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.
Background:
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 and The site was remobed on January 28, 2008 with a limited crew. One UXO team from USA Environmental was mobilized. The UXO team supports both the trommel sifting activity and the firehole excavation as per SOW and AHA. On May 2, 2008 a trommel mechanical sifter was mobilized to the site. The Trommel will be used to seperate MEC and MD from site soils. On July 7, 2008 additional UXO technicians were mobed to the site in anticipation of implementation of Appendix K of the Work Plan. Appendix K outlines the implementation of a pan scraping approach to the remaining ~30 grids and is to be implemented by the property owner's operator and his equipment under an AOC. On April 28, 2008 the ERRS contractor initiated the excavation of the fireholes.
Contractors continued grid scraping and trommel sifting per SOW and AHA. QA/QC continued in scraped grids.
The following materials have been processed/recovered to date:
1. Total Grids Cleared Gov't QA: 116
2. Total MEC/MD found: 138,445 (MEC items include detonators, grenade fuse, blasting caps, tracer elements, incendiary bomblets, flares etc. etc.)
3. Firehole MEC found: 14,322 (incl. 13,974 tracers)
4. Total MD found: 29,469 lbs (total is lower than previous polrep due to corrections made to calculations)
5. Scrap metal found: 16,877 lbs.
6. Total Phase II processed soils: 19,466 cy
Grid Scraping Activities:
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 has ranged from 8” – 16” based on magnetometer surveys and depending on how deep MEC and MD are found in each area. Scraped soils are staged on a predetermined area of the site pending trommel sifting. A total of 46 grids have been scraped to date (11 were partial grids). Of these grids, 34 have passed final QA/QC. Scraping of grids with the pan scraper is complete pending final QA/QC of remaining grids.
Trommel Sifting Activities:
Trommel sifting operations continued during this work period. Of the approximately 106,774 MEC items recovered off the trommel since it was mobilized, 106,180 are tracers. In addition 32 fused 40mm and 56 fused 20mm artillery items were found via this sifting operation and placed in the on site explosive magazines. Sifting of grid soils began during this work period. The trommel sifter was moved to an area of the site closer to the pan scraping soil staging area. Moving the trommel will allow faster processing of soil generated from pan scraping and allow scraping of grids in the area of site where the trommel was previously located.
Firehole Excavation Activities:
Final QA/QC of the fireholes was conducted.
Monitoring of airborne particulates continued on dry days. Since firehole excavation is complete, and based on previous air sampling data, sampling for airborne asbestos fibers has been terminated. Sampling for asbestos may be conducted in the future if suspect material is encountered. So far no site standards have been threatened for both asbestos and particulate.
- QA/QC of scraped grids will continue.
- Sifting of grid soils will continue.
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