The Statesboro Highway Creosote Site (Site) is located at 6476 Statesboro Highway, Sylvania, Screven County, Georgia. The Site is a former family-owned wood preserving facility that started operations sometime in the 1940s and continued into the early 1960s. The facility consisted of a weighing area, a vat with wood preserving chemicals that served as the processing area, and the drying and staging area accessible to vehicles. The site is situated in a rural area and it can be accessed either by Scarboro Highway (south) or Statesboro Highway (east). The closest water body is Simmons Branch half mile east which then flows to the Ogeechee River which is located two miles south of the Site. The distance to the nearest residence, other than the current owner, is less than 300 feet away.
On August 18, 2005, a representative of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) visited the former wood preserving facility in response to a complaint about an old abandoned creosote vat. The creosote vat was observed behind the current owner's house. The creosote vat is a below grade open vat approximately 30 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet constructed out of quarter inch sheet metal. It was observed to contain a dark liquid waste with a naphthalene odor. The current owner explained to EPD that her father, who is deceased, used creosote to treat wood posts in the vat during the early 1960s and that the posts were used for fences on the property. The liquid waste was approximately one foot deep in the vat.
In September 2005, EPD decided to conduct a site assessment in which waste samples were collected from the vat and surface soil samples were collected from around the vat. Samples were submitted for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and Target Analyte List (TAL) metals analyses. EPD laboratory could not perform the analysis for the waste samples; however, surface soil sample analysis detected the presence of Fluoranthene and Pyrene (PAHs) showing the existence of wood preserving chemicals around the vat.
EPD planned to allocate funds from the Hazardous Waste Trust Fund for removal and disposal of the vessel and contents; however, these funds have since been exhausted. Therefore, on September 1, 2011, the EPD requested that EPA conduct a Removal Action and dispose of the creosote vat and contaminated soil.
A Removal Site Inspection was conducted on March 1-2, 2012. It focused on surface and subsurface soil and waste sampling around and within the abandoned vat of the former wood preserving facility. START contractor OTIE was tasked to provide written and photographic documentation of on-site conditions; and to collect soil and waste samples for laboratory analysis including RCRA metals (arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, silver and selenium) and Mercury; target compound list (TCL) VOCs; TCL SVOCs including PAHs; polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); and chlorinated pesticides. Analytical results support a time-critical Removal.
