Cleanup is for former Kauffman and Minteer building
By:Vanessa S. Holt
SPRINGFIELD The federal Environmental Protection Agency recently outlined its plan to complete the cleanup of the former Kauffman and Minteer building on Jobstown-Juliustown Road, a Superfund site that will be the future home of the Springfield Emergency Squad.
The 5½-acre property was the site of a trucking business that closed in 1992 and was declared a Superfund site in 1989 because of contaminated wastewater discharged into an on-site lagoon on the property.
The EPA estimates it will take about two years and $10.3 million to complete the final phase of the cleanup.
Highly contaminated soils and ground water will be treated on the site, while ground water will be treated and discharged off-site.
Institutional controls also will be put in place through the plan, including well drilling restrictions to prevent human consumption of the ground water until it needs federal and state standards for safe drinking water.
Chemical contamination occurred at the site because of wastewater discharged from washing tanker-truck interiors into unlined lagoons which lacked overflow controls, according to the EPA.
The company shipped bulk liquids including soap and solvents, but went bankrupt in 1992.
The EPA has removed over 18,000 tons of contaminated material from the site in the last decade. Only about 2,200 cubic yards of soil and the most heavily contaminated ground water remain to be addressed, according to the EPA.
William J. Muszynski, acting EPA Regional Administrator said recent EPA testing indicated that no private drinking water wells had been affected by contamination.
"By eliminating the remaining sources of contamination, we will remove any potential threat to these supplies," he said. "The action will also speed up the restoration of the local aquifer."
The state Department of Environmental Protection required the company to install spill controls at the lagoon and to dispose of wastewater off-site in the late 1970s, but the spill containment system broke in 1984, causing further contamination.
The EPA took over cleanup of the site in 1985, and it was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List in March 1989.
Additional soil contamination was discovered along a drainage ditch and beneath a washbay in the building in 1997.
The EPA said they will consider written and oral comments on the plan from the public through Sept. 26.