Mid-Atlantic Superfund

Contacts

Bulletin Board

• EPA Conducting Five Year Review (PDF) (4 pp, 654K)

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: Vance Evans
800-553-2509,
215-814-5526

Site Status

• During the 2008 five-year review of the Buckingham County Landfill, the EPA found that the cleanup remedy in the 1994 Record of Decision was not effective in protecting human health and the environment, and therefore, the agency is revisiting this site by conducting a new comprehensive investigation.
  
  
• Information gathered during the new investigation will be used to determine the best available technology that is appropriate in cleaning up the site.
  
  
• The 2008 five-year review found that as many as nine site-related contaminants, one of which is 1,4-dioxane, a stabilizer found in solvents, has migrated in groundwater beyond point of compliance wells.  Up until recently, 1,4-dioxane was not easily detected in groundwater, however, a new standard testing method is now available to detect it.
  
  
• The work plan for the new investigation was finalized in March 2009 and the field work was completed in November.  The draft focused feasibility study (which looks at the potential effectiveness of various cleanup methods) has been completed and has been reviewed by the EPA and VADEQ.  The EPA and VADEQ have identified additional information that is needed to complete the FFS.  The PRPs are in the process of collecting the additional information needed to complete the FFS.
  
  
• It is important to note that the two closest downgradient residential monitoring wells have been sampled on a quarterly basis since 1996.  Test results continue to indicate the wells are safe to use as a source of drinking water.  A comprehensive residential groundwater study was performed by EPA in 2009.  This study involved the two regularly monitored residential wells and additional residential wells up and downgradient of the Site.  Results of that study demonstrated that none of the residential wells have been impacted by the contamination from the landfill.
  
  
• Field work was completed during the fall of 2012 to install additional monitoring wells needed to delineate the groundwater contamination plume.  EPA is now working with the PRPs to develop plans to conduct a field treatability study needed to determine if chemical oxidation treatment of the contamination will work as a viable technology to address contamination found at the site.
  
  
• EPA has started the 2013 Five Year Review which will evaluate the remedy currently in place at the site.  As part of the review, information gathered by the PRPs as part of the ongoing FFS will be evaluated along with current site conditions in order to make recommendation for completing the FFS.

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Background

• The Buckingham County Landfill occupies eight acres, including a two-acre hazardous waste disposal area, near the town of Dillwyn.
  
  
• The primitive disposal operation involved emptying solvent and paint waste into a series of trenches, whereby the byproducts of evaporation, known as still bottoms, were buried and remain today.  Crushed drums were placed in another trench where they remain today, as well.
  
  
• Investigation in 1992 showed that on-site groundwater wells were contaminated with very high levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  Potential risks exist if people ingest or come into direct contact with this contaminated groundwater.
  
  
• An estimated 1,100 people use wells within three miles of the site and approximately 40 people live within a half mile of the site.
  
  
• A landfill cap was completed in 1998.
  
  
• A groundwater study was done also done in 1998, to design the long-term groundwater monitoring program, and the first round of sampling was completed in September 1998.

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