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.

The USEPA, START, and ERRS contractors completed removal operations within the identified grids on the Big Tex property.  All 47 grids were successfully excavated.

ERRS completed transportation and disposal of the impacted soils.  Approximately 1925 tons of soil and debris was disposed of at the Allied Waste-Tessman Road Landfill located in San Antonio, Texas.

ERRS completed restoration operations within excavated grids, approximately 2240 cubic yards of clean soil was delivered and spread into excavation areas.  Material was tamped down to the original grade.

ERRS crews completed the decontamination of the two site building previously identified to be impacted.  START conducted AHERA indoor clearance sampling of the decontaminated building.  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.

On 01/19/2009, the EPA received the results of the AHERA indoor clearance sampling. The two previously identified buildings (21 and 23) that contained unacceptable levels of amphibole asbestos were successfully decontaminated and the results were well below the AHERA action level of 70 structures per cubic centimeter.  These building are now deemed clean and are ready for reuse.  

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 the Big Tex Grain site.

The EPA will begin the transfer of the site back to the owner who plans on developing the site to a multi-use facility.

There are currently no removal issues regarding the site.