Work to clean up the former Byford junkyard site has proven to be a larger task than first thought. Though the contaminated property is owned by the City and Borough of Wrangell, remediation is being undertaken by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Environmental Protection Agency Region 10.
In the latest status update, released April 22, contractors NRC Alaska and NORTECH reported their crews had unexpectedly encountered a new battery cache buried on the property. Workers at the site have since characterized the junk yard as being more of a landfill, with previous operators compacting batteries and other scrap into the soft, sloping soil for added stability.
Large quantities of buried metal, rubber and wood debris mixed with lead and petroleum-saturated soil has been found throughout the site, down to the hardpan layer at depths ranging from 2 to 6 feet. Subsequently, recovered batteries and waste are caked with contaminated soil – meaning extra time is needed to clean them before being sent out for processing.
“The volume has grown considerably,” explained Bruce Wanstall, DEC project manager.
Thirteen containers of battery components and other debris have already cleaned and shipped out for disposal. And the amount of contaminated soil is now estimated at more than 18,000 cubic yards, better than four times initially thought.
As soil and junk is being removed, rock fill has been laid down in its place to stabilize the yard for the project’s heavy machinery. Heavy rains through last week has posed a minor challenge, though drainage work completed early on in the project has largely mitigated the inconvenience.
The added volume of soil and waste material will raise overall costs for the project, which has forced remediation to take a more phased approach than first anticipated. Decontamination was first expected to cost around $3.9 million, to be paid for through the state’s Oil and Hazardous Substance Release Prevention and Response Fund.
“The scope of the work is to excavate all the lead-contaminated soil,” said Wanstall.
Workers are currently focusing on stabilizing the site so the lead contaminants will not wash out, migrating to other sites. Next week the crew will begin mixing a proprietary compound with the excavated soil to prevent such a mobilization.
This soil will remain stockpiled on site over the summer, when competition with the fisheries makes transportation difficult. Wanstall said the contractors will by then have a firmer grasp on the volume of soil to be moved. A removal timeframe has not yet been set.
Located alongside 4-Mile Zimovia Highway, the junk yard had operated from the 1960s to the 1990s. During that time more than 1,500 automobiles and a variety of other objects were disposed there as well as a growing cache of batteries. The yard was investigated by the EPA in August 2000, when a variety of contaminants were detected in the soil.
High concentrations of lead, petroleum-based contaminants and other toxins had seeped into the yard from hundreds of batteries, transformers, junked vehicles, tires, drums and containers which had been improperly stored or disposed of there. Follow-up sampling was conducted by the state in 2002 to define impact areas and contamination levels, as well as to estimate costs for remediation. The property was acquired by the city through foreclosure in 2009, with the removal of scrap metal and surface debris from the site concluding in 2013.
In its overview, DEC reported further testing of surface soils in 2014 had found lead concentrations of over 10,000 milligrams per kilogram of soil (mg/kg), with concentrations as high as 50,000 mg/kg – 125 times the DEC Method Two Soil cleanup level of 400 mg/kg. Sample results from subsurface soil, surface water, groundwater, marine sediments and area shellfish tissue also found elevated concentrations of lead and other contaminants.
A screening-level study of several beaches’ shellfish was undertaken last year by the local Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (IGAP). A report released in August indicated overall results for contaminants fell within normal ranges and did not raise any concerns, though some traces of lead were found in two of the sites.
Though the levels of metals in the shellfish downhill of the site were found not to pose a risk to human health, an advisory by the city has been put out warning citizens against clamming and collecting cockles from the nearby beach.
Updates will continue to be posted on the city’s Public Works webpage, and an overview of the project is at http://dec.alaska.gov/spar/csp/sites/wrang_junkyard.htm.
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