Region 5 Superfund (SF)

U.S. EPA REGION 5
WASHINGTON COUNTY
MARIETTA

Congressional District # 06

VAN DALE JUNKYARD

EPA ID# OHD980794606
Last Updated: December, 2008

Site Description

The Van Dale Junkyard Superfund Site is located in Washington County, Ohio.  The Site occupies a 31-acre parcel of land, of which ten acres had been used for a junkyard.  The Site was a licensed junkyard since the early 1960's, and may have been operating since the 1940's.  It received a variety of materials for disposal or salvage, including general wastes such as scrap metal, appliances, furniture, automobiles, tires, and batteries.  Disposal records also indicate that, in the late 1970's, the Site received several thousand drums of industrial waste.  The Site received wastes until 1980. 

Portions of Fearing and Marietta townships, and the entire City of Marietta are within a three-mile radius of the Site.  Approximately 10,000 people live within two miles of the Site. 

The potentially responsible parties (PRPs) are those parties whom EPA has determined may be legally responsible for the site's contamination.  The PRPs began the Remedial Investigation (RI), an investigation of the nature and extent of site contamination, in 1988.  The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) assumed responsibility for completion of the RI in 1990.  U.S. EPA issued the Final RI Report in 1992.

Site Responsibility

This Site is being addressed through federal enforcement of potentially responsible parties' actions.

Threats and Contaminants

The RI Report noted widespread organic and inorganic contamination in Site soils, groundwater, surface water, and sediments.  The main risk to human health identified in the RI Report is through ingestion of Site groundwater.  The contaminants which contribute most to excess risks and hazards in groundwater include antimony, arsenic, barium, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, cadmium, 1,1-dicloroethene, nickel, tetrachloroethene, vanadium, and vinyl chloride.

Cleanup Progress

In March 1994, U.S. EPA issued its Record of Decision (ROD), documenting the site cleanup plan.  The selected remedy in the ROD included collection and consolidation of contaminated soils; segregation of solid wastes from soils; off-site disposal of materials (such as drummed wastes); consolidation of hazardous soils and wastes to an area on-site with construction of a hazardous waste cap over the soils and wastes; institutional controls including deed restrictions and fencing; and a long-term operation and maintence program including cap inspection and maintenance, and groundwater, surface water, and sediments monitoring.

U.S. EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order (UAO) to the major PRPs in August 1994 for Remedial Design and Remedial Action (RD/RA).  EPA issued a second UAO for RD/RA to additional PRPs in October 1995.  In 1996, the PRPs completed the off-site treatment and disposal action described in the ROD.  This action included disposal of over 1,200 tons of hazardous soil and drum waste, over 650 tons of non-hazardous soil and drum waste, and treatment of hazardous and non-hazardous liquid waste and water.  U.S. EPA approved the PRPs' RD report in January 1997.

In April 1997, the PRPs began construction of the selected remedy.  Due to slope instability in and around the waste cap area, U.S. EPA delayed construction activities.  The PRPs then conducted physical and environmental sampling and analysis.  U.S. EPA approved the modified Final Design in February 1999 after close consultation with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers.  The main additional design feature of the modified design is the construction of an earthen buttress beneath the waste cap to stablize the capped area.

The PRPs restarted construction in April 1999 and completed construction in July 2000.  The PRPs are responsible for maintenance and monitoring to ensure that groundwater, surface water, and sediment clean-up standards are attained.  The PRPs performed the first groundwater, surface water, and sediment sampling event in June 2001.  They have twice modified the groundwater monitoring well network at the Site, so that U.S. EPA will obtain more meaningful sampling results.

U.S. EPA issued the first Five-Year Review Report in April 2004.  The report shows that exposure pathways that could result in unacceptable risks are being controlled, and that the remedy will be fully protective of human health and the environment when groundwater, surface water, and sediment cleanup goals are attained.  In October 2007, the PRPs completed the installation of two new monitoring wells that were approved by U.S. EPA.  These wells will provide more information on the effectiveness of the groundwater natural attenuation process.  U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA are also working with the PRPs to obtain a signed, recorded Environmental Covenant that documents use restrictions at the Site.

U.S. EPA is working with Ohio EPA to produce the second Five-Year Review Report.  U.S. EPA will issue this report no later than early 2009. 

Contacts

Remedial Project Manager, U.S. EPA
ronald murawski (murawski.ronald@epa.gov)
(312) 886-2940

Community Involvement Coordinator, U.S. EPA
patricia krause
(312) 886-9506

Aliases

VANDALIS JUNKYARD

 

Site Profile Information

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