The Elkton Farm Firehole site is located two miles northwest of Elkton, Maryland near the intersection of Routes 40 and 279. The Firehole Site occupies approximately 55-acres of the 400-acre Elkton Farm and is located just south of Zeitler Road between Little Elk Creek and Laurel Run. The most recent use of the Site has been as a working farm. During the decade before and during World War II, the parcel had been the site of activity related to the manufacture of fireworks and munitions. Investigations performed in 2006 by the Army Corps of Engineers identified an area on the current Elkton Farm as the Firehole. The Firehole was documented as an area for the disposal of waste explosives material during and just after WWII. Ordinance related material was observed scattered on the ground throughout the site.
On April 24, 2007 EPA mobed to the site with its regional ERRS cleanup contractor, Guardian Environmental and its UXO subcontractor, USA Environmental to complete munitions of explosive concern identification, avoidance and disposal activities. On December 21, 2007 the site was demobed for the Christmas holiday. The site was remobed on January 28, 2008. On May 2, 2008 a trommel mechanical sifter was mobilized to the site. The Trommel was used to seperate MEC and MD from site soils. EPA entered into an AOC with the property owner on August 8, 2008 in which the property owner agreed to complete work as described in Appendix K of the Site Work Plan. The property owner’s contractor began scraping grids on August 11, 2008 using a pan scraper. The OSC provided direction to the property owner on which grids were to be scraped and to which depth. The depth of scraping ranged from 8” – 16” based on magnetometer surveys and depending on how deep MEC and MD were found in each area. Scraped soils were staged on a predetermined area of the site pending trommel sifting. A total of 46 grids were scraped (11 were partial grids). Pan scraping activities as outlined in Appendix K of the Work and excavation of the fireholes are now complete. Sifting of scraped soils and QA/QC of all grids is complete.
As of March 9, 2009 EPA contractors demobilized all site equipment and personnel. The property owner informed EPA of it's intent to regrade and vegetate the site as agreed upon in the AOC. Guard service was discontinued and property owner was notified that they are responsible for site security.
To date, the propety owner has not completed work as agreed upon in the AOC. In April 2010 EPA issued a letter informing of EPA's final decision to take over work at the site to complete all remaining AOC tasks. At that time, EPA learned that the property owner had declared bankruptcy. EPA is currently unable to complete work do to the bankruptcy automatic stay. EPA legal staff are working with DOJ to determine the appropriate course of action.
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