[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 152 (Tuesday, August 7, 2001)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 41179-41182]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-19751]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300
[FRL-7026-9]
National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan;
National Priorities List
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice of Intent to Delete the Times Beach Site from the
National Priorities List.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 announces
the intent to delete the Times Beach site (the 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. The EPA and the State of Missouri Department of
Natural Resources (MDNR) have determined that the remedial action for
the site has been successfully executed.
DATES: Comments concerning the proposed deletion of this site from the
NPL may be submitted on or before September 6, 2001.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to Robert Feild, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region 7, 901 N. 5th Street, SUPR, Kansas City,
Kansas, 66101.
Information Repositories: Comprehensive information on this site is
available through the Region 7 public docket which is available for
viewing by appointment only. Appointments for copies of the background
information from the Regional public docket should be directed to the
EPA Region 7 Docket office at the following address: Regional Records
Center, U.S. Environmental
[[Page 41180]]
Protection Agency, Region 7, 901 N. 5th Street, Kansas City, Kansas,
66101.
The deletion docket is also available for viewing at the following
location: Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), 97 North
Outer Road at Lewis Road, Eureka, Missouri, 63025.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: If additional information is needed,
please contact Robert Feild at (913) 551-7697 or e-mail at
[email protected]. The EPA Region 7 toll-free phone number is 1-800-
223-0425.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. NPL Deletion-Criteria
III. Deletion Procedures
IV. Basis of Intended Site Deletion
I. Introduction
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 announces
its intent to delete the Times Beach site in St. Louis County,
Missouri, 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 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. The
EPA and the MDNR have determined that the remedial action for the site
has been successfully executed.
The EPA will accept comments on the proposal to delete this site
for thirty (30) days after publication of this document in Federal
Register.
Section II of this document explains the criteria for deleting
sites from the NPL. Section III discusses the procedures EPA is using
for this action. Section IV discusses the Times Beach site and explains
how the site meets the deletion criteria.
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
Section 300.425(e)(1) of the NCP provides that releases 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; or
(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, remedial measures are 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 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 additional remedial actions. Whenever there is
a significant release from a deleted site from the NPL, the site may be
restored to the NPL, without application of the Hazard Ranking System.
III. Deletion Procedures
The following procedures were used for the intended deletion of
this site:
(1) All appropriate response under CERCLA has been implemented, and
no further action by EPA is appropriate;
(2) The State of Missouri has concurred with the proposed deletion
decision;
(3) A notice has been published in the local newspapers 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 in the local
site information repository.
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 EPA management. As
mentioned in section II of this notice, Sec. 300.425(e)(3) of the NCP
states that the deletion of a site from the NPL does not preclude
eligibility for future response actions. For deletion of this site,
EPA's Regional Office will accept and evaluate public comments on EPA's
Notice of Intent to Delete before making a final decision to delete. If
necessary, the EPA will prepare a Responsiveness Summary to address any
significant public comments 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 the Regional Office.
IV. Basis of Intended Site Deletion
The following site summary provides the EPA's rationale for the
proposal to delete this site from the NPL.
Site Background and History
Times Beach was formerly an incorporated city in southwest St.
Louis County, approximately 20 miles southwest of the City of St.
Louis. The site encompasses approximately 0.8 square miles, bordered on
the north and east by unincorporated areas of St. Louis County, on the
south by unincorporated areas of Jefferson County, and on the west by
the City of Eureka. The City of Times Beach was disincorporated in
1985.
On the north and east, the site is contiguous to the Meramec River,
the dominant hydrological feature in the area. The site is bisected at
the southern end by Interstate 44. Burlington Northern Railroad lines
are adjacent to Times Beach to the west. Much of the site is located in
the five-year flood plain, and the entire site is within the 25-year
flood plain. The area's topography is level to slightly sloping, with
an average slope of less than one percent. Residential development has
historically constituted the major land use. Commercial land use has
been minimal, and the city had no industrial development. The
surrounding areas have a mixture of residential and agricultural uses.
The unpaved roadways of the former town of Times Beach, located in
St. Louis County, Missouri, were sprayed for dust control in the early
1970s with dioxin-contaminated waste oil. Investigation into the
disposal practices of a southwestern Missouri chemical manufacturing
facility led EPA to the Bliss Waste Oil Company and subsequently to a
number of sites that had potentially been sprayed with dioxin-
contaminated waste oil for dust control, including the Times Beach
site.
The Times Beach site was proposed for the NPL on March 4, 1983, and
finalized on the NPL on September 8, 1983.
