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Airco Plating Company
National Information
Photos/Multimedia
Airco facility in Florida
- 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: FLD004145140Location: Miami, Miami-Dade County, FL
Lat/Long: 25.815200, -080.255900
Congressional District: 18
NPL Status: Proposed: 06/24/88; Final: 02/21/90; Deleted: 09/15/99
Affected Media: Ground water, Soil
Cleanup Status: Construction Complete: physical cleanup activities have been completed.
Site Reuse/Redevelopment: Continued use industrial - electroplating facility operates on site.
Site Manager: Peter Thorpe (thorpe.peter@epa.gov)
Site Background
The Airco Plating Company (APC) site is located in Miami, Florida about one mile northeast of the Miami International Airport. The site is the location of a metal plating facility that has operated at this location since the 1950s. The site occupies approximately two acres in a predominately industrial/commercial area. A trailer park is also located about 300 feet south of the site. The Miami Canal, the only surface water body in the site’s vicinity, is located approximately 2/3 of a mile southwest of the site. Several other Superfund sites are located within a few miles of the APC site.
Threats and Contaminants
Soil and ground water contamination resulted from the operation of percolation ponds as well as other waste handling practices at the site. The soil and ground water are contaminated with metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The specific contaminants include cadmium, chromium, perchloroethene, cis-1,2 dichloroethene, and vinyl chloride. The main threat posed by this site is the release of contaminants to the Biscayne Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for Dade County. The possibility that VOCs may migrate from the contaminated ground water through the soil and into the building on the site is also being considered.
Site Cleanup Plan
The Record of Decision for the APC site was issued in 1993. The cleanup approach addressed both site soil and ground water contamination. Soil cleanup was necessary to prevent exposure to contaminated soil and prevent the further migration of metals and organic compounds into the ground water. The cleanup of ground water was necessary to protect the Biscayne Aquifer. Major components of the selected cleanup approach include:
- Extraction of VOCs detected above the water table at certain levels using a soil vapor extraction (SVE) treatment system.
- Installation of a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) protective cap, or cover, over cadmium contaminated soils and VOC contaminated soils not addressed by the SVE treatment system.
- Institutional controls, such as deed restrictions, to protect the remedy and to prevent residential use of the property.
- Collection and treatment of VOC contaminated ground water by air stripping, a process of forcing air through polluted ground water to remove harmful chemicals.
- Discharge of treated ground water to the municipal sewer system.
Cleanup Progress
The final component of the cleanup plan, a protective concrete cap over metal-contaminated soil, was constructed during July 1999. The other components of the cleanup plan have been in operation since December 1995: the air stripping system to treat ground water contaminated with VOCs and an SVE system to remove VOCs from soil.
The SVE system was discontinued in July 1999 after several periodic sampling events detected no VOCs in the treated air.
The ground water cleanup continues. Over 28 million gallons of water have been treated since 1995. Treated ground water is then used in the plant operations at this ongoing electroplating business.
Some of the institutional controls have been implemented at the site.
Operation and Maintenance (O&M) activities at the site include inspections of the monitoring wells and the RCRA-type cap, and inspection and maintenance of the ground water treatment systems. The ground water on and off the site is monitored quarterly.
The 2006 Five-Year Review for the site was completed in September 2006. The review concluded that based on ground water monitoring data, the remedy is not progressing as expected and a reevaluation of the remedy is needed at the site. EPA has reviewed ground water data collected from 2006 – 2008 and determined the ground water remedy is continuing to remove contaminants and is protective of human health and the environment.
Site cleanup activities are being led primarily by potentially responsible parties with oversight by EPA.
Enforcement Activities
In 1990, APC signed an Administrative Order on Consent between EPA, under which APC agreed to undertake the Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study at the site.
In 1994, EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order to require APC and Allied Products Corporation to perform the cleanup approach selected for the site.
Community Involvement
EPA has conducted a range of community involvement activities at the APC 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.
Fact Sheets
- Reuse Fact Sheet (PDF) (1 pg, 308K, About PDF)
Future Work
Ground water treatment and O&M activities are expected to continue.
The APC site is scheduled for another FYR in 2011.
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.
John F. Kennedy Memorial Library190 W. 49th St.
Hialeah, FL 33012
For documents not available on the website, please contact the Region 4 Freedom of Information Office.