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Fact Sheet
July 2013
Public Meeting to Announce Proposed Plan and Public Comment Period for the Garvey Elevator Superfund Site, Hastings, Adams County, Nebraska
INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing a Proposed Plan for an interim action remedy for the Garvey Elevator Site in Hastings, Neb.
EPA will hold a 30-day public comment period and encourages the public to review the Proposed Plan and make comments. A final decision on the Proposed Plan will not be made until EPA reviews public comments.
PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
The public comment period for the Proposed Plan is July 31 – August 30, 2013.
The public may submit their comments to EPA prior to the close of the comment period by submitting them to Ben Washburn, Community Involvement Coordinator, via telephone, mail or email at the addresses listed below on this fact sheet.
PUBLIC MEETING
EPA will also host a public meeting to allow the public to submit comments on the Proposed Plan, as well as answer questions residents may have about EPA cleanup actions.
The public meeting will be held:
Thursday, August 8, 2013
6:30 p.m.
Hastings Public Library Auditorium
517 West Fourth Street
Hastings, Neb.
EPA Region 7 is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the meeting, please notify the EPA Reasonable Accommodations Coordinator, Jonathan Cooper, toll-free at 800-223-0425 or by email at cooper.jonathan@epa.gov. Speech or hearing impaired individuals should email or call using the local relay service.
BACKGROUND
The site is located near Hastings, Nebraska. Soil and groundwater beneath the facility is contaminated with carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). An approximately 4-mile long plume of CCl4-contaminated groundwater extends from the facility in an east-southeasterly direction. EPA organized the site into two Operable Units (OUs): OU 1 is the soil and groundwater contamination at the former Garvey Elevators, Inc. facility; OU 2 is the plume of groundwater contamination east-southeast of OU 1.
CCl4 was used at the facility until the mid-1980s. In 1994, Garvey Elevators notified the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) of a spill of fumigants and the presence of groundwater contamination at its facility.
In September 2005, EPA listed the site on the National Priorities List (NPL), and in October 2005, Garvey entered into an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) with EPA to perform site characterization and cleanup activities. The NPL is the list of national priorities among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants throughout the U.S. and its territories. After performing a portion of the activities under the AOC, Garvey declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy on March 27, 2008.
EPA initiated fund-lead removal actions in May 2008. In December 2008, EPA began a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) to characterize contamination at the site and to evaluate potential remedies.
EPA determined that interim remedial actions were necessary to address threats to human health.
In June 2010, EPA issued an interim Record of Decision (ROD) to contain and restore OU 1 groundwater and address a portion of the OU 1 soils. Remedial design activities were completed in September 2011 and on-site construction activities to implement the actions in the ROD are scheduled to begin in August 2013.
In April 2011, EPA completed the RI, and in August 2012, EPA completed the FS and issued an FS Report that presented the development and full evaluation of remedial action alternatives to address the entire site.
PROPOSED PLAN
The preferred remedy of the Proposed Plan to address contaminated soils at the site is excavation, treatment and disposal of contaminated soil and expansion and operation of the existing soil vapor extraction system. To address the contaminated groundwater plume that emanates from the facility, the preferred remedy is groundwater recovery, treatment and discharge, as well as institutional controls on domestic groundwater use in areas above and near the plume.
The objectives of the preferred remedies are to prevent further release of contaminants from the soil to the groundwater, prevent human exposure to contaminated groundwater, prevent further migration of the contaminated groundwater plume, and reduce concentrations in the contaminated groundwater plume to below acceptable levels.
ADMINISTRATIVE RECORD
EPA encourages the community to review the Administrative Record which contains the Proposed Plan and information about past field investigations and cleanup activities. The Administrative Record is available during normal business hours at the following locations:EPA Records Center
11201 Renner Blvd.
Lenexa, Kansas
Hastings Public Library
517 West Fourth Street
Hastings, Nebraska
Questions or requests for information can be submitted to:
Ben Washburn
Community Involvement Coordinator
U.S. EPA Region 7
11201 Renner Blvd.
Lenexa, KS 66219
Toll-free: (800) 223-0425
Email: washburn.ben@.epa.gov