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. Due to financial difficulties, the property owner was not able to complete outstanding AOC work at the site. In April 2010 EPA issued a letter informing of EPA's 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. After coordinating with EPA legal staff, the OSC decided to mobilize to the site to complete remaining work.
In April 2011 EPA re-initiated Fund-Lead site work due to the property owners’ inability to complete outstanding AOC work. The primary objective of this phase of the project was to spread/burry stockpiled soil and debris which was generated during previous site activities. Debris consisted of rocks and some Transite shingles (non-friable asbestos containing material (ACM)) which were separated from soils during sifting operations. Debris was placed in the bottom of the burn pits excavation. Stockpiled soil originally excavated from the burn pits was placed as the first layer of cover over the debris and spread over a designated area surrounding the former burn pits. Burn pit soil was then covered with a 12"-18" layer of clean top soil. The remaining stockpiled soil was excavated and redistributed to grade the area that had been scraped and/or excavated during the removal action. During and following the site restoration work, START collected sub-meter GPS coordinates in order to accurately map where materials had been buried as well as the extent of where soil were redistributed. Following a final site walk with the property owner, EPA agreed to fill an additional depression (low-lying area) that had resulted during the removal action. At the completion of this final phase of the project, an estimated 30,000 tons of sifted soil was redistributed over the site.
Under a separate Task Order, EPA also tasked ERRS Contractor to dispose of ten 55 gallon drums containing ACM. The ACM contained in the drums consisted primarily of potentially friable asbestos debris. On June 7, 2011 the drums were transported to an approved disposal facility in Lewsberry, PA.
No further Removal activity is anticipated at this time.
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