EPA shares cleanup plan for toxic waste site in German Twp.

No way of knowing yet when $26M project will be completed at landfill; monthly updates promised.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met with local government officials at public meetings Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the toxic waste cleanup plan for the Tremont City Barrel Fill.

The $26 million cleanup is expected to take several years, with the pre-design or planning process beginning the week of June 19, Adrian Palomeque, the EPA community involvement coordinator, said during a Springfield City Commission meeting Tuesday.

The 8.5-acre Tremont City Barrel Fill site in German Twp. is a closed industrial waste landfill. During operations from 1976 to 1979, it’s estimated about 51,500 drums and 300,000 gallons of industrial waste were disposed of at the site, which threatens a nearby aquifer that provides drinking water to tens of thousands.

The site contains an estimated 1.5 million gallons of hazardous waste buried in the ground. This waste includes glues, resins, paint sludge, paint scraps, soap, shampoo, detergent, asbestos, oils and other industrial compounds. Food industry sources also disposed of items such as margarine and corn syrup.

The disposal stopped in 1980, and soil was later placed on top of the waste cells. Seventeen years later, the U.S. EPA began an investigation into the barrel fill and found some leaks from waste cells. An investigation by the potentially responsible parties in 2005 found most of the waste cells were intact but showed high levels of contaminants at the barrel fill site.

Contaminants include elevated levels of volatile organic compounds, such as xylenes, ethylbenzene, toluene and methylene chloride. Metals such as chromium and arsenic were also detected in the liquid and solid waste.

Jenny Polster, the EPA remedial project manager for the site, said during city and county commission meetings that the top of the barrels are believed to be buried about 10 to 17 feet deep.

Bob Rule, a representative for the potentially responsible parties, said during the city commission meeting that workers will bore into the ground

EPA

BILL LACKEY / STAFF Bob Rule (center), from the “potential responsible party” group, German Twp. trustee Rodney Kaffenbarger (left) and Larry Ricketts go over the layout for the Tremont City Barrel Fill Wednesday. The barrels pictured were empty but used during testing.