LOCAL

Residents seek Superfund cleanup clarification

Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency lead neighborhood meeting for Stephen Foster residents

Sarah Nelson
snelson@gvillesun.com
Work continues on the Koppers Superfund Site behind a fence around the front yard of a house on NW 4th Street in the Stephen Foster neighborhood on Feb. 20, 2014, in Gainesville. [The Gainesville Sun/File]

Extensive cleanup is coming to a section of the Cabot/Koppers Superfund site, and community members are equipped with questions and passion for the heavy lifting coming to the area.

Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency led a neighborhood meeting for Stephen Foster residents on Thursday evening to learn more about the significant cleanup plans starting this month on the eastern portion of the Cabot site. The work will continue through the end of this year, with remediation at the adjacent Koppers site following in 2020.

Neighborhood residents asked for more communication and data to back up agents’ claims that the contamination has severely diminished since the federal agency’s initial investigation into hazardous chemical concerns.

The site, 140 acres total between the two properties just north of Northwest 23rd Avenue, has been awaiting hefty cleanup efforts since commercial business operations conducted pine tar and charcoal treatment activities in the early 1900s, leaving contamination in the soil, groundwater and sediments.

Remediation has been ongoing for the past 25 years, with a groundwater trench installed parallel to North Main Street in 1995 to combat contamination in the aquifer leaving the site. The EPA issued remediation plans in 2011, with the project now coming to fruition.

The primary chemicals of concern at Cabot include phenols, terpenes and terpenoids — all toxic compounds.

EPA officials say that much has been done, but residents are asking for a reader-friendly report showing the proof.

“You say it’s much better now, well how do you quantify that?” said Robert Mann, who lives in the area.

City Commissioner Harvey Ward, who represents the district encompassing the sites, said he’d also like more clarification about the work soon to come.

“I would like to see better communication from EPA, and as we go forward with Koppers as well,” he said. “For now, they could give us technical information explained in layman's terms because this is a bright community. We’re willing to put in work to understand things.”

Work will be done from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with a possible Saturday shift if necessary.

Wayne Reiber, corporate manager of environmental assessment and remediation for the property’s owner Cabot Corporation, said the company will ensure potential noise and odor coming from their digging will not waft into residential areas.

Homeowners and businesses should expect little disruption to their daily activities, he said. Construction will take place in the largely unused area behind the Northside Shopping Center, Davis Chevrolet and Mazda dealerships.

EPA Project Manager Rusty Kestle detailed the remediation expected to end in February, which includes an underground containment, pumping and treating groundwater and an engineering cap.

Existing stormwater ponds will also be demolished, with a newer and enhanced pond constructed just to the west. Gainesville’s Public Works department will maintain the waterway, which could be built in just three to four weeks.

Kestle extended an invite for residents to watch the process of embedding the containment into the ground, which involves a chainsaw-like machine that plunges 70 feet and jigsaws its way through the soil.

Robert Pearce, president of the Stephen Foster Neighborhood Association, said he was pleased his peers showed up and came prepared with questions and comments.

He also said the relationship between the Gainesville residents, the Cabot Corporation and EPA has been a good one.

“They’re really stepping up to the plate,” he said.

Ward, a Gainesville native, said he was excited for the residents who turned out.

“In my memory, it’s (Cabot/Koppers) always been this big, horrible thing sitting there and for people in the neighborhood to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel is so exciting,” he said.