[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 52 (Wednesday, March 17, 2004)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 12604-12606]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-5873]


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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

40 CFR Part 300

[FRL-7637-3]


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

AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.

ACTION: Notice of intent to delete the Hooker-102nd Street Superfund 
Site from the National Priorities List.

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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (the ``EPA'' or the 
``Agency''), Region 2, announces its intent to delete the Hooker-102nd 
Street Superfund Site (Site) from the National Priorities List (NPL) 
and requests public comment on this action.
    The NPL is Appendix B of the; National Oil and Hazardous Substances 
Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), 40 CFR Part 300, which the EPA 
promulgated pursuant to Section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental 
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), as amended. 
The EPA and New York State, through its Department of Environmental 
Conservation (NYSDEC) have determined that all appropriate response 
actions under CERCLA have been implemented and that no further response 
actions, other than operation, maintenance, and monitoring, are 
required. Moreover, the EPA and the NYSDEC have determined that the 
Site no longer poses a significant threat to public health or the 
environment. The Site is located in the City of Niagara Falls, Niagara 
County, New York.

DATES: The EPA will accept comments concerning its intent to delete on 
or before April 16, 2004.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be mailed to: Paul J. Olivo, Hooker-102nd 
Street Site Remedial Project Manager, U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, Region 2, 290 Broadway, 20th Floor, New York, New York 10007-
1866.
    Comprehensive information on the Site is available for viewing, by 
appointment only, at: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, 
Superfund Records Center, 290 Broadway, Room 1828, New York, New York 
10007-1866, (212) 637-4308.

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    Hours: Monday through Friday: 9 a.m. through 5 p.m.
    Information on the Site is also available for viewing at the Site 
Administrative Record Repository located at: U.S. EPA Public 
Information Office, 345 Third Street, Suite 530, Niagara Falls, New 
York 14303, Tel. (716) 285-8842. Hours: Monday through Friday: 8 a.m. 
to 4:30 p.m.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Olivo at the address above, by 
telephone at (212) 637-4280, by electronic mail at [email protected], 
or by FAX at (212) 637-4284.

Supplementary Information Concerning the Hooker (102nd Street) Site:

Table of Contents

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

I. Introduction

    The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 2, announces its 
intent to delete the Hooker-102nd Street Superfund Site (Site) from the 
National Priorities List (NPL) and requests public comment on this 
deletion. The EPA maintains the NPL as a list of sites that appear to 
present a significant risk to public health, or the environment. As 
described in Sec.  300.425(e)(3) of the NCP, a 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 the deletion of this Site 
from the NPL for thirty (30) 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 the EPA is 
using for this action. Section IV discusses how the Site meets the NPL 
deletion criteria.

II. NPL Deletion Criteria

    Section 300.425(e) of the NCP provides that sites may be deleted 
from the NPL where no further response is appropriate. In making this 
determination, the EPA, in consultation with the NYSDEC, will consider 
whether any of the following criteria has 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) A remedial investigation has shown that the release poses no 
significant threat to public health or to the environment and, 
therefore, taking remedial measures is not appropriate.

III. Deletion Procedures

    The following procedures apply to the deletion of this Site:
    1. The EPA, Region 2, issued a Record of Decision (ROD) for the 
Site on September 26, 1990, which selected the remedy for the Site. The 
ROD was amended on June 9, 1995.
    2. Responsible parties implemented the remedy selected in the 
amended ROD as described in a Final Closeout Report dated September 8, 
2003.
    3. The EPA, Region 2, recommends deletion and has prepared the 
relevant documents.
    4. The State of New York, through the NYSDEC, concurred with the 
proposed deletion of the Site in a letter dated September 29, 2003.
    5. A notice has been published in a local newspaper, and in 
addition, a notice has been distributed to appropriate Federal, State 
or local officials, and other interested parties announcing a thirty-
day public comment period which starts on the date of publication of 
this notice in the Federal Register and a newspaper of record.
    6. The EPA has made available the relevant documents to this 
decision at the addresses listed above.
    7. Upon completion of the thirty-day public comment period, the EPA 
will evaluate all comments received before issuing a final decision on 
deletion. The EPA, Region 2, will prepare a Responsiveness Summary, if 
appropriate, which will address significant comments received during 
the public comment period. The Responsiveness Summary will be made 
available to the public at the information repositories.
    8. If, after consideration of the comments received, the EPA 
decides to proceed with the deletion, the EPA will place a Notice of 
Deletion in the Federal Register. Deletion does not occur until the 
final Notice of Deletion is published in the Federal Register. 
Generally, the NPL will reflect deletions in the next final update 
following the final Notice publication.
    Deletion of a site from the NPL does not, by itself, alter, or 
revoke any individual's rights or obligation. Deletion of a site from 
the NPL does not alter the EPA's right to take appropriate enforcement 
actions. The NPL is primarily for informational purposes and to assist 
EPA management.

IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion

    The following summary provides a brief description and history of 
the Site and the Agency's rationale for recommending deletion of the 
Site from the NPL.
    The Site consists of two land parcels totaling 22.1 acres. The 
Occidental Chemical Corporation (OCC), formerly the Hooker Chemical and 
Plastics Corporation, owns 15.6 acres, and the remaining 6.5 acres are 
owned by the Olin Chemical Corporation (Olin). The Site is located on 
Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls, Niagara County, New York. It borders 
on the Niagara River, and lies less than one-quarter of a mile south of 
the Love Canal Superfund Site. It is separated from the Love Canal Site 
by the LaSalle Expressway, Buffalo Avenue and Frontier Avenue.
    Since the mid-1940s, the Site was used as an industrial waste 
landfill. In the early 1970s, landfilling operations at the Site were 
stopped. OCC and Olin remain as the current owners of the Site. During 
the period of active waste disposal at the Site, OCC and Olin deposited 
at least 159,000 tons of wastes, in both liquid and solid forms, into 
the landfill. These deposits included approximately 4,600 tons of 
benzene, chlorobenzene, chlorophenols, and hexachlorocyclohexanes, all 
of which are hazardous substances.
    In 1979, the U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the EPA, 
filed a lawsuit against OCC and Olin, two potentially responsible 
parties (PRPs) for the Site's contamination, in order to put an end to 
the continuing discharges and to clean up Site contamination. The PRPs, 
with EPA and NYSDEC guidance, agreed to conduct a study into the nature 
and extent of Site contamination and to recommend alternatives for the 
cleanup of the Site.
    The investigation included the landfill residues, contaminated fill 
in an area outside the landfill, shallow ground water, bedrock ground 
water, liquid waste, soil, river sediments, and storm drains. The 
investigation was completed in 1990.
    In September 1990, the EPA selected a remedy which included the 
installation of a synthetic-lined cap; consolidation of contaminated 
soils beneath the cap; surrounding the waste mass with a slurry wall; 
dredging and incineration of highly contaminated sediments; dredging, 
dewatering, and consolidation, beneath the cap, of the remaining 
contaminated sediments; recovery and treatment of ground water; 
incineration of any recovered NAPL (non-aqueous phase liquids); 
monitoring; and restricting access to the

[[Page 12606]]

Site by the installation of additional security fencing.
    In September 1991, the EPA issued the PRPs an Administrative Order 
to conduct the remedial design and the remedial action. The two PRPs 
agreed to comply with the Order. Design of the EPA-selected remedy was 
begun in October 1991. The Intermediate Engineering Report (IER) was 
approved by the EPA on August 31, 1993. However, certain concerns 
raised by the federal and state natural resource trustees caused the 
EPA to reexamine the remedial design as proposed in the IER. As a 
result of the reexamination, the September 1990 ROD was amended in June 
1995. The amendment eliminated the incineration contingency whereby all 
highly contaminated sediments in an embayment area in the Niagara River 
adjacent to the landfill would have had to be excavated and incinerated 
were they to remain outside the final positioning of the slurry wall. 
The slurry wall was in fact redesigned so as to be positioned to run as 
close to the shoreline as was practical and still contain any migration 
of the NAPL plumes. Remedial action activity began in April 1996. The 
construction of the slurry wall was completed in 1996 along with 
excavation of contaminated sediments from the embayment and 
consolidation of these sediments into the landfill. The installation of 
the permanent cap over the landfill was completed during the 1997 
construction season.
    The remedy for the Site was completed in March 1999 when the 
forcemain system for pumping leachate from the landfill to the Love 
Canal Treatment Facility became operational. A Preliminary Closeout 
Report (PCOR) was approved by the EPA on September 2, 1999. The PCOR 
documented the fact that all construction activities identified as 
necessary remedial actions for the Site pursuant to the ROD, as 
amended, had been completed. The forcemain system continues to pump 
sufficient leachate from the landfill so as to maintain an inward 
gradient across the slurry wall. The leachate pumping system reached 
the steady-state phase in November 2000.
    An Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Manual was developed and 
implemented. Annual reports are provided to the EPA and the NYSDEC and 
both the EPA and the NYSDEC believe that the reports for 2001 and 2002 
confirm that the remedy for the Site has been successfully implemented.
    A Consent Decree between EPA and the State of New York and OCC and 
Olin was approved and entered by a federal court on October 1, 1999. 
Under the terms of the Consent Decree, the PRPs agreed to implement the 
long-term O&M for the Site and reimbursed to the EPA $6,800,000 of its 
past costs plus interest. Additionally, OCC and Olin implemented 
institutional controls in the form of deed notifications that the Site 
property was subject to the terms of the Consent Decree, and use 
restrictions that run with the land that prohibit future uses of the 
property such as groundwater extraction or excavation that could 
adversely affect the remedy for the Site. These institutional controls 
are recorded in the property records of Niagara County.
    The Site no longer poses a significant threat to human health or 
the environment. However, hazardous substances remain at the Site above 
levels that would allow for unlimited use with unrestricted exposure. 
Pursuant to Section 121(c) of CERCLA, the EPA and/or the State will 
review Site remedies no less often than every five years. The first 
Five-Year Review for this Site was signed by the EPA on August 15, 
2001, and concluded that the response actions implemented at the Site 
are in accordance with the remedy selected by the EPA and that the 
remedy continues to be protective of human health and the environment. 
The next Five-Year Review will be completed before August 2006.
    Public participation activities for this Site have been satisfied 
as required in CERCLA Section 113(k), 42 U.S.C. 9613(k), and Section 
117, 42 U.S.C. 9617. The ROD was subject to a public review process. 
All other documents and information which the EPA relied on, or 
considered in recommending this deletion are available for the public 
to review at the information repositories.
    One of the three criteria for site deletion is when ``responsible 
parties or other persons have implemented all appropriate response 
actions required'' (40 CFR 300.425(e)(1)(i)). The EPA, with the 
concurrence of the State of New York, through the NYSDEC, believes that 
this criterion for deletion has been met. Consequently, the EPA is 
proposing deletion of this Site from the NPL.

    Dated: March 4, 2004.
Kathleen C. Callahan,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 2.
[FR Doc. 04-5873 Filed 3-16-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-M