MDEQ Checks Old Site After EPA Regs Change
During a public hearing held Tuesday night at the Water Valley courthouse, MDEQ executive director Gary Rikard points to the map showing where work is underway by his department to test for vapor intrusion at a decades old contamination from the former Colt Industries/Holley Carburetor facility. Rikard stressed the issue does not affect drinking water and the testing comes after new guidance from the EPA.
MDEQ Checks Old Site After EPA Regs Change
By David Howell
Editor
WATER VALLEY – A decades old contamination in Water Valley from the former Colt Industries /Holley Carburetor facility in Water Valley has attracted renewed scrutiny from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).
The scrutiny stems from guidance issued last summer from the Environmen-tal Protection Agency (EPA) regarding vapor intrusion, or the process when vapors from underground solvents travel upward through the soil. That guidance prompted MDEQ to evaluate whether vapor intrusion may be occurring in the soil and groundwater near the current BorgWarner facility in a contamination plume that spreads north of the original spill of trichloroethylene in 1988.
The MDEQ presence apparently comes after the lack of action from EnPro Industries, Inc., the company that acquired liability in 2002 for the site, following the new EPA guidance last summer.
In a public hearing held Tuesday night at the Water Valley courthouse, MDEQ Executive Director Gary C. Rikard explained the contaminated area does not threaten drinking water, as there are no wells in the area. Rikard also said the most recent model indicates there is likely not an immediate threat from vapor intrusion.
“We are here because of the new (EPA) vapor intrusion guidelines,” Rikard stressed
MDEQ officials also explained the new exposure pathway from vapor intrusion has only surfaced in recent years, which prompted the EPA to issue new guidance last summer. Also noted at the public hearing was the level of trichloroethylene in soil and groundwater in the affected area has decreased since the spill.
The potential problem outlined during the public hearing centered on levels of
trichloroethylene that could enter a residence or building from the soil through vapor intrusion, which prompted MDEQ to start testing this week near residential homes and commercial buildings as a precaution.
The areas tested identified at the public hearing encompass up to 28 residences – four on South Main Street and portions of Frostland Drive and Champion Circle – and 11 commercial buildings.
In a letter from Rikard that was circulated in town Saturday morning, the agency described the original problem– solvents used in the historical operations from the former Colt Industries/Holley Carburetor facility that have reached the groundwater and migrated through the movement of groundwater north toward Otoucalofa Creek.
In the letter, Rikard explains that MDEQ will immediately begin the soil gas sampling process to determine if vapor intrusion is occurring in the contamination plume.
The letter also explains that EnPro has been required to install groundwater remediation systems to remove the solvents in the groundwater, and to keep the solvents from reaching Otoucalofa Creek. Rikard writes in the letter “because MDEQ has determined that EnPro is not acting in an expedient manner, MDEQ will begin the soil sampling process – the next step in the process according to EPA guidance.”
MDEQ has also issued an order to EnPro requiring the company to conduct additional soil gas sampling in the area located to the north and northwest of the current BorgWarner site, extended to Otoucalofa Creek.
The four-page order was handed down by the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality last Friday and requires EnPro to formulate and implement a Vapor Intrusion Assessment Work Plan and submit findings including recommendations for corrective action. The company is also required to enact a Groundwater Corrective Action Work Plan similar to the Vapor Intrusion plan. The order includes a timeline for the two plans and subsequent corrective action and relevant reporting.
At the hearing Tuesday, Rikard also explained that Friday’s order prompted his agency to begin work immediately, meeting with landowners and scheduling the hearing, in an attempt to alert the public before they read about the issue in a newspaper or learned from other sources.
“We wanted to get in front of it,” he told the crowd that included almost 50 people.
