[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 168 (Tuesday, August 31, 1999)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 47481-47483]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-22630]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-6430-9]


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

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of intent to delete McCarty's/Pacific Hide and Fur Site 
from the National Priorities List; request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10, 
announces its intent to delete the McCarty's/Pacific Hide and Fur Site 
in Pocatello, Idaho 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 Idaho Division of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) have 
determined that the Site poses no significant threat to public health 
or the environment and, therefore, further remedial measures pursuant 
to CERCLA are not appropriate.

DATES: Comments concerning this Site may be submitted on or before 
September 30, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Beverly Gaines, Environmental 
Protection Agency, 1200 Sixth Avenue, Mail Stop ECL-110, Seattle, 
Washington 98101.
    Comprehensive information on this Site is available through the 
Region 10 public docket which is available for viewing at the 
McCarty's/Pacific Hide and Fur Site information repositories at the 
following locations:

Pocatello Public Library, 812 E. Clark Street, Pocatello, Idaho 83201; 
or
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10 Office of 
Environmental Cleanup--Records Center, 1200 Sixth Avenue, Seattle, 
Washington 98101.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Gaines, U.S. EPA Region 10, 
1200 Sixth Avenue, Mail Stop ECL-110, Seattle, Washington 98101, (206) 
553-1066.

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 Pollution 
Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR part 300, and requests comments to 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 Fund-financed remedial actions in the unlikely event that 
conditions at the site warrant such actions.
    EPA plans to delete the McCarty's/Pacific Hide and Fur Site 
(``Site'') at 3575 Highway 30 West, Pocatello Idaho, 83201, from the 
NPL.
    EPA will accept comments on the plan to delete this Site for thirty 
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 the McCarty's/Pacific Hide and 
Fur Site and explains how the Site meets 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 Fund-financed 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

[[Page 47482]]

at the site to ensure that the site remains protective of public health 
and the environment. In the case of the McCarty's/Pacific Hide and Fur 
Site, no hazardous substances were left onsite, making ``unlimited use 
and unrestricted exposure'' possible. Therefore, the five-year review 
requirement of section 121 (c) of SARA is not applicable. If, however, 
new information becomes available that indicates a need for further 
action, EPA may require 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 Hazard Ranking 
System.

III. Deletion Procedures

    The following procedures were used for the intended deletion of 
this Site: (1) EPA Region 10 issued a final close out report 
documenting the achievement of cleanup goals; (2) the Idaho Division of 
Environmental Quality (IDEQ) 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 repository.
    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 information purposes to assist EPA management. As 
mentioned in section II of this document, 40 CFR 300.425(e)(3) states 
that deletion of a site from the NPL does not preclude eligibility for 
future Fund-financed 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 
notice in the Federal Register. Generally, the NPL will reflect 
deletions in the final update following the Notice. Public notices and 
copies of the Responsiveness Summary will be made available to local 
residents by EPA's Regional Office in Seattle, Washington.

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.

A. Site Background

    The McCarty's/Pacific Hide and Fur Site is located at 3575 Highway 
30 West in the northwest part of Pocatello, Bannock County, Idaho. The 
Site is approximately 16.9 acres in size and is bounded on the north by 
State Highway 30 and on the south by the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) 
right-of-way. The Site is an aggregate of three contiguous properties, 
currently owned by UPRR and Pacific Hide and Fur. The McCarty's part 
comprised approximately 8.3 acres and included a former gravel pit 
approximately 20 feet deep and 3 acres in area. The Site is located in 
an area of mixed commercial and light industrial property.

