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EPA adds two Dayton area sites to Superfund list; proposes Marion contaminated river site

Release Date: 04/08/2009
Contact Information: William Omohundro, 312-353-8254, omohundro.william@epa.gov Mike Joyce, 312-353-6646, joyce.mike@epa.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 09-OPA 048

CHICAGO (April 8, 2009) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added Dayton's Behr Dayton Thermal System VOC Plume site and the New Carlisle Landfill, in nearby New Carlisle, Ohio, to the Superfund National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites. EPA has also proposed Marion's Little Scioto River for addition to the NPL. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex uncontrolled and abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country. A public comment period about the proposed listing ends June 8, 2009.

Also added to the NPL: East Chicago, Ind.'s, U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery site. Two other sites in EPA Region 5 were proposed for the NPL: the Lane Street Ground Water Contamination site, in Elkhart, Ind., and the Amcast Industrial Corp. site in Cedarburg, Wis. Nationally, nine new sites were added to the NPL, bringing the total to 1,264, and 13 sites were proposed for addition to the list, bringing the total of proposed sites to 67. Under the NPL process, sites are first proposed and public comments considered before a determination is made to formally add a site to the list. The NPL is updated twice each year.

In 2003 and 2006, trichloroethylene, or TCE, contamination was detected in ground water beneath the Behr Dayton Thermal Products auto parts manufacturing facility at 1600 Webster St. To address potential health risks associated with the pollution, during 2006 - 2008 EPA installed vapor removal systems in 150 homes in the neighborhood south of the plant. Chrysler LLC, a potentially responsible party, has also installed systems at 54 properties south of the site. With the addition of the site to the NPL, EPA and state partner Ohio EPA will now work to develop a long-term cleanup plan for the site. The first step will be a new study involving comprehensive sampling of soil, ground water and air in the area near the site. More information is at www.epa.gov/region5/sites/behr.

The New Carlisle Landfill, at 715 N. Dayton-Lakeview Road in New Carlisle, operated from the mid-1950s until the early 1970s. It is now covered with two to four feet of clay, but was not designed with a protective liner in the manner of modern landfills. Ohio EPA data indicates that water from two public wells and two residential wells in the nearby area contain vinyl chloride above the safe drinking water level. In 2005, EPA extended the water line from the New Carlisle public water system to two homes and a plant nursery business. Because EPA remains concerned about potential migration of the vinyl chloride toward residential wells within one-half mile of the site, the next step will be to study the ground water in the area.

The Little Scioto River lies to the west of Marion, in Marion Township. It flows into the Scioto River, a major tributary of the Ohio River. A four-mile stretch of river sediment is contaminated with coal tar creosote containing hazardous polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, from the former Baker Wood facility in Marion. Since 1992 Ohio Department of Health has maintained a heath advisory against swimming, wading and eating fish from this stretch of the river. Using a mix of U.S. Coast Guard Oil Pollution Act and Superfund emergency removal funds, EPA conducted substantial excavation work from 2002 to 2006, removing 68,000 tons of sediment along about two miles of the river as well as a polluted shoreline area. Placing the Little Scioto River on the NPL would make the site eligible for additional cleanup resources and long-term planning. More information is at www.epa.gov/region5/sites/littlescioto/index.htm

A 60-day comment period on the newly proposed NPL sites is under way. Links to the Federal Register notice, information on submitting comments, background on the NPL process and summaries of the sites newly added or proposed are at www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm.