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North Belmont PCE Site
Remedial Investigation Report
June 1997

Hazardous Waste Section
US-EPA, Region 4, SESD, Athens, Georgia

OVERVIEW

The North Belmont PCE (tetrachoroethylene) Site is located in North Belmont, Gaston County, North Carolina. North Belmont is a small city located west of Charlotte, North Carolina, and east of Gastonia, North Carolina. The North Belmont area is a mixture of residential and industrial properties with light commercial districts. A majority of the people either work in nearby Charlotte or Gastonia, or one of the local textile manufacturing facilities. The North Belmont Site consists of the former locations of two dry-cleaning operations which are believed to be the source of contamination found in private wells and the dominant aquifer in the area.

The specific goals of this Remedial Investigation include the following:

• Determining the nature of, and the areal and vertical extent of contamination (waste types, concentrations, and distributions) in soils, sediments, surface water, groundwater, and local biota at the North Belmont Site;
• Locating the source(s) of contamination associated with the Site;
• Determining the hydraulic characteristics and contaminant transport mechanisms of the underlying aquifer at the Site;
• Evaluating the potential migration rates and pathways of site contaminants;
• Determining the potential receptors of groundwater contamination by performing a well/water use survey within a 1-mile radius of the Site;

CONCLUSIONS

Based upon the data collected, the following represents the conclusions drawn from this investigation.

• Groundwater
  
• Private wells in the vicinity of the Site have not been sampled since 1991. EPA’s recent sampling indicated that private wells that were previously uncontaminated have now been found to contain the contaminants PCE, TCE, 1,2 DCE and 1,1 DCE.
• Contamination detected in the shallow aquifer appears to be localized in Source Area A (Ropers Shopping Center).
• Contaminants have migrated from the shallow aquifer into the top of bedrock zone and into the bedrock aquifer.
• The source of the contaminants in the southern edge of the plume may be either from Source Area A or Source Area B.
  
  Soil
  
• Soil samples obtained from Source Areas A and B did not reveal any elevated levels of volatile organic contaminants. It is believed that the contaminants migrated through the soil directly into the shallow groundwater. Any contaminants in the surface soils would have volatilized.
  
  Surface Water/ Sediment
  
• Surface water and sediment in the area is not affected by the volatile organic site contaminants.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The remedial investigation identified elevated levels of contaminants in the surficial aquifer, the top of bedrock aquifer, and the bedrock aquifer. However, the following additional work is recommended to fully characterize the extent of the groundwater contamination at the Site:

• Additional monitoring wells are needed in the following areas:
  1. west and southwest of Source Area A (across Woodlawn Dr), surficial zone,
  2. south of Source Area B and MW-10, top of bedrock zone, and
  3. east of Source Area B and TW-11/MW-10, top of bedrock zone.
  
  
• Periodic private well sampling to determine if any of the residents’ wells exceed the Emergency Response action level of 70 ug/l for PCE.

North Belmont PCE Site Remedial Investigation Report
Listed Below are Individual Components of this Document
	7 pages	23 KiloBytes	Table of Contents
	8 pages	33 KiloBytes	Section 1 Introduction
	18 pages	82 KiloBytes	Section 2 Study Area Investigation
	17 pages	86 KiloBytes	Section 3 Physical Characteristics
	22 pages	146 KiloBytes	Section 4 Nature and Extent of Contamination
	15 pages	81 KiloBytes	Section 5 Contaminant Fate and Transport
	2 pages	18 KiloBytes	Section 6 Conclusions and Recommendations
	1 pages	5 KiloBytes	Section 7 References
	5 pages	908 KiloBytes	Figures 1-1 and 1-5
	6 pages	540 KiloBytes	Figures 2-1 through 2-6
	5 pages	624 KiloBytes	Figures 3-1 through 3-5
	6 pages	980 KiloBytes	Figures 3-6 through 3-11
	9 pages	586 KiloBytes	Figures 4-1 through 4-9
	8 pages	413 KiloBytes	Figures 4-10 through 4-17
	10 pages	62 KiloBytes	Appendix A Field Investigation Data
	4 pages	10 KiloBytes	Appendix C Acronyms/Abbreviations

For further information about the contents of this page please contact R4SESDWeb@epa.gov

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