Executive Summary:
On October 20, 2000, the National Ombudsman released a preliminary report regarding the operations of the Von Roll Waste Technologies Industries (WTI) East Liverpool, OH hazardous waste incinerator. He questioned the results of the original trial burn and ambient air monitoring conducted in the East Liverpool, OH / Chester, WV area. He recommended that the facility halt the feeding of waste to the incinerator for a period of no less than six months, and make preparations for a retest of the trial burn, or a new trial burn in 2001, as a necessary step in the consideration by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) of the RCRA permit renewal for the facility. He also recommended that a new Addendum to the risk assessment for the WTI facility be prepared using the data from the new trial burn.
Subsequently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) conducted five rounds of ambient air sampling starting October 25, 2000. The sampling included four sites in the vicinity of WTI during the annual performance test, which took place November 13-17, 2000. The air sampling was conducted for metals, PAHs, Dioxins, VOCs and particulate matter as well as collecting appropriate meteorological data from three sites
Analytical results of the first round of ambient air samples, performed on October 25 - 27, indicate that most metals of concern were within typical urban ambient air quality levels, but that two metals, chromium and manganese had relatively higher concentrations. A second round of ambient air sampling was conducted on November 1 and 2. Results from this round indicated that while almost all compounds and metals were within typical urban ambient air quality levels, manganese concentrations were elevated. Chromium was not detected during the second round of sampling.
A third round of sampling was performed on November 6 - 8, 10, and 11. A fourth round of sampling was performed on November 13 - 17, and the fifth round was performed between December 4 - 10. Results of these sampling rounds indicated that all metals and compounds were within typical urban ambient air quality levels, except somewhat elevated manganese concentrations were detected during the last round of sampling at several locations. Total chromium was also detected at a few sampling locations.
Soil sampling was performed on October 26 in front of East Elementary School and on the school playground, and on November 15 in front of the elementary school and on Walter Street. The results of analysis for dioxins indicated presence of low levels of dioxins similar to the background levels detected in urbanized areas around the United States. The results for metals detected, when compared with the background levels observed in the Eastern United States, indicate slightly elevated levels of arsenic and zinc around the school and chromium and zinc at the Walter Street sampling location. Although other metals were also, they generally consisted of expected levels of metals such as, calcium and sodium.
The analytical results were provided to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) for their conclusions/recommendations on public health implications of this data and their findings are attached in the document section of the Appendix A.
