[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 237 (Friday, December 8, 2000)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 76945-76947]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-31191]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-6913-2]


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

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Direct final deletion of the University of Minnesota Rosemount 
Research Center Superfund Site from the National Priorities List (NPL).

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SUMMARY: EPA Region 5 announces the deletion of the University of 
Minnesota Rosemount Research Center Site (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 Substance Pollution Continency Plan (NCP), which EPA 
promulgated pursuant to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental 
Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended, (CERCLA). 
EPA and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) 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: This ``direct final'' action will be effective February 6, 2001 
unless EPA receives dissenting comments by January 8, 2001. If written 
dissenting comments are received, EPA will publish a timely withdrawal 
of the rule in the Federal Register informing the public that the rule 
will not take effect.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Gladys Beard, Associate Remedial 
Project Manager, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund 
Division, U.S. EPA, Region 5, 77 W. Jackson Blvd., (SR-6J), Chicago, IL 
60604. Requests for comprehensive information on this Site is available 
through the public docket which is available for viewing at the Site 
Information Repository at the following location: The Minnesota 
Pollution Control Agency, Administrative Records, 520 Lafayette Road 
North, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55155-4184.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Gladys Beard (SR-6J), U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency, 77 W. Jackson, Chicago, IL, (312) 886-
7253, FAX (312) 886-4071, e-mail [email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Table of Contents

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

I. Introduction

    EPA Region 5 announces the deletion of the releases from the 
University of Minnesota Rosemont Research Center Site, Rosemount, 
Dakota County, Minnesota, from the National Priorities List (NPL), 
appendix B of the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution 
Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR Part 300. 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 these sites. EPA and 
the State of Minnesota have determined that the remedial action for the 
Site has been successfully executed. EPA will accept comments on this 
notice thirty days after publication of this notice in the Federal 
Register.
    Section II of this action explains the criteria for deleting sites 
from the NPL. Section III discusses the procedures that EPA is using 
for this action. Section IV discusses the history of the University of 
Minnesota Site and explains how the Site meets the deletion criteria. 
Section V states EPA's action to delete the releases of the Site from 
the NPL unless dissenting comments are received during the comment 
period.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    Section 300.425(e) of the NCP provides that 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,

[[Page 76946]]

whether any of the following criteria has been met:
    (i) Responsible parties or other persons have implemented all 
appropriate response actions required;
    (ii) All appropriate Fund-financed responses under CERCLA have been 
implemented, and no further response 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 the release 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 this Site, EPA conducted a Five-Year Review 
in June, 1997 and a second one is due June 2002. Based on these 
reviews, EPA determined that conditions at the Site remain protective 
of public health and the environment. As explained below, the Site 
meets the NCP's deletion criteria listed above. 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 shall be restored to the NPL 
without the application of the Hazard Ranking System (HRS).

III. Deletion Procedures

    The following procedures were used for the intended deletion of 
releases from the Site: (1) All appropriate response under CERCLA has 
been implemented and no further action by EPA is appropriate; (2) the 
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency 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 
dissenting public comment period on EPA's Direct Final Action to 
Delete; and, (4) all relevant documents have been made available for 
public review in the local Site information repositories. EPA is 
requesting only dissenting comments on the Direct Final Action to 
Delete.
    For deletion of releases from the Site, EPA's Regional Office will 
accept and evaluate public comments on EPA's Final Notice before making 
a final decision to delete. If necessary, the Agency will prepare a 
Responsiveness Summary, responding to each significant comment 
submitted during the public comment period. Deletion of the Site 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. As mentioned in Section II of 
this document, Sec. 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP states that the deletion 
of a release from a site from the NPL does not preclude eligibility for 
future response actions.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

