Significant levels of radium-226 appear to be present at the former Garwin, Inc. site in excess of surficial soil cleanup levels.

1.1.2 Site Description
The property located at 918 West Dooley, is attached to and partly occupied by Haivala Concrete Tools to the west, to the north it is attached to Tech-Aire Instruments, Inc.

1.1.2.1 Location
See above.

1.1.2.2 Description of Threat
The objective of this removal action is to protect public health or welfare or the environment by responding to the release of hazardous substances and pollutants or contaminants into the environment as presented by soils contaminated with Radium-226 at the Site. Contaminated soils that exceed 5 pico Curies per gram (pCi/g) plus background will be excavated and properly disposed of.

1.1.3 Preliminary Removal Assessment/Removal Site Inspection Results
The estimated time-critical site-specific removal action level for radium-226 is 5.7 pCi/g.  The key problem areas are:  Location #1 – inside, outside and under the residence located at 918 West Dooley (kitchen & living room areas); Location #2 – under the asphalt alleyway that runs north-to-south between Dooley and Walker Street; and Location #3 – the two concrete flower boxes located in the front of the residence.

Garwin began operations at 918 W. Dooley in 1952. Garwin, Inc., became Garwin-Carruth, Inc., in 1963 and obtained Kansas Radioactive Materials License (KRML) #25- RB0-01 in December 1965 (see Polrep #3).   

8/1/12 - The City of Wichita's Street Dept, Sewer Dept. Sidewalk Assessment and other city officials came by and performed a Site recon that afternoon and had no issues with the planned removal action. EPA conducted interior / exterior gamma surveys to delineate areas to mark prior to removal.

8/2/12 - A fund-lead, time-critical removal action was initiated. Activities during this time period include mobilization of the Emergency and Rapid Response Services contractor (Environmental Restoration, LLC), the Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) contractor (TetraTech), and EPA personnel.

8/3/12 - Mary Peterson, EPA / PPSS Chief and KDHE (Corena Carpenter) visited the all sites in the Wichita area (Std Products, Std Precision, Garwin), to get a progress update. No work conducted at Garwin, as ER was busy at the other sites that day.

8/4/12 - Excavation of contaminated areas (alleyway) outside the residence begins. The plan is to remove the alleyway contaminated soils in sections as to not collapse the residential wall structure on the east side of the house. EPA / START will use a "MARSSIM" style approach and clear sections by sample analysis. "BERT" is set up at the Std Products site and is being used as a field lab to run "clearance" samples prior to them being shipped for laboratory analysis. Contaminated soils are being stockpiled at the Radiation - Standard Products Site (650 E Gilbert, Wichita, KS) and will ultimately be loaded onto rail cars for delivery to an Energy Solutions facility in Clive, Utah.

ER staff excavated a clay sewer pipe line that was not located by KS-One Call. Readings in the alley ranged from 23  - 70 Kcpm (>5 pCi/g). The current clay tile pipe will be patched / repaired and the removal will continue.

8/5/12 - Sunday. Limited work day. Mainly administrative functions, no removal actions.

8/6/12 - ER staff continued to work in the alley. Most of the day was spent trying to patch the leak from the excavated clay sewer pipe. The City of Wichita Sewer Division was notified that the line that was not properly located and that we were having trouble repairing the line.

8/7/12 - The rail cars were on site and ready for loading at the Standard Products Site. Garwin site shut down for a couple of hours due to rain / lightening in the Wichita area. The busted clay tile pipe was totally excavated and replaced with PVC pipe. The leak was finally repaired and the removal continued.

8/8/12 - The first rail car shipment from Garwin was loaded.  The rail cars are flatbeds with four intermodals per car.  Energy Solutions has a representative on-site for proper manifesting and to coordinate with the rail companies. Removal activities begun inside the residence. The flooring was taken up, cabinets and shelving removed. Areas were survyed and marked for cutting the concrete in the key problem areas: kitchen, dining room, living room and a hallway. Work also began on the the two concrete flower boxes located in the front of the primary residence at 918 West Dooley Street.

8/9/12 - Removal actions continue inside the residence in the kitchen / sink area. Removal activities (excavation & extraction) are still taking place outside the residence in the alleyway and two flower boxes.

Continue the removal action until all readily identifiable contaminated areas are found and remediated.

As the cleanup standard to be applied will allow for unrestricted Site use, no post-removal Site controls, such as institutional controls, will be required, as no contamination above the action level is expected to be left on-site.  However, the possibility does exist that additional contamination could be discovered in the sewer system at the site during removal activities, or in the future, separate from the current assessed area.

Logistics are being handled by the ERRS Response Manager in coordination with the OSC.

Chuck Hooper, EPA Health Physicist

Beckie Himes, PIO

Office of Public Affairs

2.5.3 Information Officer
Beckie Himes, PIO

Office of Public Affairs

U.S. EPA Region 7

901 N. 5^th Street

Kansas City, KS  66101

Phone: 913-551-7253 or

Toll Free: 1-800-223-0425
himes.beckie@epa.gov

A removal action fact sheet was developed for the site and provided to the congressional and state representatives and the Director of the Sedgwick County, Kansas Health Department, who provides briefings to the local government.

The RA is being conducted under the supervision and guidence of Randy Shademann and Megan Schutte, OSC's. James Johnson is the site coordinator.

There was no formal unified command established for this activity.
1. Randy Schademann (Lead OSC); Meagan Schutte, OSC; Tom Mahler, OSC; James Johnson, Planning & Preparedness Coordinator.  
2. START  
3. ER
4. KDHE
5. City of Wichita

3.2 Cooperating Agencies
1.  City of Wichita
2.  Sedgewick County, Kansas Health Department
3.  KDHE
4.  ATSDR
5.  KS One Call
6.  City of Wichita Water Department
7. Weststar Energy

Radium Contaminated Soil - Ra-226 / Ra-228

RA - Removal Action

RCRA - Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

RSE - Removal Site Evaluation

RSK - Risk-based Standards for Kansas

START - Superfund Technical Assistance and Response Team

UFA - Unified Focus Assessment

UMTRCA - Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act

"picocurie per gram" (pCi/g) = This refers to the amount of radioactivity in a particular solid substance. Picture a one-ton batch of concrete that contains 1,000 pounds of gravel, 500 pounds of cement, and 500 pounds of water. To describe this particular mix of concrete, one might say it contains "500 pounds per ton" of cement. This means that for every pound of concrete, there will also be a quarter of a pound of cement present. Similarly, if you wished to describe the amount of radioactivity that typically exists in soil throughout the United States, you would say that it contains about "one picocurie per gram" of radium, one picocurie per gram of thorium, and a host of other radioactive elements. This means that for every gram (about 0.002 pounds) of soil, there will also be one picocurie of radium and one picocurie per gram of thorium present, along with the rest of the radioactive elements commonly found in soil.