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Dorney Road Landfill
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site location and surroundings
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EPA ID: PAD980508832
Location:
Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County and Longswamp Township, Berks County, Pennslyvania
Congressional District: 15th
Other Names: Oswald Landfill
Last Updated: December 2012
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Contacts
Remedial Project Manager
Jill Lowe
215-814-3123
lowe.jill@epa.gov
Community Involvement Coordinator
Ruth Wuenschel
215-814-5540
wuenschel.ruth@epa.gov
Governmental Liaison
Laura Mohollen
215-814-3295
Mohollen.laura@Epa.gov
Bulletin Board
Questions
The EPA is dedicated to providing you with timely and accurate information about our work at this site. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact: Ruth Wuenschel 215-814-5540
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Site Status
- The second five-year review of this site was completed in July 2008, with the next one due in 2013.
- The 2008 review found that the site is still protective of human health and environment, however, institutional controls need to be put in place, and new groundwater sampling should be done for 1,4-dioxane.
- EPA drafted in 2012, an Institutional Control Implementation and Assessment Plan (ICIAP) for the Site and determined that the institutional controls that were in place are adequate to protect the engineered remedy.
- Groundwater sampling in July 2010 and July 2011 did not identify 1,4-dioxane.
Background
- The Dorney Road Landfill site is located in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County, with a small parcel extending into Longswamp Township in Berks County.
- The landfill was an open-pit iron mine, before it became a 27-acre municipal and industrial landfill from 1952 to 1978.
- The state inspected the site in 1970 and found that industrial sludge, batteries and barrels of petroleum products were dumped on site.
- The site is surrounded by rural residences and farmland, although many housing developments have been constructed in recent years.
- The aquifer that flows underground beneath the site is the primary source of water for local residents and farms in the area.
- Groundwater contamination has spread off site.
- There are approximately 20 people living within a quarter mile of the site.
Cleanup History
NPL Listing History
| Status: Final | Added: 1984 |
| Deleted: |
- The state and the EPA signed a cooperative agreement to study the nature and extent of contamination in 1984.
- In 1986, EPA regraded the site and installed surface water runoff controls to stop the flow of contaminated surface water, and a fence was put around the site.
- In 1988 EPA ordered 12 parties that were responsible for the contamination to clean up the site. The cleanup included:
- off-site disposal of 700,000 gallons of on-site pond water;
- constructing a dike and diversion ditch system;
- reshaping surface contours;
- installing a multi-layer landfill cap and gas collection system
- groundwater monitoring;
- limiting access through deed restrictions and a fence;
- and restricting building in the area.
- EPA required that the responsible parties install replacement wetlands to compensate for those lost during the landfill capping. Those wetlands were constructed from 1999 through 2005.
- In 1991, EPA selected the cleanup remedy for the groundwater, which included continued groundwater monitoring, and providing wellhead treatment units to residences, if contaminants were found above action levels.
- The baseline sampling of residential wells began in 1999, and continues on a quarterly schedule today. Results have indicated that no wells have contaminants above action levels, therefore, no wellhead treatment units have been required.
- An Explanation of Significant Differences (ESD) was written for the original decision document, called the Record of Decision or ROD. The ESD required that Institutional Controls be placed on the property to protect the landfill cap. The ESD specified that no groundwater wells be installed on the property.
Contaminants and Risks
- Contaminants in the water that has seeped down through the landfill, called leachate, include ketone, vinyl chloride, trichloroethane, benzene, arsenic.
- Soils contain the pesticide dieldrin, as well as lead and chromium.
- The groundwater, which is being used by local residents, is monitored quarterly. The groundwater sampling results have never identified contamination above action levels.
- Contaminant descriptions and associated risk factors are available from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the environmental arm of the CDC.
Documents and Reports
- To search an on-line database of all documents and reports on the Dorney Road Landfill site, go to EPA’s Administrative Record Database.
- All documents and reports can also be reviewed in person at these locations:
Upper Macungie Township Building
8330 Schantz Road
Breinigsville, PA 18031
610-395-4892U.S. EPA Region III
1650 Arch Street-6th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 814-3157
Call for an appointment.
- Some of the site’s key documents of interest are accessible below.
- Submit a FOIA Request
Get instructions on how to submit a FOIA request. $Fee$ for requests over 100 pages.