United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region III
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

See previous POLREP information.

Based upon its review of environmental data, EPA decided to further characterize the potential for off-Site migration of PCBs from the Site through ground water.  The ground water data will be used to allow EPA to conclude its Removal Site Evaluation of the Lin Electric Company Site.  

Based upon the potential that PCBs migrated from the Site to the Bluefield Sanitary Board's (BSB) waste water treatment facility, EPA coordinated with BSB and agreed to assist BSB with removal of filter media from the tertiary filter beds as a means to alleviate the potential that increased PCBs loading to BSB may result in increased loading from the facility to the Bluestone River.  Based upon consideration of the concentration of PCBs rountinely in the sanitary flow versus the short duration of the discharge from the Lin Electric Site through the on-Site treatment system, the OSC believes that the potential contribution of PCBs from the Removal Action is negligible.  Nonetheless, the potential release to BSB occurred despite the efforts to prevent it through engineered treatment systems.  The OSC re-initiated the Removal Action on January 26, 2010.

Environmental data collected by representatives of the owner of the Lin Electric Company Site in November 2009 and forwarded to the OSC in January 2010 indicate low levels of volatile organic compounds (notably trichloroethene (TCE)) in soil.  Five soil locations were sampled and volatile organic compounds were detected especially near the location where TCE was known to be used in former operations at the Site.  No PCBs were detected in the soil samples.

Based upon these analytical results and previous analytical results collected by EPA likely indicating PCBs and TCE in the ground water, the OSC directed the START contractor to install temporary monitoring wells at the Site to evaluate the ground water.  The OSC initially suggested that Cooper conduct this evaluation, but such evaluation by Cooper was not conducted.

The OSC and EPA contractors met with Bluefield Sanitary Board (BSB) personnel in January 2010 to discuss the issues relating to a potential PCBs discharge from the Site during the Removal Action.  Despite an engineered on-Site treatment system incorporating carbon and clay media, a discharge of PCBs occurred from the Site into the area sanitary system.  The potential concentration of PCBs was higher than that typically found in the sanitary system and higher than the BSB's permitted discharge to the Bluestone River.  The potential PCBs loading was likely to be negligible, but EPA desired to remove its potential effects from the BSB facility.  BSB and EPA opted to remove the filter media from BSB's tertiary filter systems to increase the likelihood that the BSB effluent would not include PCBs from the Lin Site.  Sampling conducted by EPA in July 2009 did not suggest that effluent was adversely effected.

Install, sample, and analyze ground water monitoring wells.

Remove filter media from the BSB tertiary beds.

Complete evaluation of all environmental information in order to determine whether EPA Removal actions are completed.