NCD980602163_19970124_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Comments Concerning EPA Letters to Bill Meyer and the Working Group Co-Chairs-OCR

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BFA Environmental Consultants
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j'lli,(0-l\lEMORANDUM
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BFA #95 -017
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~£5 FROM: Patrick Barnes, Science Advisor
DATE: January 24, 1997
SllD.JECT: Comments Concerning EPA Letters to Bill Meyer dated 12/19/96
and the Working Group Co-Chairs dated 1/6/97
Please incorporate the following thoughts in the Working Group's proposed response to the
recent EPA letters :
I. 111 addition to the p1 oposed review of landfill operational records we would like the EPA to
review the documents detailing the analyses performed by our Science Advisors
2 The December l 9th letter indicates that a review of EPA files has already been pe1forn1ed.
What in that review prompted the proposed collection of groundwater samples? Both the
Science Advisors and the State agree that the current groundwater monitoring net,..,ork is not
sufficient to detect possible releases. It is good that the EPA wishes to collect add itional
groundwater samples, however, it would be more beneficial if new locations were selected to
supplement the existing ones . The Working Group welcomes the collection of grab samples
which could easily be obtained fr om surface water in the gorge features near the landfill or of
.sediment in depositional areas/surface water flow choke points.
3 The Working Group wishes to have at least one of our Science Advisors present during the
pm posed EPA sampling .
Poat-It" Faic: Note 7671 Date \
To or,s From
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3655 Maguire Boulevard • Suite 150 • Orlando, Florida 32803
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DRAFT
[Doris here is what I recommend sending]
LETTER TO ELLIOTT LAWS
Dear Mr. Laws:
The Working Group received a letter from John Cunningham, dated January 6, 1997, apparently
in response to our previous letter to you that requested your office to examine various policy
related issues concerning the Warren County PCB Landfill.
We are disappointed in the response from Mr. Cunningham, which takes the position that EPA
Region 4 will be addressing our concerns. When we originally wrote to you we also wrote to
John Hankinson, Region 4 Administrator, but expected Region 4 to address our request for a
comprehensive fregulatory complianceaudit, not to make the Superfund policy determinations we
asked you to examine.
The December 20, 1996 letter sent by Mr. Hankinson to the Working Group, in fact, does not
make a commitment to address the policy related issues we raised in our request to EPA
Headquarters.
We remain concerned that Region 4's activities will not thoroughly or expeditiously address our
Superfind policy related issues. These are not strictly speaking compliance issues for the state of
North Carolina in its conduct as owner and operator of the PCB Landfill. In our original letter to
you we raised several illustrative questions relating to the central question of whether the PCB
Landfill is a Superfund site. These types of questions have much more to do with the activites
and decisions of EPA, than with the state of North Carolina. We tried to explain in our original
letter to you our understanding that legal documents semed to have imposed National
Contingency Plan requirements on the state for the PCB landfill and that together with the
CERCLNSuperfund funding provided for the construction of the landfill seemed to indicate that
the PCB Landfill had status equivalent to a National Priorities List site as which a remedial action
have been taken.
This remains the core question the Working Group wants EPA to answer. We want to know
whether this community has a right to expect the full range of benefits offered by the
CERCLNSuperfund statute and program.
lfEPA Headquarters is ducking this request and handling it off to Region 4, then we want Region
4 to explicitly communicate its commitment to resolving our questions. Nor does this community,
already the victim of environmental racism more than the benefactor of environmental justice,
expect to wait for a long time for offical EPA respc~ses to our reasonalbe questions.
Thank you for your personal consideration.
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