United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region V
POLLUTION REPORT



Date:
Thursday, June 14, 2007
From:
Bradley Benning

Subject: 

Midwest Metallics Site
7955 West 59th Street, Summit, IL
Latitude: 41.7775000
Longitude: -87.8203000


POLREP No.:
6
Site #:
B5J2
Reporting Period:
May 2, 2007 to June 13,2007
D.O. #:
29
Start Date:
11/14/2005
Response Authority:
CERCLA
Mob Date:
1/17/2007
Response Type:
Time-Critical
Demob Date:
 
NPL Status:
Non NPL
Completion Date:
 
Incident Category:
Removal Action
CERCLIS ID #:
ILD054348974
Contract #
68-S5-03-01
RCRIS ID #:
 

Site Description

The Site is located at 7955 West 59th Street in the City of Summit, Cook County, Illinois.  Approximately 23 acres in size, the Site is located 10 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois.  The Site is located in the west-central section of Summit, and has  the geographic coordinates of latitude 41.46.39 N, longitude 87.49.13 W.  The Site is bordered by an industrial complex and 59th Street to the north; by railroad tracks and an automobile junkyard to the east; and by railroad tracks and railroad yard to the south and west.  Although the Site is located in an industrial neighborhood, there is significant residential development less than 1000 feet to the southeast of the site.

The Site previously operated as a scrap metal processing/recycling facility for more than 20 years.  The scrap metal shredder was utilized for the processing of scrap metal articles, such as automobile hulks and light iron.  The shredding process facilitates separation of ferrous and nonferrous metals from nonmetallic materials contained in the feed material; after separation, the remaining material is commonly referred to as shredder residue.  Shredder residues consist predominantly of nonmetallic solid material, including plastic, glass, rubber, soil, carpet and fabric.  It is an unconsolidated, heterogeneous solid, medium to dark brown in color and typically exhibiting a slight, musty odor.

Key Site features include the main ASR pile, two sets of abandoned railroad tracks, the former materials processing/shredder area, a surface water impoundment located along the northern edge of the Site, and two office/garage buildings currently being leased to trucking companies.  The main ASR pile extends along the Site’s eastern border in a north-northeast/south-southwest direction and measures approximately 875 feet along its longest axis.  The pile ranges in height from 30 to 70 feet above ground surfaces and in width from 125 to 250 feet.  Two separate  operations are active at the Site.  These companies have leased discrete areas in the west-central and northeastern sections of the Site to conduct their operations.  Generally, ground elevations increase by five to 10 feet from north to south, with drainage patterns to the north and northeast.  Water and/or leachate from the ASR pile was observed accumulating along the east border and flowing off the Site toward the adjacent automobile junkyard.  Other small piles of ASR are located throughout the Site, and many of the berms on Site are constructed of ASR material.  

A Removal Site Assessment was conducted on March 15, 2000, to determine the extent of the automobile shredder residue (“ASR”) previously observed at the Site, and to obtain additional analytical data to warrant a removal action.  Samples of the ASR were collected from various locations throughout the Site.  Eleven samples were collected at 200 foot intervals along the base of the large pile, and eight samples were collected on the top of the pile.  Eight surface samples, a sediment sample and one water sample were also collected.  The samples were analyzed for Total lead, TCLP metals, and PCBs.  The results identified total lead levels ranging from 20.6 to 180,000  ppm, TCLP lead levels of 0.283 to 94.1ppm, and PCBs from 7.6 to 217.7 ppm.  The ASR appears to cover an area in excess of 20 acres with depths ranging from one to 10 feet. The largest volume of ASR is located in the pile along the eastern perimeter and is estimated to contain 350,000 cubic yards.  In addition to the ASR, the Site allegedly has four underground fuel storage tanks which probably contained diesel fuel for the Site vehicles.  The condition and/or possible contamination from these tanks were not addressed during the initial site assessment activities.  These potential fuel tanks are outside the scope of this removal action.


Current Activities

Metal recovery operations continue at the site with minimal delays, equipment maintenance and weather issues will continue to cause limited shutdowns.  To date approximately 12,000 tons of ASR have been processed through the system with a recovery of 610 tons of ferrous metal and 627 tons of non-ferrous metal.  Rainfall during the month helped with the dust problem, as random particulate monitoring has not indicated serious emmission issues.  A water truck has been brought to the site and is keeping the process area and roadways damp to limit dust emmissions.  A second ferrous magnet has been installed after the trommel unit to recover smaller pieces of metal, significant additional recovery has been achieved.  On May 9, 2007, RMG conducted another round of personnel air monitoring on workers in the process area.  On June 8, 2007, the first round of perimeter monitoring was conducted for lead and particulate levels utilizing the Air-Con 2  high volume meters, five monitors were located around the site perimeter and allowed to run for the days operation.  Results are expected within a week.


Planned Removal Actions

Planned removal actions remain unchanged, current phase is to process approximately 150,000 ton of ASR through the recovery system, anticipating a 10% recovery of ferrous and non-ferrous metal.  The remaining ASR will be restage and contoured for final capping.


Next Steps

-Continue perimeter air monitoring for lead, PCBs, asbestos and particulates as conditions dictate.
-Continue personnel monitoring as needed.
-Continue recovery operations and improve site conditions.
-Install six foot fence along the west access area with two swing gates.
-Continue dust suppression operations.
-Continue oversight of operation and documentation of recovery weights and payments.


Key Issues

This phase of the work will require substantial material handling increasing the possibility of particulate emmissions during site operations.  Various techniques will be utilized, including misting units, water trucks, and stationary hoses to reduce emmissions on site.  Air monitoring of personnel and the site perimeter will be an ongoing concern.

The USEPA will receive a percentage of the value of the recovered metal which will be utilzed for the capping operation as outlined in the Action Memo.


response.epa.gov/midwestmetallics