Rock Pit site selection at creek raises concerns

Social media was astir Monday as word spread about the second stage of a project being undertaken to mitigate contamination at the former Byford junkyard.

Notice of a proposed use of Pats Creek Road was submitted to the United States Forest Service late last week, informing Wrangell Ranger District trucks would be making extensive use of the road to shift around 18,500 cubic yards of lead-contaminated soil from the former Byford property near 4 Mile Zimovia to a rock pit just two miles down the Pats Creek Road.

The rock pit, designated in project materials as Department of Natural Resources Pit #2, is to be the permanent repository for the soil, which has been stored on site at Byford's since its removal and treatment last year by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC).

In 2015 the department approved a $3.9 million request to reclaim the site, which had been extensively contaminated by decades of use as a junkyard for cars, batteries and other items. The city, which had acquired the property through foreclosure, had requested ADEC's assistance. Conducting work during the spring and summer of 2016, mounds of waste and contaminated scrap was unearthed, removed from the island and disposed of. The soil was treated with EcoBond, a proprietary product used by the EPA for site management for much of the past two decades. The project turned out to be larger than first expected, and the total cost of the cleanup and monofill would be about $12.4 million, drawn from the state's emergency account of the Oil and Hazardous Substances Response Fund.

According to calculations made by contractor NRC Alaska in its road use proposal to USFS, from 1,850 to 1,875 round trips will need to be made by end dump truck between the two sites, which Google Maps estimates is about a six-mile trip. With the size of vehicle being used, between 30 and 40 round trips were expected each day during the project.

Additional transport of clean rock and other materials would also be conducted as needed. That additional rock would be used for the construction of chimney drains, as well as base and cover fill, and would come from another local quarry.

The contractor expected transportation activities would begin this Monday, continuing through the onset of winter. Movement of actual material has not yet begun, but subcontractor BW Enterprises was expected to begin preparing for the transition.

"We're sort of holding off, because we have a meeting with the Wrangell District Forest Ranger," explained Sally Schlichting, unit manager for ADEC's Contaminated Sites Program. That meeting was due to take place this morning, following meetings with city officials and site visits that began Wednesday.

DNR Pit #2 was one of several locations considered for relocating the material. Contractors were surprised at the extent of contamination evident at the site after starting work last spring. Estimates on affected material had more than quadrupled, and a request to the Borough Assembly in May 2016 to use a pit site owned by the city off its Spur Road had been rejected. During that meeting, member Dave Powell had recommended the use of one of the state-owned pits near Pats Creek instead.

An arrangement for the material's disposal was subsequently reached with the DNR, which allowed ADEC to use one of its pits for the permanent repository. That August, the city and ADEC staff met with NRC Alaska to perform a final walkthrough of the former Byford property, inspecting the materials' staging in securely lined and covered containment cells for future, permanent storage.

After that site inspection, ADEC reported the group drove south to the Pats Creek area to inspect three former rock pits managed by DNR, selected by BW Enterprises. An evaluation of DNR Pit #2 prepared by Ahtna was reviewed and approved by ADEC on January 31.

EcoBond uses phosphate to neutralize the solubility of lead in soil, which significantly reduces its ability to leach into water. After being so treated, the material is no longer managed as a regulated hazardous waste, but is still considered polluted soil as the lead may still have some toxic bioavailability if ingested.

Because of this, ADEC determined the material ought to be enclosed in a capped monofill, which will limit its exposure and possible impact on the surrounding environment. A design package for the junkyard repository site was completed on June 9 by EPA's contractor, Ecology and Environment Inc., which concluded EPA's involvement in the project.

During the months leading up to that, ADEC carried out a geotechnical and hydrologic study of the rock pit for its suitability to construct and house the monofill repository and to demonstrate the material will not leach or migrate to the Pats Creek watershed. The EPA did additional testing and studies for the development of an engineering design for the monofill.

After establishing the monofill the ADEC would require 60 months of visual monitoring by the city, to ensure both that the site remains undisturbed by vehicles or heavy equipment and that no signs of leaching are evident. After that, monitoring could be reduced to an annual basis. The site could never be built upon as the lead content would remain in the soil, which is why the Byford site itself was not selected for its disposal – its reclamation was to bring it back to residential use standards.

Ranger Bob Dalrymple had expressed his concerns upon learning of the project, due to DNR Pit #2's proximity to Pats Creek and USFS-managed lands. In a letter he issued to on-scene EPA coordinator Jeff Fowler on June 30, Dalrymple noted the Forest Service had not been included in the August 2016 site selection process.

He noted any use of Forest Service roads such as that at Pats Creek would need to "include measures to protect both public safety and the road investment," adding that impacts on anadromous fish streams below the repository site were not assessed in the EPA's conceptual design. Schlichting's meeting scheduled with USFS for this morning was in part meant to address those concerns.

Speaking on the letter Tuesday, Dalrymple felt a site further removed from salmon- and trout-producing watersheds would have been more appropriate, such as the city's quarry on the other side of the island, near Spur Road.

"Those other places are already impacted," he noted. "In this case they're creating a brand new contaminated site in a pristine area."

Dalrymple likened the issue to regional concerns about water quality along transboundary rivers, driven by Canadian mining development upstream. "It's different, but it's the same. We're putting something deliberately that's contaminated into a pristine environment.

"We're worried about all streams, but the anadromous streams get special attention," he continued. "Pats Lake is a site where people are in contact with the water. People eat the fish from that lake."