EPA draws questions about ReVenture site

MOUNT HOLLY An Environmental Protection Agency plan to hand oversight of a federal hazardous waste cleanup site to the state drew questions Thursday night about responsibility - and liability - for the contamination there.

Soil and groundwater are contaminated at the Clariant Corp. Superfund site along the Catawba River in northwestern Mecklenburg County. That's also where ReVenture Park plans to build a power plant fueled by the county's trash.

ReVenture's developer has applied for a state brownfields agreement, which would assure future tenants of the "eco-industrial" park that they won't be liable for contamination. Highly contaminated Superfund sites don't qualify as brownfields, a problem the change in control would fix.

Switching supervision of the ongoing cleanup from EPA to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources also makes sense for practical reasons, officials of both agencies say.

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"Even with the existing authority, we can't tell where the (contamination) plume ends," said Richard Gaskins, executive director of the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation.

"Who is liable if this thing goes south?" asked Tom Davis, a ReVenture critic who lives along the river. "When it comes time to sue, who do we sue?"

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North Carolina oversees part of the site under a state hazardous-waste permit. Clariant wants to renew the permit, which would pass to ReVenture if the development gets underway.

ReVenture developer Tom McKittrick said the state will demand proof that ReVenture has the financial means to continue the cleanup.

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The EPA's proposed changes for the site, formally known as Martin-Marietta/Sodyeco, can be found at www.epa.gov/region4/waste/npl/nplnc/marmarnc.htm . A public comment period ends May 22. Send comments to Townsend.Michael@epa.gov

To read the entire article, go to: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/05/13/2293019/epa-draws-questions-about-reventure.html#ixzz1MFvgQ3WT

 

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The public is encouraged to review the proposed changes in the cleanup remedy for the site and send comments to townsend.michael@epa.gov on or before May 22, 2011.  Catawba Riverkeeper is concerned that EPA and the State working together with the responsible parties have been unable to control the plumes of groundwater contamination on the site over the past 30 years, which appears to be resulting in a continuous flow of contaminants into the Catawba River.  The proposal to shift primary oversite of the cleanup away from U.S. EPA and the proposed changes to the remediation plan concern Catawba Riverkeeper because the proposed changes do not address the fundamental inadequacy of the existing cleanup plans.  EPA needs to be actively engaged in the oversite of this cleanup to make sure that the responsible parties take additional actions to control the migration of contaminated groundwater and to prevent future discharges of pollutants to Lake Wylie, which is a source of drinking water for Belmont, Rock Hill and surrounding areas.  Catawba Riverkeeper recommends that EPA revise the cleanup plan to require the removal of the contaminated soil that is contributing to the groundwater contamination and more aggressive groundwater treatment to control the migration of the contaminant plume.