Arkema Profile

Posted Mon, 04/04/2011 - 12:12 by bobmenees

The Arkema site is a former pesticide manufacturing facility located on the southwest bank of the Willamette River near the railroad bridge. The site has very high levels of DDT and breakdown products, monochlorobenzene, chrome (hexavalent chromium), and perchlorate contributing to acute toxicity across the entire site in water. An early action is underway to address this "hot spot" within Portland Harbor.

Arkema Removal Action

On May 23, 2008 Daniel Opalski, Director of the Office of Environmental Cleanup for EPA Region 10 issued a letter making a final decision on disputes raised by Legacy Site Systems regarding the cleanup of the Arkema site.

Legacy Site Systems (LSS) disputed 1) EPA's decision to not consider a Confined Disposal Facility (CDF) in the engineering evaluation/cost analysis (EE/CA), 2) EPA's decision to use screening level values (SLVs) as standards for the cleanup, and 3) certain costs in EPAs billing. LSS also questioned the relevance of lindane as a chemical of concern (COI) at the site.

In the letter, Director Opalski ruled that 1) LSS may consider the CFD in their evaluation, IF it does not extend the time required to complete the EE/CA; 2) SLVs should be used for the cleanup; 3) while lindane does not need to be included as a COI at this time, it should be included in data reporting for future evaluation; and 4) all costs billed by EPA are appropriate and should be paid by LSS.

Click here to read the full letter.

On May 11, 2010, Arkema sumbitted its Preliminary CDF Screening Evaluation to EPA for review.

In accordance with the AOC, an engineering evaluation/cost analysis (EE/CA) will be
prepared to present feasible disposal options for contaminated sediment within the
removal action area. The purpose of this CDF screening evaluation is to respond to the
USEPA’s request (USEPA 2008d) for further analysis, in advance of the EE/CA,
regarding the feasibility of a confined disposal facility (CDF) to contain contaminated
sediments adjacent to the Site. The CDF screening evaluation is intended to be
thorough enough to determine whether the CDF is feasible under the EE/CA process,
as well as under the harborwide remedial investigation/feasibility study process. This
screening evaluation does not replace the need for a full and/or final evaluation of the
CDF option in the EE/CA.

For more information on CDFs generally, click here.

Other Upland Sites Administed by DEQ:

Arkema

BP (ARCO)

Doane Lake (Rhone-Poulenc)

ExxonMobil

Gasco

Gunderson

Kinder Morgan Liquid Terminals (Linnton)

Mar-Com South Parcel

Oregon Steel Mills- Rivergate

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