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Superfund
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Recovery Act Project Activity
Frontier Fertilizer Superfund Site
Davis, California
EPA is nearing completion of the design for in-situ electrical resistive heating (ERH) system to treat pesticide contaminated soil and groundwater to a depth of 80 feet below the ground surface. However, recently collected data indicate much higher levels of contamination at greater depths, which will require additional infrastructure and power to treat. The Recovery Act money will fund the expansion of the heating system and associated power costs to address this deeper contamination. This additional treatment will accelerate cleanup by removing greater contaminant mass in soil and thereby reducing the contaminant mass affecting groundwater resources, a potential source of drinking water.
The Frontier Fertilizer Site is an 18-acre parcel of land currently zoned for light industrial use located in Davis, California (Yolo County). The Site was first developed in the 1950s as an area to store agricultural equipment. Several companies from the early 1970s used a 4,000-cubic-foot unlined basin in the northern portion of the Site to dispose of unused pesticides and fertilizers resulting in soil and groundwater contamination of the soil and groundwater. The contaminants of concern (COCs) in soil are primarily pesticides, while the COCs in the groundwater are pesticides and carbon tetrachloride. The contaminated groundwater plume extends approximately 600 feet north from the Site beneath a residential housing area.
Since 1995, EPA has operated a groundwater extraction and groundwater treatment. The system typically uses 16 groundwater extraction wells to remove contaminated groundwater. Granular activated carbon is contained in three above-ground vessels and is used to remove volatile organic compounds from the extracted water. EPA signed a Record of Decision (ROD) in for the final soil and groundwater cleanup in September 2006. The selected remedy for the site is to continue operation of the groundwater pump and treat system and conduct in-place heating to treat soil and groundwater. To enable the affected community to become more directly involved in the investigation and cleanup activities, a Technical Assistance Grant has been awarded to the Frontier Fertilizer Site Oversight Group since 1995.