurface soils, surface water, and sediment on the 604 West 
Johnson Avenue property, and ground water from two residential drinking 
water wells in support of a Site Inspection of the property completed 
in 1986.
    Based on this investigation which found groundwater both on- and 
off-site contaminated with volatile organic compounds, the Site was 
proposed to the National Priorities List (NPL) in June 1988 and 
promulgated on August 30, 1990. The Site was defined as a plume of 
contamination from an unknown source detected in wells on property 
located at 604 West Johnson Avenue and in a nearby residential well.
    The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) 
entered into Consent Agreements with Cheshire Associates, the owner of 
the property at that time, and North American Philips Corporation, the 
tenant of the property, in 1984 following the identification of 
groundwater and soil contamination. The owner of the property agreed to 
remove contaminated soil, and monitor the water quality at two private 
water supply wells on a semi-annual basis until 1988. The tenant of the 
property at the time agreed to test all in ground fuel and/or chemical 
storage tanks and their associated piping to determine their structural 
integrity and their ability to prohibit the introduction of the tanks 
contents to the waters of the state. A 10,000 gallon #4 fuel oil tank 
was cleaned and determined to be leak free on September 9, 1982. This 
tank was allegedly filled with concrete slurry around 1985.
    Twenty cubic yards of volatile organic- and oil-contaminated soil 
were excavated from two areas on the property on October 19, 1983. 
CTDEP approved the disposal of this non-hazardous waste on January 6, 
1984. The material was subsequently removed from the property and 
disposed of on January 25, 1984.
    The property owner voluntarily arranged for bottled water to be 
provided to the remaining residence in 1986 (the other residence was 
demolished for commercial development) and subsequently connected the 
home to municipal water in 1987.
    EPA completed a geohydrologic study and sampling at the site in 
1996. Volatile organic compounds and metals were detected in 
groundwater at levels below the levels established as safe in the Safe 
Drinking Water Act. Low levels of pesticides, semi-volatile organic 
compounds, and metals detected in shallow soils around the northern 
side of the building were determined not to endanger workers nor the 
health of residents in a future development of the property. EPA also 
determined that the low levels of pesticides and copper detected in on-
site pond water and sediments would not create a risk to human health 
or aquatic organisms through exposure to the pond water or sediments. 
All of the estimated maximum cancer risks associated with exposure to 
contamination at the site fall within EPA's acceptable risk range. As 
outlined in the NCP, a cancer risk at a Superfund site is considered 
acceptable if it ranges between one in ten thousand and one in one 
million (1 x 10-4 to 1 x 10-6). (The carcinogenic risk 
associated with a future potential residential scenario is 
4.3 x 10-4. This risk is attributable to one contaminant, arsenic. 
The risk attributable to other compounds is at or below the lower end 
of the acceptable risk range (i.e., 10-6). Although the risk 
associated with arsenic is at the upper end of the acceptable risk 
range (i.e., 10-4), the contaminant level is below the level 
established as safe in the Safe Drinking Water Act.) In addition, the 
human health risk assessment concluded that non-cancer adverse health 
effects were not likely at this site. Based on EPA's investigation from 
1994 to 1996, it was determined that the existing site conditions are 
currently protective of public health and the environment and the site 
meets EPA's deletion criteria.
    The Proposed Plan for the Record of Decision was released for the 
thirty (30) day public comment period on October 10, 1996. The Proposed 
Plan recommended that as a result of previous removal actions ordered 
by the State, and EPA's recent investigation of the site, no further 
remedial action was warranted. Three public comments were submitted on 
EPA's Proposed Plan. Based upon the favorable community response, it 
was determined that no change to EPA's Proposed Plan was necessary.
    The Record of Decision (ROD) was signed by the Director of the 
Office of Site Remediation and Restoration on December 31, 1996. The No 
Action ROD recommendation includes: No further remedial action, and no 
long-term monitoring or management controls. The five-year review 
requirements of Section 121 of CERCLA and of 
Sec. 300.430(f)(4)(ii) of the NCP are not applicable to the Cheshire 
Ground Water Contamination site because contaminants do not remain in 
the groundwater, soils, surface water and sediment above levels that 
would prevent unlimited use and unrestricted exposure to the site. No 
operation and maintenance will be required at the Cheshire Ground Water 
Contamination site. EPA, with the concurrence of the State of 
Connecticut, has determined that the release poses no significant 
threat to public health or the environment and, therefore, taking of 
remedial measures is not appropriate.


[[Page 13570]]


    Dated: March 7, 1997.
Frank Ciavatieri,
Acting Director, Office of Site Remediation and Restoration.
[FR Doc. 97-7066 Filed 3-20-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P