News Releases from Region 10

EPA removes Frontier Hard Chrome from national Superfund site list

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has officially deleted the Frontier Hard Chrome Superfund site in the city of Vancouver, Washington from the agency’s National Priorities List.

EPA and the State of Washington have concluded that all appropriate actions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (the Nation’s Superfund law) have been implemented and that no further cleanup is required. Sites can only be deleted from the NPL after all remedies are successfully implemented and EPA and the State determine that all cleanup actions are complete and cleanup goals have been met. 

The 30-day public comment period on the proposed deletion ended June 20, 2018. After adding Frontier Hard Chrome to the NPL in 1983, the site was removed effective today, Monday, Aug 6, with the publication of the official notice in the Federal Register.

Background

The site is located immediately north of the Columbia River and east of Interstate 5. Frontier Hard Chrome performed chrome plating operations at the site from 1958 to 1983. Facility activities included discharging process wastewater containing hexavalent chromium directly to an on-site dry well. Site operations and waste disposal practices profoundly contaminated soil and groundwater with hexavalent chromium.

EPA placed the site on the Superfund Program’s National Priorities List in 1983. Excavation and treatment of contaminated soils and groundwater – largely Superfund funded - concluded in 2003.Approximately $14.5 million has been spent cleaning up the site.

In 2004, EPA negotiated an agreement with Boulevard Investments and JH Kelly that allowed commercial re-development to move forward at the site. In 2016, following attainment of groundwater cleanup levels, monitoring wells were removed from the site, allowing the full site to be re-developed.  This spring, JH Kelly opened a 65,000-sq. ft., state-of-the-art, pipe fabrication facility and a completely remodeled office at the site.

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For more about site history and cleanup actions at Frontier Hard Chrome, please visit:  https://go.usa.gov/xUwD2

For the Federal Register Notice: https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2018-16775