People for Safe Water, a group in Springfield, Ohio, are working for the reinstatement by the US EPA of the original cleanup plan for the Tremont Barrel Fill Site. This plan will ensure the sole source aquifer’s continuing yield of high quality, pure water for Clark County residents.
The Barrel Fill site contains 51,500 drums of chemical waste, as well as over 300,000 gallons of bulk liquid waste in German Township, buried in the late 1970’s.
· Following legislative procedures and public processes, US EPA’s Region 5 Superfund Division issued a site clean-up plan known as Alternative 4a in June 2010. This plan was acceptable to all local and OH EPA officials.
· Subsequently, US EPA issued another plan, known as Alternative 9a, on June 22, 2011, as the final clean-up plan. This plan was unacceptable to all local and OH EPA officials.
· The OH EPA, Clark County Combined Health District, Clark County Commissioners, Springfield City Commissioners, German Township Trustees, and our citizens group, People for Safe Water, all vigorously oppose Plan 9a because, if implemented, it will so compromise the purity of the sole source aquifer for Clark County.
· The corporations responsible for clean-up costs, or Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs), sued Chemical Waste Management (CWM), who had challenged its status as one of the PRPs. The court ruled that CWM is a PRP and is responsible for 55% of the cleanup costs
Key points of opposition to Plan 9A:
· It lacks the level of protection provided by Alternative 4a.
· It leaves untreated hazardous waste at the Barrel Fill site.
· It redefines principal threat waste to be only liquid waste.
· It ignores key unique geological features with serious consequences for the Springfield well fields and Mad River Aquifer.
The barrel fill site, a Superfund Alternative Site, sets above the sole source aquifer for 85,000 people, primarily Clark County citizens. This sole source of drinking water is at risk of contamination by chemical poisons from the Site. Charles Patterson, Clark County Health Commissioner, reports that trace contaminants are already showing up in monitoring wells below the site. US EPA’s original plan (June 2010), acceptable to all pertinent parties, would have adequately addressed the site’s cleanup. US EPA’s adoption of a subsequent plan (June 2011) threatens the water supply upon which the people and economy of the entire region depend.
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