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NPL Site Narrative for Former Nansemond Ordnance Depot
FORMER NANSEMOND ORDNANCE DEPOT
Suffolk, Virginia
Federal Register Notice: July 22, 1999Conditions at Proposal (January 19, 1999): The Former Nansemond Ordnance Depot (NOD) is located on a former 975-acre U.S. military facility at the northwestern end of State Route 135. The former NOD property was bordered to the west by the Nansemond River, to the north by the James River (Hampton Roads), to the east by Streeter Creek, and to the south by commercial and light industrial areas. Portions of the former NOD property are currently occupied by the Portsmouth Campus of Tidewater Community College (TCC), General Electric Company, and Dominion Lands, Inc. EPA's Superfund Program currently maintains an interest in releases from the seven waste sources listed below and in other selected areas of concern.
The facility was obtained by the United States Army between 1917 and 1929, and was known as Pig Point Ordnance Depot until 1929. During World Wars I and II and the intervening years, the depot was used for various activities related to the preparation, processing, storage, shipment, salvage, reconditioning, and disposal of ammunition. It was apparently used after World War II in demobilization, including dumping explosives, ammunition, and chemicals.
The depot was operated by the Navy as the Marine Corps Supply Forwarding Annex from 1950 to 1960, when it was declared excess. The Beazley Foundation operated a private boys military academy at the site from 1960 to 1968. Since 1960, portions of the site have also been conveyed to the various current property owners listed above. Interstate 664 was constructed through the site in the early 1990s.
In the late 1980s, it was determined that bulk explosives, a several-ton slab of crystalline trinitrotoluene (TNT), small arms munitions, and other ordnance items, both spent and unexploded, had been disposed in a 2- to 3-acre area adjacent to College Drive. Between November 1988 and June 1992, over 330 tons of contaminated soil and miscellaneous ordnance were removed from this area.
Seven waste sources have been evaluated: residual soil contamination at the removal area, a surface impoundment (the "steamout pond") and soil contamination near Park Drive, a waste pile near TCC lake, and landfills along the James River beach front, in the impregnation kit (XXCC3) area, and in the horseshoe pond area. Hazardous substances found in these waste sources include metals, nitroaromatics (explosives), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs). Other areas of concern located on the former NOD - such as explosive magazine lines, burning grounds, disposal pits, and off-shore dumping areas - are possible sources of these same types of contaminants.
Nitroaromatics and lead have been released to ground water. TCC utilized on-site production wells as a source of drinking water until 1997, when a hookup to the City of Suffolk municipal water system was completed. The TCC wells were located immediately downgradient of the known ground water contamination, and TNT was detected in one of the wells in 1990. Metals, TNT, and SVOCs have been released to sediments along the James River beach front, where recreational fishing takes place. Sensitive wetland areas on and near the site are also potentially threatened.
Two areas that have been considered during the listing process are a triangular parcel owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and used as an excess property area and a rectangular parcel that belongs to Dominion Lands, Inc. (Source 3, Impregnation Kit Area). Analytical results of samples collected at the triangular property did not reveal contamination that would warrant a response action. The rectangular parcel, identified as Source 3 in the HRS Documentation Record, has undergone extensive removal activities and EPA anticipates that confirmation sampling at this location will indicate that this area is also not of concern to EPA. If the analytical results for the Source 3 area are as expected, there will be no need to address this area under any agreement that EPA may reach with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concerning the cleanup of the former NOD.
Status (July 1999): EPA is considering various alternatives for this site.
For more information about the hazardous substances identified in this narrative summary, including general information regarding the effects of exposure to these substances on human health, please see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs. ATSDR ToxFAQs can be found on the Internet at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html or by telephone at 1-888-42-ATSDR or 1-888-422-8737.