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. 

2.1.1 Current Activities

- ERRS continued loading out PCB contaminated soil for disposal.  PCB contaminated soil is being transported by truck and rail to Heritage Environmental Services in Roachdale, Indiana for disposal as PCB Remediation Waste. 

- During this reporting period a total of approximately 1,976 tons (92 intermodal containers) of PCB Remediation Waste was transported off site for disposal from CLI's property and a total of approximately 1,395 tons (63 intermodal containers) of PCB Remediation Waste was transported off site for disposal from Walp Trucking's property.

-  To date, a total of approximately 5,408 tons of PCB remediation waste has been excavated and transported off site from the Walp property.  A total of approximately 3,714 tons of PCB remediation waste has been excavated and transported off site from the CLI's property.

 - ERRS excavated PCB contaminated soil and backfilled excavations with clean fill in the western portion of CLI's property.  Areas were excavated to a depth of 24" to 40" depending on subsurface sample results.  In areas were subsurface samples (18" - 24") contained PCB's at greater than 25 ppm, post excavation sampling was conducted to ensure site cleanup goals were achieved.  A total 62 loads of clean fill were transported on site during the reporting period.  

- START collected 8 subsurface samples to better delineate contamination in the subsurface along the border of the Walp and CLI properties.  PCB concentrations ranged from 0.14 to 135 ppm PCBs in the samples. 

- START conducted daily particulate monitoring.  No action levels were exceeded.