[Federal Register: April 15, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 72)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 19915-19918]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr15ap05-12]
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ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
40 CFR Part 300
[FRL-7899-4]
National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan;
National Priorities List
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency.
ACTION: Notice of Intent to Delete Naval Magazine Indian Island, Port
Hadlock from the National Priorities List.
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SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 10,
announces its intent to delete the Naval Magazine Indian Island Site
(Site) located in Port Hadlock, Washington from the National Priorities
List (NPL) and requests public comment on this proposed action. The NPL
constitutes appendix B of 40 CFR part 300 which is the National Oil and
Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), which EPA
promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended.
EPA and the State of Washington have determined that the remedial
action for the Site has been successfully executed by the Navy and no
further response under CERCLA is needed.
DATES: Comments concerning the proposed deletion of this Site from the
NPL may be submitted on or before May 16, 2005.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to: Beverly Gaines, EPA Point of
Contact, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10, 1200 Sixth
Avenue, Mail Stop, ECL-110, Seattle, Washington 98101. Comprehensive
information on this Site is available in the Administrative Record
which is available for reviewing at Engineering Field Activity,
Northwest, 19917 Seventh Avenue NE., Poulsbo, Washington 98370, (360)
396-0018. Information on the Site and a copy of the deletion docket are
available for viewing at the Information Repositories which are located
at: Jefferson County Library, 620 Cedar Avenue, Port Hadlock,
Washington 98339, (360) 385-6544, and at: U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Region 10, Superfund Records Center, 1200 Sixth Avenue,
Seattle, Washington 98101, (206) 553-4494.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverly Gaines, EPA Point of Contact,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 10, 1200 Sixth Avenue,
Mail Stop, ECL-110, Seattle, Washington 98101, phone: (206) 553-1066,
fax: (206) 553-0124, e-mail: gaines.beverly@epa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
III. Deletion Procedures
IV. Basis of Intended Site Deletion
I. Introduction
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 announces its
intent to delete the Naval Magazine Indian Island, which is located
near Port Hadlock, Washington, from the National Priorities List (NPL)
and requests public comment on this proposed action. The NPL
constitutes Appendix B of 40 CFR part 300 which is the National Oil and
Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), which EPA
promulgated pursuant to section 105 of the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980, as amended.
EPA identifies sites that appear to present a significant risk to
public health, welfare, or the environment and maintains the NPL as the
list of these sites.
The Naval Magazine Indian Island NPL Site covers approximately
2,700 acres. The remedial action focused primarily on a 3.7 acre
landfill that operated from the 1940's until the mid 1970's and
received a variety of solid and hazardous wastes. The Record of
Decision for Indian Island signed in August 1995 by the Navy, EPA, and
the State of Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology), specified
remedial actions for the Northend Landfill and addressed several other
areas of contamination. The Navy has conducted cleanup activities at
the Site under the oversight of EPA and Ecology pursuant to an
Interagency Agreement between the Navy, EPA, and Ecology. EPA and
Ecology have determined that remedial action for the Site has been
successfully completed by the Navy. The Site is an active Naval base
used primarily for handling and storage of Naval ordnance. After
deletion from the NPL, Ecology will continue its oversight activities
at the Site.
EPA will accept comments on the proposal to delete the Site for
thirty (30) days after publication of this document in the Federal
Register. Section II of this document explains the criteria for
deleting sites from the NPL. Section III discusses the procedures EPA
is using for this action. Section IV discusses the Indian Island Site
and explains how the site meets the deletion criteria.
II. NPL Deletion Criteria
Section 300.425(e) of the NCP provides that sites may be deleted
from, or recategorized on the NPL, where no further response is
appropriate. In making a determination to delete a site from the NPL,
EPA shall consider, in consultation with the State, whether any of the
following criteria have been met:
(i) Responsible parties or other parties have implemented all
appropriate response actions required; or
(ii) All appropriate Fund-financed responses under CERCLA have been
implemented, and no further response action by responsible parties is
appropriate, or
(iii) The remedial investigation has shown that the release poses
no significant threat to public health or to the environment and,
therefore, taking remedial measures is not appropriate.
