Mid-Atlantic Superfund

Contacts

Bulletin Board

• OU-2 Treatment Plant Start Date postcard notification September 2012 (PDF) (1 p , 119k)
• Crossley Farm Treatment Plant Open House (2 pp, 119k)
• OU-3 Vapor Intrusion Proposed Plan (PDF) (31 pp, 2.41MB)
• Five-Year Review Completed in September 2009.

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: Trish Taylor 215-814-5539

Site Status

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  Cleanup work at this site is being partially funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Current ARRA activities include construction of a groundwater treatment plant and the underground piping to connect the groundwater extraction well system to the treatment plant. ARRA funds will also be used to allow for the discharge of the treated water back to local creeks and the groundwater aquifer and to the Perkiomen Creek. Construction of the treatment system began in July 2011.
  
  
• Construction of the treatment building is making good progress.  Trenching for the underground piping is completed in Dale Road and in Dairy Lane.  The pipes have entered the discharge area 1.  Erection of the steel beams to support the walls of the treatment building is complete.  The outside structure of the treatment building is complete.  The concrete floor and housekeeping pad is in place.  The top soil has been re-graded and seeded around the building and parking area.  Trenching and piping for a fire hydrant have been installed just outside the treatment facility.
  
  
• Construction of the treatment facility is progressing rapidly as major equipment arrives on-site. The equipment includes: two high-capacity, low-profile (6’ by 12’), five-tray air strippers capable of treating 8,000 µg/l of TCE and associated VOCs; two 12’ diameter vapor phase carbon vessels; two 15k gallon finished water storage tanks; one 12k gallon equalization tank; one 7.5k gallon cone-bottom sludge settling tank; two vacuum blowers for the air strippers; several bag filters; and numerous skid-mounted pumps have been moved into the treatment process building and are currently being connected.  The local power company (First Energy/Met Ed) is scheduled to install underground electric cables and an 8,000 pound 13,000V/480V transformer to provide electricity to the building in February. 
  
  
• EPA conducted a five-year review of the Crossley Farm site to determine if the cleanup is still protective of human health and the enviroment. The review was completed in September 2009.
  
  
• The groundwater surrounding the Crossley Farms Superfund site is contaminated with trichloroethylene, or TCE, a chemical solvent.   It entered the groundwater when drums of solvents were disposed of on a 24-acre area on the Crossley Farms property atop Blackhead Hill.
  
  
• The contamination extends down Blackhead Hill from the farm, about two and a half miles.
  
  
• EPA already addressed the drinking water supply to the surrounding residences back in 2000, by installing in 55 homes carbon filtration units that remove the TCE.
  
  
• The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for the long-term operation and maintenance of these units.
  
  
• 100 residential wells in the area, including the treated wells, are sampled every two years to determine if more home treatment units are needed.
  
  
• The epa has installed a monitoring well system. Levels of TCE have been measured in the groundwater as high as 700,000 micrograms per liter.  The drinking water standard for TCE is 5 micrograms per liter.
  
  
• The extraction wells are installed and will be connected to a treatment plant by December 2011. The wells will contain the ground water plume and keep it from migrating any farther off site.
  
  
• In 2008, the EPA amended the Record of Decision, the document that lays out EPA’s approach to the site, to include expanded monitoring and extraction of groundwater in an area that extends down to the bottom of Blackhead Hill.
  
  
• In 2012 EPA issued a Record of Decision for OU-3 (vapor intrusion). EPA will install vapor intrusion mitigation systems at 12 residences which are located above the Site-related ground water contamination plume to address the unacceptable risk posed to human health by vapor intrusion. EPA will design and install the mitigation systems during 2013.
  
  
• Also, EPA will perform additional vapor intrusion sampling during 2013 and 2014 to determine if additional vapor intrusion mitigation systems are necessary to protect human health.

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Background

• From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, Bally Case and Cooler, a nearby company, reportedly sent drums of liquid waste to Crossley Farm for disposal.  Until 1970, Bally used TCE, the contaminant found in the groundwater, as a degreaser.
  
  
• In 1983, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources sampled residential wells downhill from the site, and found that they were contaminated with various volatile organic compounds, or VOCs.   Trichloroethylene is a VOC.
  
  
• At that time, the agency issued a warning to residents not to drink water from their residential wells, and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency provided temporary bottled water for the community.
  
  
• In 1987, EPA began a regional groundwater study, which concluded that a large area of TCE-contaminated groundwater began at the crest of Blackhead Hill and extended two and half miles south of the farm.
  
  
• Public and private wells within four miles of the site supply drinking water to an estimated 4,800 people. The closest private well is less than a mile from Crossley Farm.
  

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