After completing all cleanup work, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has deleted the Ellenville Scrap Iron and Metal Superfund Site from the National Priorities List, which is the federal superfund list of the most contaminated hazardous waste sites. Ellenville is within a designated federal Opportunity Zone – an economically-distressed community where new investment, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.
EPA has confirmed that restrictions are in place at the Ellenville Scrap Iron and Metal Superfund Site, such as restrictive covenants and environmental easements, for limiting future use of the site and the use of the groundwater to protect the cleanup. Long term activities at the site will continue, including operating and maintaining the landfill cap system that vents gas from the inactive landfill and continued monitoring of the groundwater. EPA will conduct reviews every five years to ensure the effectiveness and the protectiveness of the cleanup.
The Ellenville Scrap Iron and Metal Superfund Site is a 24 acre inactive scrap iron and metal reclamation facility that began operations in the 1950s and operated into the 1990s on Cape Road. The facility was used as a landfill, as well as a dump for tires and batteries. Following site investigations and short-term cleanups called removal actions, the site’s long-term remedy was put in place, mainly the installation of a landfill cap. Operation and maintenance activities for the remedy are ongoing. The site was placed on the Superfund list in 2002.
The federal Superfund cleanup at the site, completed in 2011, included:
•All buildings and facilities associated with previous site operations have been demolished and removed. All other debris piles and assorted debris were assessed, sampled and removed.
•EPA dug up and consolidated contaminated soil on-site.
•The landfill was securely capped to prevent contaminants from leaching out of the landfill into the groundwater.
•Monitoring wells were installed, the landfill area fenced off and the landfill cap seeded with new vegetation. The cleanup finished in the fall of 2011.
•Placement of institutional controls on the properties associated with the site cleanup.
•Ongoing operating and maintenance activities, including groundwater sampling, for the site’s remedy.
Published in the December 2019 Edition