Even if a site is deleted from the NPL, where hazardous substances,
pollutants
[[Page 19916]]
or contaminants remain at a site above levels that allow for unlimited
use and unrestricted exposure, a subsequent review of the site will be
conducted at least every five years after the initiation of the
remedial action at the site to ensure that the site remains protective
of public health and the environment. If new information becomes
available which indicates a need for further action, the Navy may
initiate additional remedial actions. Whenever there is a significant
release from a deleted site from the NPL, a site may be restored to the
NPL without application of the Hazard Ranking System. In the case of
this Site, the selected remedy is protective of human health and the
environment. However, because the remedy leaves waste on Site (only at
the Northend Landfill) above levels that allow for unlimited use and
unrestricted exposure, a review of the selected remedy will be
conducted at least every five years from initiation of the remedial
action. EPA's decision on this deletion will not change the listing of
Naval Magazine Indian Island on the Washington State Hazardous Sites
List.
III. Deletion Procedures
The following procedures were used for the intended deletion of
this Site: The Navy, the responsible party for the Site, has
implemented all appropriate response actions required, the State of
Washington has concurred with the proposed deletion decision, and a
notice will be published in the local newspapers and distributed to
appropriate federal, state, and local officials and other interested
parities announcing the commencement of a 30-day public comment period
on EPA's Notice of Intent to Delete; and all relevant documents have
been compiled in the site deletion docket and made available in the
local site information repositories.
Deletion of the site from the NPL does not in itself, create, alter
or revoke any individual's rights or obligations. The NPL is designed
primarily for informational purposes and to assist Agency management.
As mentioned in section II of this action, Sec. 300.425(e)(3) of the
NCP states that the deletion of the site from the NPL does not preclude
eligibility for future response actions. For deletion of this Site,
EPA's Regional Office will accept and evaluate public comments on EPA's
Notice of Intent to Delete before making a final decision to delete. If
necessary, the Agency will prepare a Responsiveness Summary to address
any significant public comments received. A deletion occurs when the
Regional Administrator places a final notice in the Federal Register.
Generally, the NPL will reflect deletions in the final update following
the notice. Public notices and copies of the Responsiveness Summary
will be made available to local residents by the Regional Office.
IV. Basis for Intended Site Deletion
The following Site summary provides the Agency's rational for the
proposal to delete this Site from the NPL.
Site Background and History
Naval Magazine Indian Island (formerly named Naval Ordnance Center,
Pacific Division, Detachment Port Hadlock) is on Indian Island in
Jefferson County, Washington, southeast of Port Townsend and east of
Hadlock. This island is bordered by Kilisut Harbor to the east, Port
Townsend Bay to the west and north, and Oak Bay and Portage Canal to
the south. Indian Island is wholly owned by the Navy and is
approximately five miles long and covers approximately 2,700 aces. No
private residences are present on Naval Magazine Indian Island,
however, there are approximately 14 military residences. A public
highway connects the Olympic Peninsula with Indian Island and
Marrowstone Island, an island east of Port Hadlock Detachment which
supports fewer than 250 private residences. The nearest Olympic
Peninsula communities are Port Hadlock and Irondale, both less than two
miles west of Indian Island across Port Townsend Bay.
The Navy purchased the island in 1939 and primarily used it for
munitions storage and handling. In total, nineteen locations at the
Site were identified where contamination may have represented a risk to
human health or the environment. Potential sources of hazardous
substances identified included municipal and industrial landfills, drum
and container storage areas, above and below ground storage tanks, burn
pits, and disposal pits. Disposal activities at several site locations
resulted in soil, groundwater, sediment and shellfish contamination.
The contaminants were ordnance compounds, heavy metals, polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), and pesticides. Naval Magazine Indian Island was
proposed for listing on the NPL on June 23, 1993 (58 ance FR 34018) and
listed to the NPL on May 31, 1994 (59 FR 27989).
All locations have been investigated and determined to require no
cleanup action or have been cleaned up to a condition that allows for
unlimited use and unrestrictive exposure, except for the Northend
Landfill. All investigation and cleanup activities were conducted by
the Navy pursuant to the Interagency Agreement between the Navy, EPA,
and Ecology. A summary of cleanup activities conducted at the Site can
be found in the Final Closeout Report which is available at the
information repositories. More detailed information about CERCLA
activities at the Site can be obtained in the Administrative Record.
