(New York, N.Y) After cleaning up in excess of 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and approximately nine million gallons of contaminated groundwater, the E.P.A. is proposing to remove a portion of the Fulton Terminals Superfund site, located in the City of Fulton, New York, from the federal Superfund list of the most contaminated hazardous waste sites. A 50-foot section of the location between the former Fulton Terminals facility and the Oswego River where groundwater is still contaminated will remain on the Superfund list. The soil and the groundwater at the location were contaminated with volatile organic compounds as a result of spills and leaks from storage tanks at the site.
The E.P.A. and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation have determined that all necessary cleanup actions have been completed on the 1.5-acre former facility and that it no longer poses a threat to people's health or the environment. The suggestion to remove most of the location from the Superfund list comes after several reviews of the location and contamination in the groundwater beneath the site. The public is invited to review on the suggested partial deletion of the location through March 6, 2015.
"Millions of gallons of contaminated waste oil and sludge were stored at this location for years," said E.P.A. Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck. "As a result of the EPA's cleanup work the risks to people's health have been virtually eliminated."
From 1972 to 1977, the property was used by Fulton Terminals, Incorporated as a staging and storage area for solvents and other materials that were scheduled for processing at Pollution Abatement Services, a chemical waste incineration facility in Oswego County, which is also a federal Superfund site. The Fulton Terminals Superfund location was listed on the Superfund list in 1983.
The cleanup at the site, completed in 1997, included:
· Excavating and treating the soil with heat to remove the volatile organic compounds
· Backfilling the excavated areas with the cleaned up soil
· Pumping and treating the contaminated groundwater
The soil at the location and groundwater located under the former facility no longer pose a threat to public health or the environment. One area of groundwater at one monitoring well between the former facility and the Oswego River has residual contamination, but does not present a health risk. E.P.A. expects the levels of contamination in this area to decrease naturally. Monitoring of the groundwater in this area will continue until an acceptable level is achieved.
Currently, the City of Fulton, the current owner of the former facility property, is interested in developing the land for community use once this portion of the location it is deleted from the Superfund list.
Comments on the suggested partial deletion of the location from the NPL may be submitted at http://www.regulations.gov, by e-mail to [email protected], by fax to the attention of Christos Tsiamis at 212-637-3966 or by mail to the attention of Christos Tsiamis, Remedial Plan Manager, Emergency and Remedial Response Division, E.P.A., Region 2, 290 Broadway, 20th Floor, New York, New York 10007-1866.
Comments should identify the Docket Idaho no., EPA-HQ-SFUND-1983-0002, and should be submitted by March 6, 2015
For further information, please visit: http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0202125
Follow E.P.A. Region two on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2
