2007.11.07 – EPA completes annual monitoring at ex-Superfund site

EPA completes annual monitoring at ex-Superfund site

STAFF WRITER
brissmiller@republicanherald.com
11/07/2007
by brandy rissmiller

McADOO — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency performed their yearly monitoring of the seven wells from the former McAdoo Associates Superfund at the Blaine Street site Tuesday.

“Part of the requirement of the Record of Decision — ROD — is to monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of what has been done to this point,” Larry C. Johnson, EPA’s Community Involvement Coordinator, said. “Basically, this is just routine.”

Brad White, remedial project manager from the EPA, said the agency is trying to document what is in the wells and he is hopeful that a report of the results will be available by January. The borough will be contacted with the results, and Johnson said, they will also be posted on the EPA Region 3 Web site, which is accessible from www.epa.gov.

According to White, the seven wells at the Blaine Street area range in depth from 23 to 90 feet.

The first step in the process is opening the well.

“Then the depth of the water is measured,” White said. “As well as the depth of the product, if present. Then the EPA contractors will prepare to collect the actual sample.”

The Blaine Street area is one of two in the former McAdoo Associates operation. According to the EPA Web site, it covers about a fifth of an acre behind a residential area of West Blaine Street. The second former toxic waste area covers eight acres in Kline Township.

The EPA deleted the sites from the national priorities list of most hazardous waste sites when a cleanup was complete.

The agency managed the removal of the surface debris and contaminated soil. Clean top soil and a cap were placed over the sites. The manual pumping and treatment of contaminated ground water at the Blaine Street location was completed in 2001, according to the EPA.

Thirty-eight cases of polycythemia vera were confirmed in Schuylkill, Luzerne and Carbon counties on Oct. 24, and the lead investigator, Vince Seaman, a toxicologist with the Federal Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, said the research has not ruled out environmental factors as a cause for the disease according to a Oct. 26 REPUBLICAN & Herald article.

©The REPUBLICAN & Herald 2007