The EPACC Conrail North Yard OPA Site is located on a portion of property, approximately eleven (11) acres, bordered by Bessemer Street and French Creek in the City of Meadville, in Crawford County, Pennsylvania currently owned by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County (“EPACC”), formerly as known as the Meadville Area Industrial Commission (“MAIC”).
From 1976 until 1983, the property was previously owned by Conrail. While Conrail owned the property, an unknown quantity of oil was spilled onto the ground from the Conrail facility, contaminated the groundwater and migrated into French Creek.
On February 21, 1981, Conrail entered into a Consent Order and Agreement ("COA") with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (PADER) and the Pennsylvania Fish Commission (PFC) to address the discharge of oil from the facility. Conrail's obligations under the COA included, among other things, maintaining oil recovery booms in French Creek, completing a comprehensive study of the discharge of oil, and developing and implementing a removal (cleanup) plan of action to abate the discharge of oil. Conrail's cleanup actions included the installation of an oil recovery system that consisted of six (6) oil recovery wells equipped with scavenger pumps. Conrail continued cleanup activities until the property was transferred to MAIC in 1983.
In 1983, upon assuming ownership of the property, MAIC continued to operate the oil recovery system installed by Conrail, however, because of maintenance issues, mechanical failure and iron fouling, the oil recovery system (wells equipped with scavenger pumps) were increasingly ineffective.
Since 1991, numerous modifications have been made to the recovery system by MAIC and/or EPACC, including but not necessarily limited to
> operation and maintenance of oil recovery system (wells equipped with scavenger pumps) was discontinued;
> total fluid pumps were installed at the bottom of recovery wells replacing the scavenger pumps;
> passive skimmers, designed to collect free phase product, were installed in the recovery wells, replacing the total fluid pumps;
> hand-bailing of oil from monitoring wells was initiated to supplement recovery of oil by the passive skimmers in the recovery wells; and
> sorbent boom continued to be deployed and maintained along the left-descending shoreline as oil continued to be discharged into French Creek.
In 1993, MAIC attempted to correct the problems with the scavenger pumps by installing total fluid recovery pumps in the recovery wells. Iron fouling continued, and the operation of the oil recovery system was discontinued by 1997, at which time MAIC began to manually collect the oil from the recovery wells, through bailing, and oil continued to be discharged into French Creek. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) met with MAIC to discuss the ongoing release of oil into French Creek, requested that MAIC assess the nature and extent of the oil contamination, develop a “Cleanup Plan,” and maintain oil recovery booms along the left-descending shoreline to minimize the discharge of oil into French Creek.
On June 23, 2003, PADEP and MAIC entered into a COA concerning the actions necessary to investigate and clean up the oil that had contaminated the groundwater and continued to discharge into French Creek.
In 2007, MAIC changed its name to EPACC.
EPACC continued to collect the oil from the recovery wells, however, oil continued to intermittently be discharged into French Creek
Beginning in 2013, through 2016, PADEP held frequent meetings with EPACC discussing the status of cleanup activities (i.e. recovery of oil from the recovery wells, re-evaluation of technical options, boom maintenance and positioning on French Creek, etc.); the status of the COA (i.e. deadlines, modifications, submission of reports, violations, enforcement, breaches, stipulated penalties, etc.); and ability to pay (i.e. grants which might be available to EPACC).
In August 2016, PADEP consulted with the OSC, seeking advice, guidance and assistance regarding the chronic seepage of oil into French Creek, as removal activities being implemented under a 2003 COA between PADEP and MAIC, currently known as EPACC, were becoming increasing less effective and discharge(s) of oil were being observed almost on a daily basis along the left-descending shoreline of French Creek. The OSC confirmed that French Creek was a navigable waters of the United States (“U.S.”) and offered EPA assistance to ensure proper removal activities were undertaken. With the owner/operator of the facility currently under a COA, PADEP did not desire to relinquish lead agency responsibilities, so the OSC provided technical advice and guidance based upon EPA’s experience in mitigating the effects of discharges of oil via groundwater conduit into the navigable waters of the U.S.
On January 11, 2017, in follow-up to a second request for assistance, the OSC met PADEP and EPACC on-site. The OSC observed a sheen, emulsion or film along the left-descending shoreline and in the waters of French Creek. The OSC concurred with PADEP’s evaluation that removal actions currently being implemented by EPACC under the 2003 COA (operations and maintenance of on-shore recovery wells and sorbent boom deployed in French Creek parallel to the left-descending shoreline) were ineffective as evidenced by the oil observed on French Creek. The OSC and PADEP further discussed removal actions which might be more effective with EPACC, emphasizing that proper and more proactive removal actions (such as engineering controls) which might be necessary to intercept the oil being carried by the groundwater conduit into French Creek and its adjoining shoreline to ensure an effective and immediate removal of the discharge or mitigation or prevention of a substantial threat of discharge.
The OSC verbally served notice of federal interest (Legal Notice to Suspected Discharger) to EPACC, and also informed EPACC of its responsibilities to notify the National Response Center (NRC) of any discharge of oil from the facility in violation of section 311(b)(3) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended by the Clean Water Act, as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and/or as otherwise required by the NCP, and provided EPACC the telephone number for the NRC (800-424-8802).
On January 14, 2017, in absence of EPACC notifying the NRC, the OSC notified the NRC. Incident Report #1168612 was assigned.
On January 15, 2017, the OSC accessed CANAPS and obtained an initial project ceiling of $5000 to continue to monitor the situation to ensure that proper removal action is being undertaken. Federal Pollution Number (FPN) E17305 was assigned to the case.