Following is a discussion of remedial activities conducted at the
Northend Landfill.
Northend Landfill (Also Referred to as Site 10)
The Northend Landfill is an approximately 3.7-acre landfill on the
north end of Naval Magazine Indian Island. The site is relatively flat
and is covered with grass. The landfill is located on Boggy Spit; it
extends to the beach and had partially eroded onto the beach. This site
was used as the primary landfill for the island from about 1945 until
the mid-1970s. An incinerator burned materials at the site from the
1940s to 1953. Materials reportedly disposed of in the landfill include
paint, thinners, strippers, oil, lead and zinc batteries, asbestos,
submarine nets, metal parts, polyurethane resins, and zinc-plating
slag. Various site investigations have been conducted at the landfill
since 1987, including soil, groundwater, marine sediment, and shellfish
sampling, with chemical analyses for a wide range of constituents. Low
concentrations of semivolatile organic compounds, pesticides, and
metals were detected in the soil and groundwater. The results of the
investigation were included in the final remedial investigation/
feasibility study (RI/FS) . Concurrent with the RI/FS, human health and
ecological risk assessments were completed by the Navy in 1993.
Selected Remedy for the Northend Landfill
To mitigate potential risks posed to human health and the
environment, the ROD selected the following remedial actions for the
landfill:
--Placing a landfill cap over approximately 3.7 acres.
--Placing erosion protection along approximately 900 linear feet of the
landfill perimeter and shoreline.
--Removal of eroded landfill debris located in the intertidal area,
excavating landfill contents from the water edge of the landfill in
order to construct the erosion protection.
--Implementing institutional controls, which include a temporary
prohibition on shellfish harvesting at Beaches 1, 2 and 19 around Boggy
Spit and land use restrictions for
[[Page 19917]]
residential use and farming. Upon base closure, deed restrictions on
activities destructive to the cap and erosion protection will be
attached to any property transfer, and requirements for continued
operation and maintenance of the landfill cap and erosion protection
will be addressed.
--Conducting a monitoring program for groundwater, sediment, and
shellfish. Groundwater monitoring will be used to measure the
protectiveness of the landfill cap by monitoring the level of
contaminants in the pathway from the landfill to marine habitat. The
results of shellfish monitoring will be used to determine when the
shellfish are safe to eat. The results of the monitoring program will
be reviewed in detail at the conclusion of the monitoring period to
determine whether additional monitoring is necessary.
--Conducting regular maintenance and inspection of the landfill cap and
the erosion protection, particularly after storm events.
--Conducting five-year reviews.
Cleanup
Mobilization and remedial construction began in July 1996. The
implementation of archaeological mitigation field activities and
collection of vegetation (e.g., willow whips and dune grass) to be used
in shoreline protection system began concurrently with construction
mobilization. In August and September 1996, work progressed to the
installation of the armor-rock section of the shoreline protection
system in the High Energy Area and the quarry spall base and bench for
the Low and Very Low Energy Areas. Approximately 1,000 cubic yards of
excavated material from the installation of the armor-rock section were
re-graded over the old landfill surface and then compacted. The
approximately 10,000 cubic yards of imported material used for the test
fills were re-graded and compacted over the site to establish a rough
grade. Additional import material was placed to establish a final
grade. To reduce environmental impacts, waste was not relocated or
disposed of off site. Rather, landfill waste excavated from the
intertidal area during beach cleanup and armor-rock placement was
placed and capped within the landfill. As a result, no waste
characterization sampling and analysis were conducted during the
remedial construction. After the final grade was established in October
1996, a gas collection system was installed in the landfill area. The
purpose of the landfill gas system was to vent landfill gas (although
none had been detected in studies done for the Olympic Air Pollution
Control Authority) and, more importantly, to equalize air pressure
under the cap from wave action. Various components of the landfill cap
(covering approximately three acres), soil cover, and storm drains were
installed as weather allowed from October 1996 through January 1997. On
September 26, 1997, the Navy issued the Preliminary Closeout Report
signifying successful completion of construction activities. EPA and
Ecology concurred with the findings in the report.
