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Brown Wood Preserving
National Information
Photos/Multimedia
Photo of Brown Wood Preserving site.
- Additional Site Photos
- Site Video
Additional Resources
- Site Cleanup Terms - can be found in EPA's glossary
- EPA Guides to Cleanup Technologies
- Superfund Community Involvement (PDF) (17 pp, 130K, About PDF)
Site Summary Profile
EPA ID: FLD980728935Location: Live Oak, Suwannee County, FL
Lat/Long: 30.302500, -083.013050
Congressional District: 02
NPL Status: Proposed: 12/30/82; Final 09/08/83; Deleted: 09/22/95
Affected Media: Sludge, Soil
Cleanup Status: Deleted from the NPL: Physical cleanup activities have been completed.
Site Reuse/Redevelopment: Former industrial facility
Site Manager: Rusty Kestle (kestle.rusty@epa.gov)
Site Background
The Brown Wood Preserving Superfund site is located in Suwannee County, Florida. The site covers 55 acres in the City of Live Oak. The area surrounding the site is rural and light agricultural. Homes, businesses, light industry, a trailer park, a private airport, and a County storage yard are all located within one-half mile of the site. The trailer park houses approximately 450 residents.
From 1946 until 1978, the site was operated by several different companies as a wood-treatment facility. Operators used creosote and pentachlorophenol (PCP) in pressure treatment processes and discharged wastewater into an open ditch, where it flowed into a five-acre unlined impoundment. A three-acre upgradient lagoon contained 3,000 cubic yards of creosote materials.Threats and Contaminants
Testing during cleanup studies in 1985 and 1986 showed soils in the disposal lagoon and drainage ditch to be contaminated with carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from the wood-treatment processes. Sediments in the disposal lagoon and drainage ditch also were found to be contaminated with PAHs.
Sinkholes and public and private wells lie within two miles of the site, but contamination did not reach the aquifer.
Site Cleanup Plan
The cleanup plan for the site, the Record of Decision (ROD), issued in 1988 determined that site cleanup and monitoring was needed to address both soil and ground water contamination at the site. The specific components of the cleanup approach selected by EPA included:
- Removing lagoon water, treating it as necessary, and discharging it to a sewage treatment plant.
- Excavating and treating the most severely contaminated soil and sludge with off-site disposal.
- Breaking down contaminants in the remaining soils biologically in a 14-acre treatment area constructed with a liner and an internal drainage and spray irrigation system.
- Covering this treatment area with clean material, such as fresh soil, after it serves its purpose.
- Monitoring ground water and the biological cleanup system for three years.
Cleanup levels identified in the ROD allow for unlimited and unrestricted exposure following cleanup actions.
Cleanup Progress
The potentially responsible parties (PRPs) performed initial cleanup actions at the site in 1988. These included:
- Treatment and discharge of approximately 200,000 gallons of lagoon and pit water.
- Demolition, salvage, and removal of facilities and process equipment on site.
- Excavation and solidification of 15,000 tons of contaminated sludges.
- Backfilling of the pit where ore was heated to extract metal.
The PRPs finished the cleanup actions outlined in the 1988 ROD to EPA's satisfaction in 1989. In conducting the cleanup activities, workers also undertook the following actions:
- Cleared six acres.
- Removed an abandoned railroad track.
- Installed a clay liner.
- Built containment berms around the perimeter.
- Installed a treatment area surface drainage network and run-on drainage swales.
- Shaped the runoff retention road.
- Placed contaminated soil in the treatment and stockpile area.
- Installed an irrigation system.
Completion of the soil cleanup was confirmed in July 1990, when a sampling event showed that the soil cleanup and performance goal stipulated by the ROD and Consent Decree criterion had been met.
After all site cleanup goals had been met, the site was deleted from the National Priorities List in 1995.
Site cleanup activities were led primarily by potentially responsible parties (PRPs) with oversight by EPA.
Enforcement Activities
The PRPs signed an Administrative Order on Consent, a legal agreement, with EPA in September 1983 to conduct a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS).
In early 1988 the PRPs signed a Consent Decree, a court-approved legal agreement, with EPA to perform the design of the remedy and perform actual cleanup activities.
Community Involvement
EPA has conducted a range of community involvement activities at the Brown Wood Preserving site to solicit community input and to ensure that the public remains informed about site activities throughout the site cleanup process. Outreach activities have included public notices and information meetings on cleanup progress and activities.
Future Work
After all site cleanup goals had been met, the site was deleted from the National Priorities List in 1995.
Site Administrative Documents
Site Repository
For more information or to view any site-related documents, please visit the site information repository at the following location. As new documents are generated, they will be placed in the information repository for public information.
Suwanee River Regional Library1848 Ohio Avenue South,
Live Oak, FL 32064
Administrative Record Index
- OU-1 (PDF) (16 pp, 398K, About PDF).
- Deletion (PDF) (5 pp, 175K, About PDF).
For documents not available on the website, please contact the Region 4 Freedom of Information Office.