Smith's Farm

• Site Profile
• Administrative Record Index (All PDF): OU1 (16 pp., 645K), OU2 (4 pp., 168K)
• Additional Site Documents including Five Year Reviews, Records of Decisions (ROD) and Explanation of Significant Differences (ESD).
• For documents not available on the website, please contact the Region 4 Freedom of Information Office (http://www.epa.gov/region4/foiapgs/submit.htm).

Site Background:
The Smith's Farm Site, located in Bullitt County, Kentucky is a 100-acre site which consists of a 30-acre unpermitted former drum disposal area (Operable Unit One) and a 40-acre formerly-permitted construction debris landfill (Operable Unit Two) and several smaller, isolated disposal areas. The Site was used from the 1950s until 1989 for the disposal of local construction debris, municipal solid waste and commercial/ industrial waste from businesses and manufacturing facilities in the Louisville, Kentucky, area. Spent paint thinners, off-specification paints, paint booth sludges, metal shavings from machining operations, asbestos, off-specification epoxies, waste motor and transmission fluids, are examples of contaminated materials disposed at the Site; contaminants included a wide variety of volatile and semi-volatile organics as well as heavy metals. The leachate flowing from the Site threatened the streams which run through the Site to the nearby Salt River. Soil and surface water contamination threatened the nearby residential areas. Over 2,000 people live in the area of the Site.

Cleanup Progress: Actual Construction Complete
In 1984, at the request of the State, USEPA Emergency Response completed the removal of several thousand drums from the unpermitted drum disposal area, and surfaced the area with clay to mitigate leachate problems. In January 1989, after unsuccessful negotiations, a USEPA-funded Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RI/FS), which focused primarily on the unpermitted drum disposal area (Operable Unit One), was completed. In September 1989, the Record of Decision (ROD) for Operable Unit One was completed. In November 1989, one potentially responsible party (PRP), General Electric, signed an Administrative Order by Consent for a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study of the formerly permitted landfill (Operable Unit Two). In 1989, USEPA, through the USDOJ, filed a cost recovery suit against General Electric, Ford, AKZO, and Hoechst Celanese for the cost of the 1984 removal. In March 1990, after further unsuccessful negotiations, USEPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order for the Remedial Design and Remedial Action (RD/RA) for the Operable Unit One area to 34 parties, including General Electric, Ford, AKZO, and Hoechst Celanese. In September 1991, according to new information obtained during the Operable Unit One Remedial Design, an Amendment to the Operable Unit One Record of Decision was completed; the cleanup at Operable Unit One was completed in November 1995 and Operation and Maintenance (O&M) activities began immediately thereafter. The cleanup activities resulted in the thermal treatment of 21,000 cubic yards of soils contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and metals (lead); and the construction of an 11-acre capped landfill with a leachate collection system. The OperableUnit Two Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study was completed in January 1992. The Operable Unit Two Record of Decision was completed in September 1993 due to ongoing legal activities and schedule adjustments during the Operable Unit One cleanup. In April 1994, after unsuccessful negotiations, a Unilateral Administrative Order for the Remedial Design and Remedial Action for Operable Unit Two was issued to ten (10) parties. The Design began in June 1994; the Remedial Action construction began in March 1996 and the cleanup was substantially complete in September 1998 and resulted in the proper consolidation and capping of the 40-acre, formerly permitted landfill, and the construction of a leachate treatment plant. The final inspection on the Site was completed in January 1999. Cost allocation and O&M are enforced through two August 1997 Consent Decrees and a January 1998 Administrative Consent Order. O&M at both operable units is ongoing and the leachate treatment plant is operating satisfactorily. The leachate collection tanks at the Operable Unit One area have been connected to the influent feed to the leachate treatment plant via a new force main double- walled pipeline. The connection eliminates the hauling of Operable Unit One leachate by truck to the Operable Unit Two leachate treatment plant or to an off-site disposal facility. A Five-Year Review was conducted by EPA through the USACE and finalized in September 2001. In 2003, significant erosion damage from excessive rainfall was corrected by the contractor for the potentially responsible party (Ford).
The third Five-Year Review for the site was completed by the USACE and signed by EPA in September 2006. This review found that the on-site leachate treatment plant continues to operate satisfactorily and site remains fully protective of human health and the environment.

In December 2006, S&S Development purchased the entire 560 acre parcel from the Smith family.  In August 2007, a site development plan was approved by EPA.  This site development plan outlines the steps that S&S Development will implement to ensure that future site development work on the property does not compromise the integrity and protectiveness of the existing remedy for the landfills.  The initial phases of site development involve logging and timber harvesting on 8 parcels of the site located entirely outside of the landfill areas.  Logging on the site was initiated in December 2007 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2008.