Response Actions
The presence of dioxin contamination at initial concentrations up
to 127 parts per billion (ppb) was confirmed by EPA through sampling
conducted in
[[Page 41181]]
November and December 1982. In response to discovery of dioxin
contamination and a health advisory issued by the Centers for Disease
Control, EPA announced the permanent relocation of nearly two thousand
residents of Times Beach in February 1983. In June 1983, a permanent
relocation contract was signed between the State of Missouri, St. Louis
County, a trustee appointed for the City of Times Beach, and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency. Funds were subsequently
transferred from EPA to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
for the buyout. In accordance with the contract, all of the former
Times Beach properties were conveyed to the State of Missouri once the
deeds were acquired by FEMA.
In 1984 an article was published by a toxicologist with the Centers
for Disease Control, Center for Environmental Health (CDC),
recommending 1 ppb as a level of concern for dioxin in residential
soils. In January 1987, EPA proposed clean-up levels to the CDC for the
excavation of the eastern Missouri dioxin sites, including a proposed
20 ppb clean-up level for the anticipated future recreational land use
at Times Beach. Because of the location of Times Beach in the flood
plain of the Meramec River, future residential use of the site
following site restoration was deemed impracticable, and no
institutional controls were considered necessary to control future land
use. The CDC concurred with the Agency's proposed clean-up levels.
In 1984, The Regional Administrator signed a Record of Decision
(ROD) for an Interim Central Storage Facility to temporarily store
dioxin-contaminated materials from three nearby eastern Missouri sites
at Times Beach until a final remedy was available. The temporary
storage portion of this remedy was never implemented. A separate
component of the selected remedy, however, was the construction of a
series of spur levees at Times Beach to control the velocity of Meramec
River flood water during flood events in order to minimize scour and
erosion of contaminated soils. In 1987, EPA completed the construction
of the three-phase spur levee project through an Interagency Agreement
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In September 1988, a ROD was signed by the Assistant Administrator,
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), that provided for
a temporary incinerator to be located at Times Beach for the treatment
of dioxin-contaminated materials from Times Beach and the Minker/Stout/
Romaine Creek sites. The ROD further provided that the temporary
incinerator would be available to treat dioxin-contaminated materials
from the other eastern Missouri sites.
In December 1990, a Consent Decree was entered in the Eastern
District of Missouri between EPA, the State, and the primary
potentially responsible party (PRP) group. The Consent Decree provided
for a mixed work settlement that required each party to undertake
certain tasks. Generally, EPA was responsible for excavation and
transportation of dioxin-contaminated soils from 26 eastern Missouri
dioxin sites to Times Beach for incineration. The EPA also had
responsibility for collecting and disposing of the household hazardous
wastes at Times Beach prior to demolition of residences and other
structures. The State was responsible for assuring a 10 percent cost
share for remedial actions and for providing long-term management of
the Times Beach site. The settling defendants were responsible for
demolition and disposal of structures and debris remaining after the
permanent relocation, construction of a ring levee to flood-protect an
incinerator subsite, construction of a temporary incinerator,
excavation of contaminated soils at Times Beach, incineration of
dioxin-contaminated materials from the 27 sites (including Times Beach)
and restoration of Times Beach upon completion of response actions.
The settling defendants awarded a contract for the temporary
incinerator in February 1992. Demolition and disposal of structures and
debris, excavation of dioxin-contaminated soils, construction of a ring
levee, and mobilization of the temporary incinerator by the settling
defendants were completed by November 1995. Initial testing of the
incinerator was performed in December 1995. Full-scale operation of the
incinerator commenced on March 17, 1996, and was completed June 16,
1997. A total of 265,354 tons of dioxin-contaminated materials from the
27 eastern Missouri dioxin sites was treated at Times Beach, including
37,234 tons of dioxin-contaminated materials excavated from the Times
Beach site itself. Solid treatment residue from the incineration of
these materials was land disposed on site after testing confirmed that
required treatment levels had been achieved. Site restoration was
completed by the settling defendants in accordance with a design
approved by the State and EPA.
An ambient air monitoring network was operated throughout the
incineration of dioxin-contaminated soils at Times Beach. The network
included four on-site and two off-site monitoring stations
incorporating 17 monitors measuring ambient dioxin and PM-10 levels.
The air monitoring detected no discernible increase in airborne dioxin
or PM-10 levels at Times Beach resulting from implementation of the
remedial action.
In addition to the response work directed at dioxin contamination
at Times Beach, a removal action was performed by EPA in June 1997, to
excavate and dispose of soils in an area within the former Times Beach
city park that had been contaminated by the dumping of bulk liquid
wastes, unrelated to the contamination affecting roadways throughout
the site. The hazardous substances present in the former city park were
primarily toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylene. Traces of
tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene were also present. No dioxin
was detected in the former city park soils. The contaminated materials
were characterized as a special waste by St. Louis County, and disposed
of off site at a facility permitted to receive these materials.