    The University of Minnesota Rosemount Research Center (UMRRC) is 
located within the city limits of Rosemount in Dakota County, 
approximately 20 miles southeast of the Minneapolis/St. Paul 
metropolitan area. The UMRRC covers approximately five square miles and 
is used by some light manufacturing and service companies. Within the 
confines of the UMRRC, the UMRRC Site consists of three industrial 
disposal sites: the George's Used Equipment (GUE) site, the Porter 
Electric and Machine Company (PE) site, and the U.S. Transformer (UST) 
site. The University also burned discarded laboratory chemicals in a 
burn pit area on the Site.
    The University and the MPCA signed a Response Action Agreement on 
May 30, 1985, under the Minnesota Environmental Response and Liability 
Act (MERLA) for the cleanup of the UMRRC Site groundwater and soil. In 
December 1987, the UMRRC Site was placed on the National Priority List. 
Remedial Investigation (RI) activities were conducted under the 
Agreement from 1984 through 1988.
    The RI determined that soil and concrete at all three disposal 
sites were contaminated by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). In 
addition, the GUE site was also found to be contaminated with lead and 
copper. PCBs in the soil were as high as 63,000 parts per million (ppm) 
and lead was as high as 40,000 ppm. Groundwater at the site was found 
to be contaminated with chloroform from the burn pit area. The highest 
concentration of chloroform found was 72 parts per billion (ppb) in a 
monitoring well one mile from the burn pit.
    The GUE site was used as an electrical storage and salvage 
facility, as well as a general salvage facility between 1968 and 1985. 
Activities at this site resulted in soil and concrete contamination by 
lead and PCBs. The PE site was used for storage and reconditioning of 
used industrial electrical equipment. Soil at this site is contaminated 
with PCBs. The UST site was used for dismantling and salvaging 
electrical transformers. Soil and concrete at the UST site was 
contaminated with PCBs.
    After reviewing the results of the RI/Feasibility Study (FS), the 
MPCA completed a ROD on June 11, 1990; EPA concurred with the ROD on 
June 29, 1990. The selected remedy had five major components:
    1. Excavating approximately 6,500 cubic yards of soil and concrete 
contaminated with greater than 25 ppm PCBs and approximately 2,600 
cubic yards of soil contaminated with copper and lead where the soil 
exceed 1,000 ppm lead;
    2. Consolidating approximately 15,000 cubic yards of soil from the 
three disposal sites contaminated with PCBs which ranged in 
concentration from 10 to 25 ppm PCBs at GUE and restricting access;
    3. Thermally destroying the PCBs in the soil and concrete;
    4. Transporting the soil contaminated with lead and copper to an 
off-site Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)-permitted 
landfill; transporting lead contaminated soil which also contained PCBs 
to a Toxic Substances Control Agency (TSCA)/RCRA-permitted landfill; 
and
    5. Backfilling with clean soil, grading and establishing 
vegetation.
    The ROD also included a groundwater pump and treatment system for 
the chloroform contaminated groundwater. It should be noted that the 
groundwater pump and treatment system was in place and operating at the 
time the ROD was written. The pump and treatment system had already 
been completed by the University as a part of its response under the 
MERLA Response Action Agreement.
    During July and August 1990, the University disposed of soil 
contaminated with lead and copper. The soil contaminated with lead and 
copper was disposed of at the Adams Center Landfill located in Ft. 
Wayne, Indiana, a RCRA-permitted landfill. Lead contaminated soil 
containing greater than 49 ppm PCBs was disposed of at the Chemical 
Waste Management, Inc., Landfill in Emelle, Alabama, a TSCA/RCRA-
permitted landfill.
    Based on a request from the University, the ROD was modified in 
August 1991 with the completion of an Explanation of Significant 
Difference (ESD) by the MPCA and EPA. The changes approved in the ESD 
were:
    1. Allowing the University the option of using either on-site 
incineration or the previously approved alternative of