B. History

    The Site was originally a small 3-acre gravel mining operation on 
the McCarty's property but prior to 1983 changed and expanded to a 
metal recycling operation on an adjacent parcel and along the railroad. 
The entire Site is currently used as part of the Pacific Steel 
Recycling business' metals storage and recycling operation.
    Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were detected in the Site soil in 
1983 and EPA conducted an Emergency Response Action that year to remove 
nearly 600 PCB-containing capacitors, about 30 cubic yards of 
contaminated soil, and 20 drums of miscellaneous hazardous wastes for 
off-site disposal. The Site was listed on the National Priorities List 
(NPL) on September 21, 1984, because of the PCB-containing articles and 
PCB contaminated soil.
    Several remedial actions were conducted on the Site between 1983 
and 1988 when the first EPA Record of Decision (ROD) was signed on June 
28, 1988. The first ROD identified PCB-contaminated soil as an 
unacceptable risk to human health. Solidification and stabilization 
were the preferred cleanup remedies identified in the ROD. Additional 
investigative sampling in 1990 and 1991 lead to the first ROD being 
amended on April 22, 1992, dividing the Site into two Operable Units 
(OUs); the first OU addressing the PCB-contaminated and commingled 
lead-contaminated soil, and a second OU, the Final Operable Unit 
dealing with the remaining lead-contaminated soil. Over 15,000 tons of 
contaminated soil and scrap were disposed in 1992 during implementation 
of the first OU. The first ROD for OU1 was amended to include lead 
contamination of soil; the remedy was changed from solidification and 
stabilization to excavation and disposal off-site of PCB and commingled 
lead-contaminated soil.
    In 1993, a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RIFS) for 
the Final OU (the remaining lead-contaminated soil) was conducted. The 
RIFS evaluated all of the data collected from the Site and the findings 
were incorporated into the Final OU ROD, signed on September 27, 1995.
    Site cleanup objectives were to remediate the PCB- and lead-
contaminated soil to meet or surpass the health-based cleanup levels 
for future industrial land use. The cleanup levels identified in the 
RODs were 25 ppm for PCB and 1000 ppm for lead. The RODs objectives 
were met by: (1) Removal of the hazardous materials, i.e., PCB 
capacitors, asbestos, battery casings, etc.; (2) removal and recycling 
of scrap materials that were stockpiled within areas of the Site 
requiring remediation; (3) excavation of soil with PCB or lead 
concentrations greater than the cleanup goals and treatment of the soil 
exceeding the RCRA-characteristic level for lead, such that the treated 
materials were acceptable for disposal as a non-hazardous waste; (4) 
disposal of excavated soil in an approved, off-site disposal facility; 
and (5) backfilling of excavated areas with clean soil from off-site 
and/or regrading of disturbed areas of the Site to the extent necessary 
to promote positive surface drainage and site stability and to avoid 
erosion problems. Solidification and stabilization of lead contaminated 
soils were incorporated in the soil treatment to allow disposal at a 
local landfill.
    The PRPs requested a more comprehensive cleanup than was required 
by the RODs, with the intent of reducing soil contamination to levels 
below those which would pose any risk to human health or the 
environment, which is referred to as residential cleanup criteria. On 
April 20, 1998, EPA signed an Explanation of Significant Differences 
(ESD) to the Final Operable Unit ROD changing the cleanup level for 
lead levels in the soil from 1000 ppm (industrial use criteria) to 400 
ppm (the health-based residential use criteria) and lowered the PCB 
cleanup level from 25 ppm to 1 ppm to meet the same criteria. The Site 
was cleaned up to these lower levels by excavating and removing 
contaminated soil above the revised cleanup levels, thereby allowing 
unrestricted use of the property. Based on post cleanup sampling, no 
hazardous wastes above health-based levels remain on-site.

C. Characterization of Risk

    Prior to cleanup, the preliminary environmental pathways of concern 
were potential direct contact and ingestion of PCB- and lead-

[[Page 47483]]

contaminated soil and potential ingestion of contaminated ground water. 
Initially, it was not known if the groundwater had been contaminated by 
activities at the Site.
    Remedial action began in 1983, when EPA conducted an Emergency 
Response Action which included the installation of ten groundwater 
monitoring wells to determine if Site contamination had impacted the 
groundwater. No groundwater contamination was identified. Further 
remedial actions removed approximately 37,000 tons of contaminated soil 
of which over 10,000 tons required treatment prior to disposal.
    The initial ROD cleanup levels required removal of contaminants 
down to industrial use criteria which allows for hazardous materials to 
remain on-Site. The ESD, signed in 1998, lowered the cleanup levels to 
require compliance with residential health-based criteria.
    With the implementation and completion of all remedial activities, 
the Site no longer poses any threat to human health or the environment, 
ensuring that no further action is required. Site monitoring wells and 
a domestic well have been abandoned, and, at this time, there are no 
other operation and maintenance activities to be performed at the Site. 
EPA required institutional controls are unnecessary because no 
hazardous substances were left on-Site above levels that allow for 
unlimited use and unrestricted exposure. The five-year review 
requirement of section 121 (c) of SARA is not applicable.

D. Public Participation

    Community input has been sought by EPA Region 10 throughout the 
cleanup process at the Site. Information repositories were established 
at the Pocatello Public Library and the EPA Region 10 office. Community 
concern about the Site has generally been limited. Community relations 
activities have included several public meetings, fact sheets, and 
newspaper notice of the two proposed plans. A limited number of 
comments were received on the proposed plans for the Site. EPA's 
response to these comments can be found in the Responsiveness Summaries 
of the RODs.
    A copy of the Deletion Docket can be reviewed by the public at the 
Pocatello Public Library, or the EPA Region 10 Superfund Records 
Center. The Deletion Docket includes this document, the RODs, Amended 
ROD, Remedial Action Construction Report, 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 IDEQ, believes that this criterion for deletion has 
been met. Groundwater and soil data from the Site confirm that the ROD 
cleanup goals have been achieved. There is no significant threat to 
human health or the environment and, therefore, no further remedial 
action is necessary. Consequently, EPA is proposing deletion of this 
Site from the NPL. Documents supporting this action are available in 
the docket at the information repositories.

    Dated: August 24, 1999.
Charles E. Findley,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 10.
[FR Doc. 99-22630 Filed 8-30-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P