Golden Strip Septic Tank Service

• Site Profile
• Administrative Record Index (All PDF): OU1 (9 pp., 381K), Deletion (14 pp., 784K)
• 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 Golden Strip Septic Tank (GSST) site is located on a 55-acre parcel near Simpsonville, SC. The site is situated in a semi-rural area on a portion of a family farm, and is surrounded by a residential subdivision on three sides. An industrial/septic waste hauling and disposal service was operated on the site from 1960 to 1975. During the period of active operation, industrial and septic wastes were discharged into five unlined wastewater lagoons located on-site with a combined capacity of 2.8 million gallons. The RI/FS was conducted by a group of responsible parties under an Administrative Order by Consent with EPA. The investigation detected the presence of inorganic contaminants such as cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and cyanide in the lagoon water, sludge and surrounding soils. EPA issued its Final Record of Decision (ROD) for the GSST site in September 1991. EPA's selected remedy included the excavation of soils and sludges which exceeded cleanup goals for the future residential land-use scenario. All excavated soil was to be treated with portland cement to immobilize the contaminants with subsequent backfilling into an on-site landfill.

Cleanup Progress: Deleted from the NPL
The cleanup plan was implemented by a group of responsible parties via a Consent Decree with EPA. The remedy was initiated in August 1994 by pretreatment and discharge of the water from the open lagoons. Several field demonstrations were conducted on the treatment system to evaluate scale-up effectiveness and to implement refinements, where necessary. Full scale excavation of contaminated soil/sludge began in May 1995. Once affected soils and sludges were excavated, they were fed into a pug mill where they were blended with 30 percent portland cement and water to produce a soil-cement material. This soil-cement material was then transported to the on-site landfill, spread in 1-foot lifts, and compacted. The compacted soil-cement quickly hardened with a compressive strength of greater than 250 psi. The finished landfill was capped with more than 30 inches of clean soil and a vegetative cover was re-established. An approximate total of 57,000 cubic yards of soil-cement was placed into the on-site landfill at an estimated cost of $6 Million. Construction of the remedy was completed in April 1996.

The site was deleted from the NPL in September 1998. Current operation and maintenance activities include inspections to verify the integrity of the cap, cover and site security; landscape maintenance to keep the landfill cap intact; and stream and groundwater monitoring to verify the performance of the soil remedy. The Golden Strip YMCA purchased this property in 2002, and has initiated redevelopment of the site as a multi-use recreational complex that includes preserving green space and the former family farm structures as an interactive environmental education center.  Two Five-Year Reviews have been conducted for this site to ensure the remedy remains adequately protective of human health and the environment.  The most recent Five-Year Review was completed on September 26, 2006.