Tag: Superfund National Priorities List

What's Next for Minden? PCB-Afflicted Town Joins EPA Superfund List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is working to clean up a former mining equipment operation in Fayette County, known as the Shaffer site. On Monday, the EPA announced that the Shaffer site has been added to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. 

The Shaffer Equipment Co. manufactured equipment used in mining from 1970 to 1984. The company leaked polychlorinated biphenyl — more commonly known as PCB— into the soil.

EPA officials hosted a community conversation in Minden on Wednesday inside a small church to talk with residents about their next steps.

“We’ve started planning and scoping our remedial investigation, which will include conducting additional sampling and testing to fully define any remaining contamination,” explained Stepan Nevsheirlian, EPA’s project manager for the Shaffer site. He said his team will return to Minden this summer to take additional samples.

“Once we collect that data, that will determine what’s next,” he said.

Nevsheirlian said it’s unlikely the EPA will be relocating any residents who currently live in Minden. He said they haven’t yet found any concentrations of PCBs that are high enough in residential areas to lead them to believe it’s unsafe for residents to remain in their homes.

The EPA has been involved in cleaning out the PCBs from Minden several different times throughout the years. The people in Minden have been dealing with PCB contamination and possible health impacts from that contamination, for decades.

Minden resident, Darrel Thomas, was at the public event to voice his frustration that after all these years, he feels like the EPA isn’t doing enough to address the environmental problems in his community. “It’s a good thing we’re on the National Priorities List. But it’s nothing more than a band-aid. It always has been. It’s just sad.”

State Sen. Stephen Baldwin, a Democrat who represents Fayette County, expressed a similar sentiment. Baldwin has sponsored legislation and resolutions aimed at advocating for Minden residents, including SR 76, which passed during the last legislative session. The resolution urges federal and state agencies to help residents relocate away from Minden and provide resrouces for “specialized medical treatment as a result of their long-term exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl, dioxins, and dibenzofurans.”

Baldwin said the official listing on the National Priorities List is a good step, but cautioned more needs to be done.

“I think the good news is it provides resources and they were very clear that you’re a priority and we’re going to bring all the resources we need to bare on this situation and so I’m hopeful about that,” he said. “I think this is a good start, but it’s a start it’s going to require significant follow ups.”

EPA Adds Minden, W.Va. Site to Superfund List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday added the site of a former mining equipment operation in West Virginia to its National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

The EPA announced in a news release the addition of the Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area Site in Minden to the list. That would make it a federal priority for cleanup, enforcement and funding. The EPA had proposed the move in September.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said in the EPA statement that Monday marked an important day because residents of Minden, a town of about 250 in Fayette County, “have been hurting for too long and they’ve been waiting on this level of help for decades.”

The Shaffer Equipment Co. manufactured equipment used in mining from 1970 to 1984. PCBs were used by the company in the making of electrical substations. The industrial chemicals were banned in the U.S. in 1979 over concerns they can harm human and environmental health.

Leaks, spills and dumping contributed to PCB contamination at the facility and runoff in adjacent Arbuckle Creek. PCB-contaminated sediment spread to residential properties through frequent floods.

From 1984 to 1991, the EPA performed two soil removal actions at the site. The EPA was notified in 1997 of a fire at the remaining building on the Shaffer site that contained materials with PCBs. After another assessment was conducted, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2002 completed constructed of a cap for the remaining contaminated soils and building debris.

Arbuckle Creek flows into the New River Gorge National River, which is extensively used for recreation and fishing.

U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito accompanied EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to the Shaffer site Monday. Capito said the designation is “not only an acknowledgement of the work that needs to be done, but it’s also a commitment from the federal government — a commitment of attention and resources and a commitment to provide more financial and technical assistance to clean up this site and any lingering PCB pollution in the surrounding area.”

“That also means delivering a new sense of safety and certainty to all those who call Minden home, and it means providing for the health and well-being of West Virginians.”
 

EPA Proposes Listing Minden on Superfund National Priorities List

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to add areas near the Fayette County town of Minden to its list of the most serious hazardous waste sites in the country.

In a news release Tuesday, the agency said it has determined the Shaffer Equipment site, as well as parts of nearby Arbuckle Creek, should be added to the Superfund National Priorities List.

“Today, we are proposing to add the Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area Site in Minden to the National Priorities List,” said EPA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Cosmo Servidio, in the press release. “This is part of EPA’s continuing effort to conduct a thorough study to evaluate the contamination issues in the community and develop a remediation plan that will protect human health and the environment.”

In the 1980s, the EPA found that a local company was responsible for contaminating the town’s soil with a harmful chemical called polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. The agency spent millions of dollars on a cleanup, which included removing more than 5,000 tons of contaminated soil.

Residents have been concerned PCB contamination is ongoing and leading to high rates of cancer. They asked the EPA for additional testing and for financial help for additional cleanups.

Lawmakers, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D) and Gov. Jim Justice (R), have written to the EPA urging the agency to place Minden on the Superfund National Priorities List.

In a statement, Justice, who sent a formal letter to EPA last month, praised the agency for taking this step.

“After several decades we have now gotten to the point where this is finally getting addressed,” he said. “It has always been my intent to make sure that this be done for the citizens of Minden.”

EPA says it found elevated levels of PCBs in sediments taken from Arbuckle Creek up to one mile downstream from Minden. The creek often floods the community, which the EPA says has spread the PCB contamination.

By placing the Minden area on the Superfund National Priorities List, the site would be eligible for long-term cleanup paid for by the federal government.

EPA will accept public comments on the proposed listing for 60 days, beginning Sept. 13.

Morgantown Site Removed from EPA Superfund National Priorities List

The Environmental Protection Agency says a West Virginia site is being deleted from the Superfund National Priorities List after being added to it in 1986.

The Dominion Post reports the EPA announced Thursday that the Ordnance Works Disposal Areas Superfund Site in Morgantown is being deleted from the list. An EPA news release says the site consisted of a disposal area within a manufacturing plant area that covers more than 100 acres (40.5 hectares).

Since 1941, several companies operated chemical production facilities at the site. Contaminated materials were disposed in the disposal area. Cleanup of the disposal area included excavation and off-site treatment of all tar-like material from a lagoon area and stream sediments.

The site is still subject to periodic monitoring and will remain greenspace for the foreseeable future.

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