2.1.1 Narrative

By July 10, 2015, all of the sludge had been solidified (over 10,000 tons) and transported off-site for disposal.  Approximately, 1265 tons of steel and 84 tons of stainless steel were recycled. 

The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District (HBHD) was ordered by the Humboldt County Division of Environmental Health (the “CUPA”) to conduct a thorough inventory of all remaining hazardous materials on the Samoa Pulp Mill property (HHW, waste oil, sand blast grit, etc.).  HBHD conducted this inventory during the week of July 6, 2015 and found more sulfuric acid sludge (stored in trash cans) and an array of chemicals throughout their facility.  Further, there were seven totes in an adjacent room that no one was aware of and an undetermined amount of contaminated rainwater in the tile tanks on the southwest portion of the Site.  County's HHW program and ERS agreed to return and remove the remainder, as HBHD did not have the resources to do so themselves.

ERS and ERRS were both short-handed throughout the fall of 2015 due to several ESF-10 responses. In January 2016 we were finally able to obtain profile samples of all the waste-streams that remained. These samples have been analyzed and ERRS obtained bid packages for the T&D of the waste-streams. 

During this reporting period, ERS and ERRS re-mobilized and completed removal of the wastes described above that HBHD could not address with the exception of the contaminated rainwater.  Each day began with a "Toolbox" Safety Meeting and topics related to the actual work activities scheduled for that particular day were discussed.  Please refer to a document on this webpage titled "Disposal Table March 15-19, 2016 for details on all the wastes removed during this period.

2.1.2 Response Actions to Date

 2.1.3 Enforcement Activities, Identity of Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs)

2.4.1 Narrative

On July 30, 2014, the Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Mathy Stanislaus, approved an exemption of the $6 million ceiling and 12 month statutory limits for this removal action. The period of performance was extended through March 31, 2015 and the Project Ceiling (eligible for cost recovery) was increased to 15,340,396.  Of this, an estimated $10,260,000 is for extramural costs.        

On April 22, 2015,   a Task Order Amendment was submitted to increase the ERRS ceiling by $1,221,000.  This would raise the ERRS ceiling to $7,560,604 (within the approved ceiling described above).  Additionally, this TO extended the period of performance to 9/30/2015.

On June 5, 2015,   a Task Order Amendment was submitted to increase the ERRS ceiling by $867,000.  Later, in this fiscal year an additional $75,000 was added.  This raised the ERRS ceiling to $8,502,604 (within the approved ceiling described above).

* The above accounting of expenditures is an estimate based on figures known to the OSC at the time this report was written. The OSC does not necessarily receive specific figures on final payments made to any contractor(s). Other financial data which the OSC must rely upon may not be entirely up-to-date. The cost accounting provided in this report does not necessarily represent an exact monetary figure which the government may include in any claim for cost recovery.