[[Page 76947]]

thermal desorption to vaporize and destroy the PCB's;
    2. Allowing the University to restrict access to the three disposal 
sites with soil PCB levels which ranged between 10 and 25 ppm PCBs 
rather than consolidating this soil; and
    3. Requiring the University to perform a review of the 
effectiveness of the remedial action three years after completion of 
the remedy rather than three years after the approval of the remedial 
action clean-up plan.
    In order to operate a thermal destruction unit in the State of 
Minnesota, the MPCA issued the University an `` Authorization to 
Install and Operate a Thermal Destruction Unit, University of Minnesota 
Rosemount Research Station,'' (Authorization to Burn) on December 27, 
1991. The Authorization to Burn was modified on February 3, 1992, and 
August 17, 1992. These modifications reduced the scope of the 
Authorization to Burn based on additional information received from the 
University and from Roy F. Weston, Inc. (Weston), the University's 
clean-up contractor.
    The University chose to destroy the PCBs using the on-site 
incineration option. Weston began site activities on June 30, 1992; 
began incinerating contaminated soil at the Site in March 1993; and 
completed the thermal destruction of soil and concrete in July 1993.
    The MPCA approved the shutdown of the pump and treatment system on 
October 30, 1991. This was in part due to the Minnesota Department of 
Health (MDH) changing its Recommended Allowable Limit (RAL) for 
chloroform from 5 to 57 ppb. The groundwater was also found to meet 
other state groundwater drinking water criteria.
    On June 1, 1993, the University requested that it be allowed to 
consolidate PCB contaminated soil which ranged between 10 and 25 ppm at 
GUE as originally described in the ROD. The University decided that it 
was now more feasible to consolidate the soil than was envisioned at 
the time of the first ESD. The ESD also indicated that all remaining 
soil contaminated with one to 10 ppm PCBs will be covered with 10 
inches of clean fill in order to comply with the TSCA PCB Spill Policy 
and to provide unrestricted access to these areas. The MPCA prepared a 
second ESD to address these changes and EPA concurred with the ESD on 
October 1, 1993.
    On September 24, 1993, the EPA and the MPCA performed the 
preliminary site inspection. At that time, the remedy was substantially 
complete with the exception of consolidating a small amount of soil 
into the GUE depression and also transporting a small quantity of soil 
to an off-site landfill. A final site inspection was conducted on 
September 20, 1994, and all construction activities were found to be 
completed.

V. Action

    The remedy selected for this Site has been implemented in 
accordance with the Record of Decision and subsequent Explanation of 
Significant Difference. The remedy has resulted in the significant 
reduction of the long-term potential for release of contaminants, 
therefore, human health and potential environmental impacts have been 
minimized. EPA and the State of Minnesota find that the remedies 
implemented continue to provide adequate protection of human health the 
environment.
    The MPCA concurs with EPA that the criteria for deletion of 
releases have been met. Therefore, EPA is deleting the Site from the 
NPL.
    This action will be effective February 6, 2001. However, if EPA 
receives dissenting comments by January 8, 2001, EPA will publish a 
document that withdraws this action.

List of Subjects in 40 CFR Part 300

    Environmental protection, Air pollution control, Chemicals, 
Hazardous substances, Hazardous waste, Intergovernmental relations, 
Penalties, Reporting and recordkeeping requirements, Superfund, Water 
pollution control, Water supply.

    Dated: November 28, 2000.
Elissa Speizman,
Acting Regional Administrator, EPA, Region 5.

    Part 300, title 40 of chapter 1 of the Code of Federal Regulations 
is amended as follows:

Part 300--[AMENDED]

    1. The authority citation for part 300 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 33 U.S.C. 1321(c)(2); 42 U.S.C. 9601-9657; E.O. 
12777, 56 FR 54757, 3 CFR., 1991 Comp.; p.351; E.O. 12580, 52 FR 
2923, 3 CFR, 1987 Comp.; p.193.

Appendix B--[Amended]

    2. Table 1 of appendix B to Part 300 is amended by removing the 
site for ``University of Minnesota Rosemount, Res Cen, Rosemount, 
Minnesota.''

[FR Doc. 00-31191 Filed 12-7-00; 8:45 am]
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