Operation and Maintenance
The ROD required that the selected remedy for the Northend Landfill
include an O&M program to be conducted by the Navy. O&M activities
began in 1997, immediately following completion of the Remedial Action
for the landfill. O&M activities are described in the O&M Plan and
include inspection, maintenance, and repair of the functional features
of the landfill cap and shoreline protection system. These functional
features include the landfill cap system, landfill gas collection
system, landfill perimeter road, stormwater drainage system, irrigation
system, hillside and site access road inspection, log revetment/anchor
system, armor-rock shoreline protection system, and vegetated geogrid.
Pursuant to the 2004 Explanation of Significant Differences (ESD), the
O&M Plan was revised to include institutional controls requirements.
Five-Year Reviews
CERCLA requires a five-year review of all sites with hazardous
substances remaining above health-based levels for unrestricted use of
the site. Since the cleanup of the Northend Landfill utilized
containment of hazardous materials as the method to reduce risks, the
5-year review process will be used to insure that hazardous substances
remain encased within the landfill and that human health and the
environment continue to be protected. In September 2000, the Navy
conducted the first 5-year review for the Site under the oversight of
EPA and Ecology. The 2000 5-year review concluded that the remedy is
protective of human health and the environment. Subsequent five-year
reviews will be completed no later than five years after the date of
the previous five-year review.
Institutional Controls
The ROD requires institutional controls as a component of the
selected remedy for the Northend Landfill including a temporary
prohibition on shellfish harvesting at beaches around Boggy Spit and
land use restrictions for residential use and farming.
An Explanation of Significant Differences (ESD) was signed on
November 19, 2004, for the Record of Decision pertaining to the
Northend Landfill at the Naval Magazine Indian Island. The ESD
clarifies both the site-specific institutional control requirements and
establishes the requirement for how the Navy will implement, maintain,
and monitor these site-specific requirements for the Northend Landfill.
Institutional controls are needed at the landfill because it contains
hazardous substances above levels that allow for unlimited use and
unrestricted exposure. Human health and the environment will be
protected as long as the institutional controls are maintained by the
Navy. By addressing the institutional controls requirements in greater
detail, the ESD clarified but did not change the selected remedies. The
ESD affirmed that the selected remedies remain protective of human
health and the environment, comply with federal and state requirements
that were identified in the ROD as applicable or relevant and
appropriate to the remedial action at the time of the original ROD, and
are cost effective.
Major Community Involvement Activities
The Navy, with the support of EPA and Ecology, has maintained an
ongoing commitment to community involvement since preparation of the
initial Community Relations Plan in 1989. The community has been
informed of progress at the Site through newspaper ads, fact sheets,
open houses, and public meetings. The Proposed Plan was circulated for
public review and comment prior to preparation of the Record of
Decision. Key documents have been available for review at the nearest
public library located in Port Hadlock. A Technical Review Committee,
consisting of interested community members and representatives of
various governmental entities, was established in 1991 and meet
periodically to discuss Site related issues. The Technical Review
Committee was replaced by a Restoration Advisory Board in 1995 and met
periodically until major work at the Site was completed in 2000.
The major documents and information which EPA relied on or
considered in deciding that the Site can be deleted from the NPL, are
available for the public to review at the information repositories.
[[Page 19918]]
Applicable Deletion Criteria/State Concurrence
One of the three criteria for site deletion specifies that EPA may
delete a site from the NPL if ``responsible parties have implemented
all appropriate response actions required.'' EPA, with the concurrence
of the State of Washington, believe that this criterion for deletion
has been met. Subsequently, EPA is proposing deletion of this Site from
the NPL. Documents supporting this action are available from the
docket.
State Concurrence
The Washington Department of Ecology concurs with the proposed
deletion of the Naval Magazine Indian Island Site from the NPL.
Dated: March 18, 2005.
Ronald A. Kreizenbeck,
Acting Regional Administrator, Region 10.
[FR Doc. 05-7411 Filed 4-14-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6560-50-P