Clean-up Standards
The 1988 ROD for this site established criteria for the removal of
soils and other materials contaminated with dioxin (2,3,7,8-
tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) from this site. This criteria was modified
in an Explanation of Significant Differences issued July 18, 1990. The
modified criteria required removal of dioxin-contaminated soils
exceeding 10 ppb and placement of a one-foot vegetated clean soil cover
over all areas with residual concentrations exceeding 1 ppb.
Operation and Maintenance
The remedial response at the site was successful in removing
dioxin-contaminated materials exceeding health-based levels for
unrestricted use within the boundaries of the NPL site. No operation
and maintenance activities are necessary to maintain the continued
effectiveness of the remedy.
Five-Year Review
Hazardous substances do not remain at the site above health-based
levels following the completed response actions. Pursuant to CERCLA
Section 121(c) and as provided in OSWER Directive 9355.7-02, Structure
and Components of Five-Year Reviews, May 23, 1991, and OSWER Directive
9355.702A, Supplemental Five-Year Review Guidance, July 26, 1994, EPA
is not required to conduct a five-year review for this site. No five-
year reviews will be conducted.
[[Page 41182]]
Community Involvement
Public participation in the selection of a comprehensive final
remedial action for the eastern Missouri dioxin sites, including the
Times Beach site, began with the public release of the Feasibility
Study of Final Remedial Actions for the Minker/Stout/Romaine Creek Site
in July 1986. This study evaluated remedial alternatives for the
dioxin-contaminated soil being temporarily stored at the Minker/Stout/
Romaine Creek site, located approximately ten miles south of Times
Beach. Remedial alternatives evaluated in this study included offsite
centralized thermal treatment at a nearby facility within 50 miles of
the Minker/Stout/Romaine Creek site.
A public comment period was held from August 8, 1986, through
September 5, 1986, for the Feasibility Study of Final Remedial Actions
for the Minker/Stout/Romaine Creek Site. A public meeting was held
August 25, 1986. At that meeting, EPA announced that a feasibility
study to evaluate Times Beach as a potential location for centralized
thermal treatment would be completed and released for public comment.
The Times Beach Feasibility Study was released for public comment
from December 29, 1986, through March 27, 1987. A public meeting was
held on February 12, 1987, to discuss alternatives evaluated in the
study and to present the Agency's proposed remedy.
The Times Beach and Minker/Stout/Romaine Creek Proposed Plan was
released for public comment from February 19 through March 18, 1988,
and a public meeting was held in Eureka, Missouri, on March 10, 1988.
The proposed plan recommended centralized thermal treatment of
contaminated soils at Times Beach and the Minker/Stout/Romaine Creek
site at a temporary thermal treatment facility to be located at Times
Beach. The proposed remedy was selected in a September 29, 1988, ROD,
and Implemented through a December 31, 1990, Consent Decree. In 1990,
an opportunity for public comment was provided for the Times Beach
Consent Decree prior to entry.
During the numerous opportunities provided for public comment, the
local community was primarily concerned that the thermal treatment unit
would become permanent and that other types of wastes from throughout
the country would be transported to Times Beach for treatment. In
response to these concerns, EPA agreed to obtain an operating permit
under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that would limit
operation of the treatment unit. A public hearing for the draft
operating permit was conducted on January 31, 1995. In addition, three
public availability sessions were conducted near the site in January
1995 with representatives from EPA, the state, and local officials in
attendance.
From July 1991 through the completion of the clean up of the site,
EPA participated in regular meetings of the Times Beach Monitoring
Committee, a group established by the St. Louis County Executive whose
members included local residents and elected officials. This group
served in an oversight role and provided information to the community
regarding clean-up activities. In addition, EPA permanently staffed an
on-site public information center at Times Beach during implementation
of response activities.
Applicable Deletion Criteria
One of the three criteria for site deletion specifies that EPA may
delete a site from the NPL if ``all appropriate Fund-financed response
under CERCLA has been implemented, and no further response action by
responsible parties is appropriate.'' 40 CFR 300.425(e)(1)(ii). EPA,
with the concurrence of the State of Missouri through the MDNR,
believes that this criterion for deletion has been met. Subsequently,
EPA is proposing deletion of this site from the NPL. Documents
supporting this action are available from the docket.
State Concurrence
In a letter dated July 30, 2001, the MDNR concurs with the proposed
deletion of the Times Beach Superfund site from the NPL.
Dated: July 30, 2001.
William W. Rice,
Acting Regional Administrator, U.S. EPA Region 7.
[FR Doc. 01-19751 Filed 8-6-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P