[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 149 (Wednesday, August 4, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 42328-42330]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-19906]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-6411-7]


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

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice of intent to delete the 62nd Street Superfund site from 
the National Priorities List: request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 
4 announces its intent to delete the 62nd Street Superfund 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 Florida 
Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) have determined that the 
site poses no significant threat to public health or the environment 
and therefore, further response measures pursuant to CERCLA are not 
appropriate.

DATES: Comments concerning the proposed deletion of this site from the 
NPL may be submitted on or before September 3, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to: Richard D. Green, Director, Waste 
Management Division, United States Environmental Protection Agency, 
Region 4, 61 Forsyth Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8909, (404) 562-
8651.
    Comprehensive information on this site is available through the EPA 
Region 4 public docket, which is available for viewing at the 
information repositories at two locations. Locations, contacts, phone 
numbers and viewing hours are: Record Center, U.S. EPA Region 4, 61 
Forsyth Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-8909, (404) 562-9530, hours: 8 
a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday by appointment only; Tampa/
Hillsborough County Public Library/Special Collections, 900 North 
Ashley, Tampa, Florida 33602, (813) 273-3652, hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. 
Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday through Saturday.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Randa Chichakli, U.S. EPA Region 4, 
Waste Management Division, 61 Forsyth Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30303-
8909, (404) 562-8928.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents:

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

I. Introduction

    EPA Region 4 announces its intent to delete the 62nd Street 
Superfund Site, Hillsborough County, Tampa, Florida, from the NPL, 
which constitutes Appendix B of the NCP, 40 CFR part 300, and requests 
comments on this deletion. The EPA identifies sites on the NPL that 
appear to present a significant risk to public health, welfare, or the 
environment. Sites on the NPL may be the subject of remedial actions 
financed by the Hazardous Substance Superfund Trust 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.
    EPA will accept comments on the proposal to delete this site from 
the NPL for thirty calendar days after publication of this document 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 how this 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 40 CFR 300.425(e), sites maybe 
deleted from or re-categorized on the NPL where no further response is 
appropriate. In making this determination, EPA shall consider, in 
consultation with the state, whether any of the following criteria have 
been met:
    1. Responsible parties or other persons have implemented all 
appropriate response actions required;
    2. All appropriate Fund-financed response under CERCLA has been 
implemented, and no further response action by responsible parties is 
appropriate; or
    3. 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.
    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. 
If new information becomes available which indicates a need for further 
action, EPA may initiate remedial actions. 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 Hazardous Ranking 
System.

III. Deletion Procedures

    EPA will accept and evaluate public comments before making a final 
decision on deletion from the NPL. Comments from the local community 
may be the most pertinent to deletion decisions. The following 
procedures were used for the intended deletion of the Site:
    1. EPA has recommended deletion and has prepared the relevant 
documents;

[[Page 42329]]

