SUPERFUND SITE, 20+ YEARS: THREE QUESTIONS, NO ANSWERS, NO REUSE

 

     Three questions were posed to the Peter Schaul, EPA's Region III, Director of Superfund Site Remediation, in order to determine progress and future uses of wood preserver sites with similar characteristics to the Havertown's PCP site at the corner of Eagle and Lawrence Road.  For Region III only – a very limited sample –  Mr. Schaul reported arsenic and chromium were removed from Mid-Atlantic Wood Preservers , Inc. site in Maryland – listed about the same time as Havertown's and about the same size -- the site was then capped with asphalt and delisted from the National Priorities List.   A second site, Atlantic Wood Industries, Inc. site was proposed in 1986 and listed in 1990; originally, bioremediation and thermal desorption were proposed, but contamination similar to Havertown's was more extensive and EPA changed plans and called  for a new feasibility study as of November 2005.  Conclusion: Two sites: the first is an asphalt lot, a second is subject to indeterminate remediation.  No mention is made of a further 100+ sites throughout the country, part of EPA's wood preserver "working group."
     The second question requested a comparison of chemical contaminant levels in 2005 and five or more years before that when water treatment began.  Mr. Schaul's response is "no appreciable change during this period" and no data before this.  Conclusion: Double digit $$Millions have been spent on no tangible results.      
     The third question requested any data that indicates the cost per unit of contaminant removed from the extraction wells and treated.  Mr. Schaul's response is that EPA does not calculate costs based upon contaminant removed but the cost of operating the plant is $600K /year with another $95K/plant improvements for a total of $695K.  Conclusion: EPA can point to more and deeper extraction wells and "cost optimization" (viz. "cutting"), apparently, a position expressed in person by Jill Lowe, EPA's project manager in an unannounced under-the-radar meeting with Haverford's hastily rearranged and unscheduled even further under-the-radar EAC held on Election Day, May 16, 2006, not the assigned meeting date.    
     Thus, interpreting EPA's own words, arsenic and chromium contramination were removed from one site (but not the Havertown site), one the site was paved (developed), the other still reviewed.  Havertown's National Wood Preserver site has received about $14Million so far with no results that facilitate reuse and the Havertown site has, it is believed, carcinogenic chromium VI left in place along with arsenic and other hazardous substances while EPA further cuts costs in anticipation of passing an unremedied Superfund site to the state in 2013.    
       While this is occurring, Haverford doesn't ask questions when personally requested to, shows no interest in reevaluating or changing the present course of the remedy that has produced essentially no results, makes every effort to switch meeting dates to keep interested townsfolk off-guard, and its Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) produces nothing of substance. 
       The following Commissioners' Committees are affected: Sewer, Ecology, Health, Professional Services and Engineering, Public Works, Recreation, Township Property, Zoning and Planning.
        If a business were operated in this manner, it would be bankrupt and everyone would be  fired.