1.1.2 Site Description

     The Transportation Drive PCB site is located in a commercial area of Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. The majority of the site is currently owned by Walp Trucking Incorporated, who operates a trucking dispatch and service center. An unused portion of the site is also owned by Consolidated Lands, Incorporated.  Prior to 1983 the site was reportedly the location of a facility that scraped electrical equipment including transformers and large capacitors.

     EPA’s TSCA program referred the site to EPA’s Removal Program in April 2014 reporting that the property owner excavated a drainage ditch and uncovered several PCB large capacitors. Site assessment activities conducted at the site in May and June 2014 revealed electric equipment related scrap on the ground around the perimeter of the site and PCB concentrations that exceed the Toxic Substances and Control Act (TSCA) action level of 50 mg/kg.  The maximum concentrations of PCBs detected in a soil sample was 210,000 mg/kg.

     The OSC issued Special Bulletin A and Polrep 1 for the site on November 14, 2014 to take actions to secure the site while additional assessment was conducted. An Action Memorandum was signed on June 26, 2015 authorizing a Removal Action to mitigate the threat posed by PCB electrical equipment and PCB contaminated soil and debris at the site. Personnel and equipment were mobilized to the site on August 11, 2015 to begin site work.

 Please see previous Polrep's for additional background information. 


Please see previous Polrep's for additional background information. 

2.1.1 Current Activities

-  An Action Memorandum Modification was signed on December 7, 2015.  This modification provides an exemption from the $2 million and one year statutory limit for Removal Actions.  The Action Memorandum scope was also modified to allow PCB concentrations greater than 25 mg/kg to be left in place at depths below the water table.  EPA will conduct further assessment to evaluate potential threats to groundwater. 

-  ERRS excavated and backfilled the area adjacent to the drainage basin and completed installing and grading the drainage basin.

- Areas C-011, C012, and C-013 were backfilled with clean fill and 2A modified stone.  Confirmation sampling was previously conducted in these areas and concentrations in all areas were less than 25 mg/kg.   

 - 7 truckloads of contaminated soil (approximately 161 tons) were transported off site for disposal at Wayne Disposal Incorporated in Belleville, Michigan.  To date, 93 truckloads of waste (approximately 2,161 tons) have been transported off site for disposal. 

- ERRS cleared vegetation and debris from areas of Consolidated Lands Incorporated's (CLI) property where excavation is planned.

- START conducted additional sampling on CLI's property to better delineate extent of contamination.

- ERRS began excavating contaminated soil in the north central and south central areas of the CLI property.  Most areas that require excavation on the CLI property will be excavated to a depth of either 18" or 24" depending subsurface sampling results.  Soils are being staged separately depending on whether PCB concentration are greater than or less than 50 mg/kg. 

-  Due to elevated subsurface concentrations at sample point S-72, soil was excavated to a depth of 30 inches surrounding this point.  A confirmation sample was collected. 

- ERRS installed a temporary access road onto CLI property to allow better access for delivery of clean fill. 

- START conducted air monitoring for particulates.  No elevated concentrations were reported. 

-  19 capacitors were recovered while excavating contaminated material on the Walp Trucking property and 1 capacitor was recovered from CLI's property.  To date, approximately 202 large capacitors and 3 small transformers have been recovered and are being stored on site in drums pending off site disposal. 

-  All Personnel demobilized from the site on December 29, 2015 for the Christmas and New Years holidays.