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Helena Chemical Company Landfill
National Information
Photos/Multimedia
Site Photo.
- 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: SCD058753971Location: Fairfax, Allendale County, SC
Lat/Long: 32.941200, -081.239000
Congressional District: 02
NPL Status: Proposed: 06/24/88; Final: 2/21/90
Affected Media: Debris, Ground water, Sediment, Soil
Cleanup Status: Construction Complete - Physical cleanup activities have been completed.
Site Reuse/Redevelopment: Commercial - Retail sales outlet for agricultural chemicals.
Site Manager: Steve Sandler (sandler.steve@epa.gov)
Site Background
The 13.5-acre Helena Chemical Company Landfill site is located in Fairfax, Allendale County, South Carolina and was operated as a pesticide manufacturing facility from mid 1960 through 1971. The site was first investigated in November 1980 by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) as the result of reports by a former employee of Helena that a waste dump was present on the site which contained pesticide residues and other waste materials. The facility is presently operated as a retail sales outlet for agricultural chemicals.
Threats and Contaminants
Site investigations indicated that surface soils at the site were heavily contaminated with pesticides, including aldrin, benzene hexachloride isomers, chlordane, dieldrin, disulfoton, endrin, and toxaphene. Additional investigations found ground water contamination with volatile organic compounds in addition to pesticides.
Contaminated ground water migrating from the site posed a threat to a municipal well located less than 0.25 miles from the site. Pesticides attributable to the site had also spread to adjacent wetlands and posed a potential threat to environmental receptors.
Site Cleanup Plan
The Record of Decision (ROD) for the site was issued in 1993. Major cleanup elements for the site included:
- Excavation of contaminated surface and subsurface soil, with verification sampling.
- Treatment of the contaminated soils with hydrolytic/photolytic dechlorination and biological degradation. Should the chosen soil treatment technology prove incapable of achieving performance standards, low temperature thermal desorption is the contingency remedy to be implemented for soil treatment.
- Placement of the treated soils into on-site excavations.
- Site re-grading to prevent uncontrolled stormwater runoff into waters of the State or the United States.
- Extraction of contaminated ground water from the shallow surface aquifer.
- Treatment and discharge of the treated ground water to a local publicly-owned treatment works.
- Quarterly sampling of ground water and nearby public water supply to monitor the concentrations and movement of contaminants in affected and potentially affected aquifers.
On September 1, 1995, a ROD Amendment was issued to change the soil treatment technology selected in the 1993 ROD. Instead of on-site treatment with hydrolytic/photolytic dechlorination and bioremediation, the soil treatment was changed to off-site incineration at a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act approved incinerator located in Clive, Utah.
A second ROD Amendment was issued on February 11, 1999 to further modify the soil treatment technology. The ROD Amendment called for separation of waste into three categories: demolition debris, soils with low concentrations of waste contents, and soils with high concentrations of waste contents. Instead of sending all waste for incineration, only the high contaminant concentration soils would be incinerated. The remaining low contaminant concentration soils were sent to a hazardous waste landfill and the demolition debris was transported to a regulated Subtitle C landfill.
Cleanup Progress
A total of 5,172 cubic yards of contaminated soil have been removed from the site and incinerated. An additional 7,741 cubic yards of contaminated soil have been disposed of in off-site disposal facilities.
Construction of the ground water extraction system and implementation of the wetland mitigation system have been completed. The ground water extraction well and discharge system have operated continuously since initiation in 1995 and will continue to operate until ground water cleanup goals have been achieved.
Site cleanup activities are being led primarily by Helena Chemical Company with oversight by EPA and SCDHEC.
Enforcement Activities
SCDHEC issued a Notice of Violation to Helena in July, 1981, for the operation of a waste disposal facility in violation of applicable South Carolina regulations.
On October 1, 1981, SCDHEC issued Administrative Consent Order No. 81-05-SW to Helena to perform site investigations including surface soil, ground water, and surface water sampling. Under the terms of an amendment to Administrative Consent Order No. 81-05-SW, dated March 12, 1984, Helena conducted remediation efforts to remove contaminated soils to a permitted hazardous waste landfill.
In April, 1989, an Administrative Order on Consent was jointly developed, negotiated, and agreed to by EPA and Helena Chemical Company. Under the terms of this agreement, Helena conducted a remedial investigation and feasibility study at the site.
Community Involvement
EPA has conducted a range of community involvement activities at the Helena Chemical Company Landfill 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, interviews, and public meetings on cleanup activities and updates.
Future Work
Long-term protectiveness of the remedial actions is being verified by ongoing quarterly ground water and sediment sampling.
This site is subject to Five-Year Reviews (FYRs). The second FYR for the site is scheduled for completion in the Fall of 2009.
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.
Fairfax City Hall
Highway 278 and Laurens Avenue
Fairfax, SC 29827
Administrative Record Index
- OU-1 (PDF) (19 pp, 813K, About PDF)
- 1995 ROD Amendment (PDF) (2 pp, 72K, About PDF)
- 2002 ROD Amendment (PDF) (1 pg, 15K, About PDF)
- 2nd Five Year Review(PDF) (335 pg, 35.84MB About PDF)
For documents not available on the website, please contact the Region 4 Freedom of Information Office.