The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 5 recently has completed five-year status reviews of four Wisconsin sites on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). The sites are Moss-American (Milwaukee), Northern Engraving Co. (Sparta), and the Lemberger Landfill and Lemberger Transport and Recycling sites (Whitelaw).
The Superfund law requires regular reviews (at least every 5 years) of sites where construction of the cleanup remedy is complete, but hazardous waste remains managed on site.
The Moss-American site was contaminated by a wood-preserving facility that used creosote until it closed in 1976. From 1995 to 1999, about 10,000 gallons of creosote was removed from the groundwater/soil interface of one of the most contaminated site areas. A groundwater routing and in-place biological treatment system was installed, and a construction contract was awarded for thermal treatment of about 25,000 cubic yards of the more highly contaminated soils.
For these portions of the cleanup, EPA recommends continued monitoring of the site until both federal and state cleanup standards are met on a consistent basis. Groundwater system construction, under a 1997 Explanation of Significant Differences document, was completed from October 1999 to July 2000. With management of contaminated groundwater and soils under way, future site work will focus on contaminated sediment in the Little Menomonee River.
Cleanup progress for the entire site, including any progress on river sediment cleanup, will be evaluated in a five-year review due from EPA no later than May 2003.
SOURCE: United States Environmental Protection Agency
