NCD980602163_19900306_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Letter from Bill Meyer to Ernie Carl and Edythe McKinney-OCR

March 6, 1990
To: Ernie Carl
Edythe McKinney
From: Bill Meyer
Subject: Warren County PCB Landfill
Summary
The PCB landfill has been in operation almost 7 years with no release
to the environment
There is no clear authority and responsibility for the permit and
operation and maintenance
The landfill is currently subject to renewal of the state waste water
permit and the Federal EPA Toxic Substance Permit
Permit renewal(s) offer the opportunity for a comprehensive
evaluation of the landfill to ensure continued protection of public
safety and the environment
Commitments have been made by previous administrations and need to be
evaluated for applicability and appropriateness to the facility at
this time.
Recommendations
Consideration should be given to establishing a small work group to
address the PCB landfill
Clear authority and responsibility for permit(s) operation,
maintenance, and monitoring should be established and permanently
institutionalized into a single state agency. Conflict of interest
issues will need to be addressed.
The responsible agency should ensure timely permit renewal(s).
Consideration should be given to establishing a specific continuing
budget for landfill, monitoring and should include contingency
remediation procedures
Past commitments that have been made by the state should be reviewed
and where applicable and appropriate continued and coordinated with
Warren County.
Warren county PCB Landfill
General Background
A 1973-1984 chronology of events on the PCB Project is
enclosed. (Enclosure 1)
The Warren County North Carolina chemical waste landfill was
given final EPA approval on December 14, 1981. A combination of the
December 13, 1981 approval letter and a June 4, 1979 approval letter
is considered to be the "Permit." (12/14/81 & 6/14/79 letters
enclosed -Enclosure 2)
The approval letters were issued to Governor James B. Hunt.
The cooperative agreement between EPA and North Carolina for
construction of PCB landfill and clean up of the PCB contaminated
soil under CERCLA was signed by William W. Phillips Jr., Special
Assistant to the Secretary of CCPS (Enclosure 3)
CCPS was designated by Governor Hunt as lead agency for this project.
(Enclosure 4)
Permit #7634-R2 (waste water treatment) for the landfill was issued
by NRCD to CCPS (Enclosure 5).
October 4, 1982 DOT notified CCPS that DOT will routinely:
1) Maintain access road, landfill fence and gate
2) Maintain vegetative cover to prevent erosion and mow twice
annually (Enclosure 6).
The cooperative agreement states that monitoring will be the
responsibility of OHR, Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch from existing
state appropriations and site maintenance problems will be corrected
using state funds (Enclosure 7).
Background State Commitments
The state made the following commitments:
October 20, 1982 open letter from Governor Hunt to citizens of Warren
County (Enclosure 8)
1) Review safety features at the landfill by state and respond
to citizens concerns (meeting held and concerns addressed)
2) Establish work group to study detoxification of landfill
(work group established and final detoxification report
issued 12/12/84) (Enclosure 9)
The report recommended
a) Landfill not to be disturbed at that time
b) Program for routine maintenance responsibility clearly
set forth in record and in public (not implemented at
this date)
c) Regular monitoring (solid waste Section implementing
this now). Monitoring of private wells within 1 1/2 mile
radius of site to be initiated and 25% monitored at
least once every four years (55 wells were monitored
once in 1984, wells identified by name and location
-no monitoring since 1984) (Enclosure 10)
d) Develop contingency plan for site (not implemented at
this date)
e) Funding and statutory authority for items (b) (c) (d) -
(not implemented at this date)
f) Establish mechanism within state government to continue
surveillance of PCB detoxification (not implemented at
this date)
3) The state will monitor landfill and surface water (Solid
Waste Section implementing this now) and monitor residential
wells within a 3 mile radius of the landfill (this has not
been implemented)
4) State and County health departments to provide environmental
and health monitoring for citizens (not being implemented at
this time) (enclosed is correspondence between state health
director, staff and county health director 10/20/82,
10/19/82,10/20/83) (Enclosure 11)
5) Legislation to keep from expanding landfill and prohibiting
the state from placing another landfill in Warren County
(resulted in current 25 mile separation from PCB landfill in
Hazardous Waste siting statutes)
6) State assistance to help Warren County attract industry
Current Status
1) The landfill is being monitored and is not releasing any
contamination to the environment
2) Several potential problems exist at the landfill
a) Leachate removal pump is in poor condition
b) Litter on access road
c) Access to monitoring well #2 and Leachate collection
basin needs to be improved
d) Irrigation system is in disrepair
e) The inner well casing on well #3 is cracked
3) There does not appear to be sufficient clarity of
responsibility for site operation and maintenance
4) There is no specific funding for of the landfill monitoring
5) The waste water permit is due for renewal
6) EPA has notified the state that the permit document needs to
be updated to present standards. A permit revision process
will be initiated by the EPA toxics section to ensure that
the landfill approval is in conjunction with all current PCB
landfill regulation. The EPA schedule for and updated permit
is by the end of this (fed11ral) fiscal year.
Recommendations
1) The landfill has been completed since July 1983 and needs
additional maintenance and permit(s) renewal. A comprehensive
inspection should be performed to identify all potential
problems.
2) Clear authority and responsibility for permits, operation,
maintenance, and monitoring should be established and
permanently institutionalized into a single regulatory
agency if practical.
3) The responsible agency should ensue timely permit renewal.
4) Consideration should be given to establishing a specific
budget for the landfill operation and maintenance and include
contingency remediation procedures.
5) All commitments that have been made by the state should be
reviewed and applicable and appropriate commitments continued
and coordinated with Warren County.
6) Consideration should be given for establishing a small work
group to address the PCB landfill