Work Mission Statement:
Safely and efficiently investigate and remove Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC); Materials Potentially Possessing an Explosive Hazard (MPPEH), Munitions Debris (MD) and explosively contaminated soil(TNT) from the Elkton Farms Firehole Site, as defined in EPA's geophysical study.
The site was remobed on January 28, 2008 with a limited crew. One UXO team was mobed. Magging and digging activities discontinued on May 2 when the trommel mixer was mobilized to the site. The UXO team supports both the trommel sifting activity and the firehole excavation as per SOW and AHA. Therefore during this reporting period no new grids were QA'd/completed.
On July 7, 2008 an additional six uxo technicians from USA Environmental were mobilized to the site in anticipation of implementation of Appendix K of the Work Plan. This Appendix outlines the implementation of a pan scraping approach to the remaining 30 sub grids and is to be implemented by the property owner's operator and his equipment under an AOC. Unfortunately due to some last minute legal concerns the work was not initiated. Therefore this new team was placed in support roles to existing uxo tech activity.
1. Total Grids Cleared Gov't QA: 78
2. Total MEC/MD found: 33,032 (MEC items include detonators,grenade fuze,blasting caps,tracer elements,incendiary bomblets, flares etc. etc.)
4. Total MD found: 7,695lbs.
5. Scrap metal found: 8,066lbs.
6. Total Phase II processed soils: 9702cy
Trommel Sifting Activities:
On 5/2/08 the trommel mechanical sifter was mobilized to the site. During the week of July 4th most site personnel were offsite. However GES personnel continued grid scraping activities in those grids immediately abutting the firehole. No trommell activity occurred during this week. Scraped soils were laid out in wind rows for large MEC identification/inspection and then stockpiled for trommelling. During the week of July 7 trommel activities resumed and most of the stockpiled soils were trommelled before the end of the week. Of the approximately 10,036 MEC items recovered off the trommel since it was mobilized, 9,896 are tracers. Therefore 98.6% of the total MEC sifted thru the trommel are found to be the tracer element. In addition 7 fuzed 40mm and 21 fuzed 20mm artillery items were found via this sifting operation and placed in the on site explosive magazines.
Firehole Excavation Activities:
Excavation and coarsing of the fireholes continued. During the week of July 4 GES continued with the excavation activities in the fireholes. Excavation of the holes is near completion and scraping around the holes and the grids adjacent to the fireholes is ongoing. Large quantities of debris (metal, plastic, glassware and fragments thereof) greater than 4 inches is collected and staged causing delays in the completion of excavation activities. Approximately 4,000 cu yds of soils have been excavated, coarsed and moved to the trommel pad area. This represents greater than two thirds of the estimated soils to be excavated from the fireholes. Excavation to 5-6ft depths continue and scraping around the lip of the fireholes down to approximately 2 feet is ongoing. A total of 853 MEC items were found. A total of 3,024 lbs of scrap have been removed and staged on site from the fireholes thus far. Suspected friable ACM is bagged as per the SOW.
On July 1, 2008 the Start contractor performed field testing of a predesignated TNT surface soil hotspot in grid F3b. This area was previously identified by MDE. Test results revealed a small surface zone exhibited elevated levels similar to the MDE results. This soil was scraped, sifted for MEC items and placed with similar soils from grid L1d for possible offsite disposal. No more than 3 cy of soil was scraped and staged.
Sampling and monitoring for airborne asbestos fibers and particulate continued on dry days as per AMSAP. So far no site standards have been threatened for both asbestos and the particulate.
Offsite disposal of the munitions debris (MD) wastestream will occur on July 17,2008. Approximately 19 drums of this wastestream have been generated thus far and have been taking up valuable storage space. Each piece of MD has been carefully reviewed and certified as containing no explosive material by USA Environmental. This material is not hazardous waste and will be sent for final disposition at a smelter.
Implementation of the large scale pan scraping operation of the remaining 30 to 35 grids south of the fireholes is remaining key issue. As previously discussed, the property owner under an AOC, will provide the panscraper, operator and all fuel and maintenance thereof to complete the scraping of approx 20,000 cy of remaining surface soils. It is anticipated that this will commence shortly.
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