The Pleasant Hills Trailer Park site is a 77-acre trailer park that consists of 300 to 325 residential units known as the Village At Pleasant Hills. According to the Village At Pleasant Hills manager Louis Williams, the current number of residents at the site is estimated at 850 to 1,000. The site demographics, including number of children, are currently unknown. A portion of the site to the south is being developed and is currently not inhabited. There are two wells located in pump houses on site that provide water to the residents, and one centralized sewage treatment plant (STP). Multiple roadways service the site, including South Street, on which lead battery waste (casing fragments) has been observed.
In late 2001, EPA received several anonymous phone calls alleging that battery casing fragments had been used as backfill at the site and that the groundwater supply may be contaminated. On November 14, 2002, EPA requested Tetra Tech's assistance with a removal assessment at the Pleasant Hills Trailer Park site.
On November 22, 2002, EPA and Tetra Tech mobilized to site to conduct a site reconnaissance. Lehigh Engineering Associates, Inc. (Lehigh Engineering), representative Allen Ringer, the environmental consultant for the Village of Pleasant Hills, was also on site. During the site reconnaissance, EPA and Tetra Tech observed numerous casing fragments along South Street, which, according to Lehigh Engineering, is one of the original roads servicing the Pleasant Hills Trailer Park site dating back to the 1960s. A small quantity of battery casing fragments was also observed at an empty lot on White Pine Avenue. EPA and Tetra Tech identified multiple soil and sediment sampling locations and determined two wells to be used for collection of groundwater samples. In December of 2002 Tetra Tech collected soil and drinking water samples from residential properties within the area identified by the EPA OSC. Samples were collected from the main road entrance and on-site drinking water wells. Five out of six soil sample results exceeded the site specific action level of 400 ppm. Data results can be found in the trip report prepared by Tetra Tech summarizing the sampling event dated February 2003 (Tetra Tech 2003). Based on the results of the December 2002 sampling event, EPA tasked Tetra Tech to conduct another round of soil and water sampling.
