Butz Landfill

Workplans Completed for Design of Cleanup at the Butz Landfill Superfund Site

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently approved an updated workplan for designing the cleanup at the Butz Landfill Superfund Site, located in Pocono & Jackson Townships, PA. The workplan provides the strategy and schedule for developing the cleanup actions.

This workplan is called a Remedial Design (RD) workplan. During the RD, technical drawings and specifications are developed for the cleanup action. The RD is an engineering phase.

After the sampling and Remedial Design are done, work will start on the cleanup. A cleanup is also called "Remedial Action"; it is when construction and implementation work starts.

The Cleanup Action

In June 1992, EPA issued a Record of Decision, formally outlining the cleanup action for the Butz Landfill Superfund Site. Currently, money from the Superfund is being used to design the cleanup work. The Bureau of Reclamation will design the remedy.

The main cleanup work at the site will involve building a pump-and-treat system to contain areas of TCE contamination in the groundwater (TCE is an industrial solvent.). A residential water line was installed in December 1992. Other completed work includes water sampling in addition to borehole geophysical and surface geophysical studies. Boreholes show where the different groundwater flow zones are and reveal where contamination lies within different water-bearing zones.

Sampling

Weather permitting, sampling will be done on and off the Site beginning in February. The site and surrounding areas have been sampled before and are being re-sampled to confirm the direction of groundwater flow. This will help to set boundaries for the Remedial Action. The U.S. Geological Survey will use a flowmeter to show how much water the water-bearing zones produce. In additon, the flowmeter will confirm where the water-bearing zones are and the direction in which they flow. Sampling done over the past two years shows no substantial change in the concentration of contamination.

Other Upcoming Work

Retrofitting existing monitoring wells so that discrete water-bearing zones within the well can be monitored.
Siting and installing four new wells for pump tests.
Developing the health and safety plan for the Remedial Action (monitoring, and other preventive and protective measures).
Creating site preparation plans for construction.

Information Repository

Similar to a mini reference library, an Information Repository contains technical and legal information about the Site. Any document EPA uses in making a decision about the Site will be in this public file.

EPA will place copies of documents related to the Remedial Design in the Information Repository as appropriate, when these documents are available.. In addition, EPA will meet with the community to discuss the preliminary design once it is available.

The Information Repository for this site is located at:

Pocono Township Library
Route 611 South
Tannersville, PA 18732
717-421-0800

For More Information

Please Contact These U.S. EPA Representatives

Vic Janosik, Project Manager
215-814-3217
janosik.victor@epa.gov

Lisa Brown, Community Involvement Coordinator
800-553-2509
215- 814-5528
brown.lisa@epa.gov

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1650 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103-2029
RE: Butz Landfill Superfund Site

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