Region 5 Superfund (SF)

U.S. EPA REGION 5
HOWARD COUNTY
KOKOMO

Congressional District # 2,5

CONTINENTAL STEEL CORP.

EPA ID# IND001213503
Last Updated: November, 2008

Site Description

The Continental Steel Superfund site is located along West Markland Avenue in Kokomo, Indiana.  It was operated by Continental Steel and its predecessors from approximately 1914 to 1986, when it ceased operations after filling for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The facility produced nails, wire, and wire fence from scrap metal.  Operations included reheating, casting rolling, drawing, pickling, galvanizing, tinning, and tempering. The site is located in a mixed residential, commercial, and industrial area and is mainly zoned for general use. The closest residents are located within 100 feet east of the property fence line, along South Leeds Street.

The site is situated above three geologically significant aquifers. It encompasses approximately 183 acres and is divided into six operable units, consisting of an abandoned steel manufacturing facility (Main Plant), pickling liquor treatment lagoons (Lagoon Area), a former waste disposal area (Markland Avenue Quarry), a former waste disposal and slag processing area (Slag Processing Area), on-site creeks, and groundwater.

The site was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL) in 1989.  An interim Record of Decision (ROD) for the demolition and decontamination of the Main Plant buildings was signed in September 1996. A ROD, which outlined the final remedy for the entire site, was signed in September 1998.  It was subsequently amended in 2003 to address new information gathered from predesign investigations performed by the Agency in 2000-2001 and a five-year review performed by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) in 2002.  The second five year review for the site was completed on September 4, 2007.

Site Responsibility

This site is being addressed through federal and state actions.

Threats and Contaminants

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and metals associated with site activities were found in the groundwater, soil, sludges and sediments at the site. Approximately 1,600 people obtain drinking water from private wells within three miles of the site, the nearest one being about 7,200 feet from the site.

Cleanup Progress

Several response actions have been conducted at this site since 1989, significantly reducing the risk the site posed to the nearby community. In 1989-1990, IDEM treated and discharged the waste acid solution and stablized metal sludge from the Lagoon Area. From 1990 to 1994, EPA removed 2,450 buried drums, 1,250 cubic yards of contaminated soil, 90 cubic yards of lead dust, 121 cubic yards of PCBs, 2,284 tons of soildfied soil, over 200 chemicals from a former metallurgical laboratory, and recycled 65,647 gallons of No. 6 bunker oil. Removal of lead-contaminated residential soils was completed in December 1998. Building demolition and decontamination work at the Main Plant was completed in mid-2000.

All design work for the selected remedy was completed in July 2004. This design work was fund-financed, with EPA as the lead agency and IDEM as the technical support agency.  The work (design, construction, implementation) is fund-financed because there are no viable potentially responsible parties (PRPs) at this site.

In the spring of 2005, EPA and IDEM determined that a redesign of the Lagoon Area, eliminating the need for construction of an on-site landfill, would reduce the overall cost, provide more redevelopment options, and have greater community acceptance. Work on the redesign was completed in the spring of 2006 and included some changes in the creek and quarry portions of the site since hazardous sediments originally planned to be placed in the on-site landfill would instead be shipped off-site.  The design plans for the Creek Area, the Lagoon Area, Main Plant, and Markland Avenue Query were finalized in 2002-2004, and 2006.

Construction of the Main Plant (OU5) remedy was initiated by IDEM in 2000, and it is durrently on-going.  In 2006, IDEM removed 12 underground storage tanks and the associated wastes and 676 cubic yards of buried asbestos containing material.  In addition, IDEM began ccontaminated soil consolidation and construction of the cover.  The Main Plant clean up work is expected to be completed by September 2009.

Construction of the sediment dewatering area and drying beds for the Lagoon Area was completed by EPA in 2005.  In April 2007, EPA moblized to begin creek dredging.  Dredging was completed in December 2007.  Stabilization and restoration work in the creeks was completed November 2008.   

An additional study to determine if VOCs through vapor intrusion could be impacting homes located near the Markland Avenue Quarry is being conducted by EPA and IDEM.  Air and soil gas sampling was performed in June 2003 and March 2005.  As part of this survey, air samples from nearby homes were taken. The results of the survey were determined inconclusive.  Additional residential air and soil gas sampling is planned for Winter 2009.  Markland Ave dredging was completed October 2008.  Quarry backfilling and cover installation is expected to start January 2009 and should be completed by September 2009. 

Contacts

Remedial Project Manager, U.S. EPA
nabil fayoumi (fayoumi.nabil@epa.gov)
(312) 886-6840

Community Involvement Coordinator, U.S. EPA
mike joyce
(312) 353-5546

Aliases

CONTINENTAL STEEL CORP

 

Site Profile Information

This profile provides you with information on EPA's cleanup progress at this Superfund site.