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Item Title: Lake Crabtree PCB Cleanup Task Force
Update and Recommendations
Specific Action Requested:
That the Board of
Commissioners approve the Wake County Implementation Strategy for the Joint
Local Government Task Force on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
If approved, a letter
from the Chairman of the Board of Commissioners would be sent to the mayors of
the City of Raleigh and Town of Cary expressing Wake County’s intent to support
the initiatives associated with this issue including public information,
assisting in sampling strategies, and participating in the development of the
remedial strategy.
The local governments
should continue the Task Force until it is replaced by a citizen based advisory
and monitoring group created by the local governments. EPA should be requested
to create a Community Advisory Group (CAG) for the site. The local governments
should select members of the community to serve on the CAG and they should also
designate local government officials to be members of the CAG who will attend
and participate in CAG meetings.
Item Summary:
In July 2005, Chairman Bryan and the mayors of Raleigh and
Cary to expedite the removal action created a Joint Local Government Task
Force. Their first meeting was convened on July 26, 2005. Task Force members
Sig Hutchinson, Sherry Johnson and David Knight were asked to represent Wake
County. The Joint Local Government Task Force provided a Report of Findings and
Recommendations, dated August 30, 2005, which was received by the Board on
September 19, 2005.
Wake County has prepared the attached Wake County
Implementation Strategy for the Joint Local Government Task Force on PCBs. This
Implementation Strategy outlines recommended actions to be taken by the City of
Raleigh, the Town of Cary and Wake County. Actions specific to Wake County are:
The City of Raleigh City Council approved Joint Local
Government Task Force Report of Findings and Recommendations on September 20,
2006 and the Cary Town Council adopted the recommendations as presented in its
September 22, 2005 meeting.
It is expected that the County’s financial obligations to
implement the Wake County Implementation Strategy will be minimal, involving
mostly staff time for sampling support, changes in signage at the Lake Crabtree
County park and to attend meetings with the regulatory agencies to review and
select a cleanup strategy for the impacted areas.
History
The Ward Transformer Superfund Site is located near the
Raleigh Durham International Airport on Mount Herman Road, Raleigh. The site
encompasses an active electrical transformer reconditioning facility
constructed in 1964 on 11 acres of previously undeveloped land. Ward
Transformer (Inc.) manufactures, repairs, reconditions, rebuilds, purchases,
and sells transformers, switchgear, and other similar types of electrical
equipment. During Ward's operation of the site, numerous companies,
municipalities, electrical utilities, industrial facilities, and other types of
businesses, arranged for the disposal of hazardous substances, and
transformers, switchgear, and other types of electrical equipment containing
hazardous substances, at the site.
EPA and the North Carolina Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (NCDENR) began an investigation of the site in 1978 as a
result of Ward Transformer's involvement in the illicit release of used oil
containing PCBs along roadsides in North Carolina. During the time that the
roadside spills were being investigated in 1978 and 1979, EPA collected a
number of water, soil and sediment samples at and downstream from the Ward
Transformer facility. PCB contamination was found in the soil at the Ward
Transformer site, in the water and sediment of the stormwater lagoon, and in
the water and sediments along the surface water pathway draining the facility.
Between 1979 and 1993, various investigations were conducted at the Ward
Transformer facility and several violations of environmental laws were
documented.
Multiple environmental investigations conducted over the
past 25 years have confirmed the release of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at
the Ward Transformer site and their migration downstream from the property.
Most of the studies were conducted by the North Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR), with a few additional studies
commissioned by developers. The Ward Transformer property appears to be a
primary source for PCB contamination impacting Little Brier Creek, the Brier
Creek Reservoir, Brier Creek, Lake Crabtree and Crabtree Creek. The following
provides a short summary of information relative to the investigation to date:
PCB contamination was found in surface and subsurface soil in areas around the Ward Transformer facility, inside and outside the fenced area.
PCBs were detected in sediment from
samples collected from the unnamed tributary to Little Brier Creek, Little
Brier Creek, Brier Creek Reservoir, Brier Creek and Lake Crabtree.
Surface water runoff from areas containing high levels of PCB contaminated soil is currently migrating into the Unnamed Tributary to Little Brier Creek behind the facility and into the drainage ditch along Mount Herman Road.
There is a potential risk of
contaminated surface water, soil, and sediments from the stormwater lagoon
being released into the surrounding environment.
The fish sampling indicates that the downstream extent of the PCB contamination is unknown and the results from sampling the area of Crabtree Creek between the Company Mill site in Umstead Park and Ebenezer Church Road are incomplete due to equipment problems. The results document contamination of the fish in that part of Crabtree Creek, although the results are not adequate for definitively defining further fish advisories. Fish contamination was found in the above-mentioned areas and fish advisories against eating the fish from these areas were issued.
After reviewing sampling results
from the samples collected during its remedial investigation, EPA decided that
a removal assessment was necessary. However, negotiations between EPA and the
potentially responsible parties (PRPs) are on going for implementation of the
removal action. Wake County, the City of Raleigh and the Town of Cary convened
the Joint Local Government Task Force because it was felt that the extent of
contamination was not known after ten plus years of sampling and because no
date was set for the onsite removal action. Until the removal action occurs,
PCBs will continue to migrate off the ward site and into downstream waters
including Crabtree Creek, Briar Creek Reservoir and Crabtree Lake.
Attachments:
1. Findings and Recommendations