    2. FDEP has concurred with the deletion decision;
    3. Concurrently with this Notice of Intent to Delete, notices have 
been published in local newspapers and have been distributed to 
appropriate federal, state and local officials and other interested 
parties announcing a 30-day public comment period on the proposed 
deletion from the NPL;
    4. EPA has made all relevant documents available at the information 
repositories; and
    5. EPA will respond to significant comments, if any, submitted 
during the public comment period.
    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. EPA 
will prepare a Responsiveness Summary, if necessary, which will address 
the comments received during the public comment period.
    A deletion occurs when the Regional Administrator places a Notice 
of Deletion in the Federal Register. Any deletions from the NPL will be 
reflected in the next NPL update. Public notices and copies of the 
Responsiveness Summary, if necessary, 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 National Priorities List.
    The 62nd Street Superfund Site is located in Hillsborough County, 
north of Columbus Drive and just west of 62nd Street on the east side 
of the city of Tampa. The five and one-half acre site was formerly used 
for the disposal of industrial waste and is located in an area with 
mixed residential and light industrial land use. The site is bounded on 
the west by a series of what were small, shallow fish breeding ponds. 
To the east and south of the site are residential areas interspersed 
with light commercial and industrial operations. To the north of the 
site is undeveloped land.
    In the late 1960's the 62nd Street Site was operated as a borrow 
pit where sand was removed for use as fill material. When the borrow 
operations ceased, the owner of the site allowed several companies in 
the Tampa area to use the excavated pits for disposal of various waste 
materials, including construction and demolition debris, cement kiln 
dust, battery wastes, waste materials from an automobile shredder and 
other wastes. In 1976, the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection 
Commission (HCEPC) issued a notice to cease all disposal activities at 
the site due to fish kills which occurred in the fish breeding ponds 
located west of the 62nd Street Site. However, unauthorized disposal of 
household garbage and construction debris continued after that date.
    Between 1979 and 1980, the site was investigated by many 
contractors on behalf of Peninsular Fisheries, Inc. These studies 
concluded that the 62nd Street Site had a hydraulic connection to the 
fish breeding ponds and was adversely impacting the water quality in 
these ponds. Environmental sampling was conducted periodically by HCEPC 
and the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation (FDER) at 
private wells, fish breeding ponds, a shallow sand point well installed 
by FDER and various other areas surrounding the site. An analysis of a 
sample from the shallow sand point well showed levels of chromium which 
exceeded the FDER groundwater standard. In December 1982, the site was 
proposed for inclusion on the National Priority List (NPL) which became 
final in September 1983.
    In March 1984, the FDER and EPA entered into a Cooperative 
Agreement for FDER to conduct a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility 
Study (RI/FS) at the site. For study purposes, the wastes present at 
the site were divided into two groups: cement waste and non-cement 
waste. The waste consisting of cement, cement kiln dust, and cement 
slag was designated as cement waste and the wastes from the automobile 
shredder, battery wastes, and other wastes were designated as non-
cement wastes.
    The RI was conducted between February 1986 and September 1987. The 
major RI activities at the site consisted of the excavation of 12 test 
pits and installation of 14 groundwater monitoring wells which were 
designed to screen within the surficial aquifer and the underlying 
artesian Floridan aquifer. Chemical analyses were performed on soil, 
sediment, surface water and groundwater samples recovered from the site 
as well as from surrounding areas as part of the RI.
    The soil and groundwater investigations at the 62nd Street site 
revealed that the non-cement waste containing antimony, arsenic, 
cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and polychlorinated biphenyls 
(PCBs) could be a potential risk to human health, but the cement waste 
presented little threat through direct contact or leaching into the 
groundwater. During the RI/FS, unfiltered groundwater samples from the 
surficial aquifer at, and downgradient of the site were found to 
contain cadmium, chromium and lead at levels exceeding the Maximum 
Concentration Levels (MCLs) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). 
Chromium was the most common contaminant that exceeded the MCLs and the 
second most common was lead.
    On June 27, 1990, consistent with the remedy proposed in the RI/FS, 
the EPA Region 4 Administrator approved a Record of Decision (ROD). The 
chosen remedy specified in the ROD called for:
    (1) Solidification/stabilization (S/S) of the battery wastes, 
shredded auto parts, and contaminated soils,
    (2) No treatment of the on-site cement wastes, since they presented 
little threat through either direct contact or leaching to groundwater,
    (3) Capping of the entire site with a two-foot vegetative soil 
cover underlain by an impermeable membrane,
    (4) Extraction and treatment of the groundwater from the surficial 
aquifer both on-site and off-site, and
    (5) Institutional controls or other land use restrictions to ensure 
the integrity of the cap and preclude exposure to the treated soils.
    The selected remedy established clean-up levels for contaminants in 
the groundwater based on the MCLs for cadmium and chromium. The clean-
up levels for lead were based on the EPA recommended clean-up level for 
lead in groundwater. The clean-up criteria for contaminated soils were 
based on consideration of health effects and leaching to groundwater.
    The EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order in April 1991 to 
several Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) including David J. 
Joseph Company and Lafarge Corporation. This order directed the PRPs to 
develop a Remedial Design for the remedy as described in the ROD and 
then to implement that remedy by performing a Remedial Action. A 
Consent Decree for the Remedial Design/Remedial Action was signed by 
the PRPs in August 1991. The Remedial Design began in November 1991, by 
the PRPs' contractor Ardaman & Associates, Inc. The Remedial Design 
considered all design elements required by the directives of the ROD 
plus a soil-bentonite cut-off wall around the perimeter of the site to 
facilitate dewatering during remediation and to reduce long term 
migration of groundwater through the solidified materials beneath the 
site after remediation.
    In September 1991 an Explanation of Significant Difference (ESD) 
was issued which revised the lead clean-up criteria

[[Page 42330]]

and provided for the disposal of non-contaminated construction-type 
debris.
    On June 29, 1995, the ROD was amended to eliminate the requirement 
to extract and treat groundwater from the surficial aquifer on-site and 
off-site, since monitoring of the groundwater in monitor wells located 
hydraulically downgradient of the site revealed the concentrations of 
cadmium, chromium, and lead were below the established clean-up levels.
    A Pre-Final Inspection was conducted on May 24, 1994, when the S/S 
activities were near completion. A Final Inspection was conducted at 
the site on June 13, 1995, upon completion of the top cover. As a 
result of this Final Inspection, it was determined that all outstanding 
remedial tasks noted in the Pre-Final Inspection Report had been 
resolved and all outstanding construction activities had been 
completed.
    As a result of the activities, all objectives of ROD have been met 
with the exception of the requirement to extract and treat groundwater 
which was eliminated in a ROD amendment on June 29, 1995.
    No specific operational tasks are required for the 62nd Street 
Site. However, periodic maintenance activities are anticipated to 
control vegetation and to repair any erosional damage to exposed areas 
of the top cover and ditches. Routine maintenance of the top cover and 
drainage ditches will incorporate mowing, weed control and erosion 
damage repair. Also, once annually during the month of December, 
groundwater sampling and analysis will be performed to confirm that the 
cadmium, chromium, and lead concentrations in both filtered and 
unfiltered groundwater remain below the respective clean-up levels for 
these parameters.
    EPA conducted a five-year review on June 18, 1999 and concluded 
that the Remedial Action Objectives have been achieved, the remedy is 
effective and functioning as designed, and continues to remain 
protective of human health and the environment. EPA has determined that 
all completion requirements and appropriate actions at the 62nd Street 
Superfund Site have been completed, and that no further remedial action 
is necessary. Therefore, EPA is proposing deletion of the site from the 
NPL.

    Dated: July 12, 1999.
A. Stanley Meiburg,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 4.
[FR Doc. 99-19906 Filed 8-3-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P