[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]]
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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.
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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