United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region VI
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

The former Big Tex Grain Site is located on a 7.5-acre lot in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, at 328 Blue Star Road.  The geographic center of the site is located at Latitude 29.405° North Longitude -98.492° West.

The Big Tex Grain Site has historically been associated with industrial activity, including operating a vermiculite exfoliation plant, grain production, and sawdust warehousing.  The EPA Region 6 office performed an assessment of the subject property to determine potential impact to human health and the environment based on the transporting of vermiculite from Libby, Montana, to the W. R. Grace vermiculite exfoliation plant in San Antonio, Texas. The property has been listed in the EPA CERCLIS database since 2000.

The site consists of approximately 32 structures including the Big Tex grain elevators and warehouses on the eastern portion of the property.  To the north-northwest of the site, there are numerous grain silos that were converted into office spaces.  The site is bounded to the south and west by Union Pacific railroad tracks and to the north and east by the San Antonio River.  The site is secured by a chain link and barbwire fence extending around the entire perimeter of the facility.  Within the facility exposed soil areas are heavily vegetated, but still accessible.  The Big Tex Grain Site is scheduled to be developed into a “Mixed Use” facility.

On 12/23/2008, the EPA, START, and ERRS contractors completed removal operations at the Big Tex Grain facility.  The EPA successfully transported and disposed of approximately 2075 tons of asbestos impacted debris at the Allied Waste-Tessman Road Landfill located in San Antonio, Texas.

ERRS completed restoration operations within the areas of excavation.  To date, approximately 1560 cubic yards of clean soil has been delivered and spread into excavation areas.  

ERRS crews completed the decontamination of the two site building identified to be impacted.  During decontamination operations within Building 23, the ERRS crew located a substantial amount of vermiculite in a small room within the building.  Upon further investigation, the vermiculite appeared to be used as insulation.  The small room was demolished and approximately four cubic yards of vermiculite was collected and disposed of.

START completed AHERA indoor clearance sampling of the decontaminated buildings.  START utilized the on site microscopist to ensure that the sample filter media was not overloaded and was in good shape to ship to LabCor, Portland for analysis.

All site equipment was been demobilized and the site has been secured.

During all site operations, continuous on site and off site air monitoring was conducted.  Constant dust suppression operations have shown to be effective, and no site operations have generated dust levels that have exceeded site action levels.

No further removal actions are scheduled at this time

The EPA will await the results of the AHERA indoor clearance sampling.  START will begin the drafting of the Removal Report.

Upon receipt of the AHERA clearance results, EPA will inform owner if the site is ready for reuse.