NPL LISTING?

[olah@speagle.com]

From: Laura Olah <olah@speagle.com>

To: Don Zweifel and all interested parties:

Thanks for your comments on the NPL process. Our inquiry was not about a 
specific site; Badger AAP and Fort McCoy were cited as examples of 
federal facilities that had been placed on the docket for a remarkable 
number of years. I would, however, like to offer additional information 
re: the extent of the contamination at Badger. A plume of TCE, CCl4 and 
chloroform has migrated via groundwater 3 miles offsite and impacted 
private drinking water wells. The Army estimates these families consumed 
poisoned drinking water for at least 15 years. Contaminants were found 
at levels 15 times the safe drinking water standard. Even with the 
proposed remedial groundwater treatment facility, recently put on line, 
the plume will remain intact for at least 85 years, even by conservative 
estimates. The plume is within a quarter mile of Prairie du Sac's 
municipal well, although the risk of contamination from the plume, we are 
told, is low. Explosives in subsurface soils at the source (onsite) are 
not measured in parts per million, but in percentages. Dinitrotoluenes, 
classified as probable carcinogens, have reached the water table. A 
second plume in the northeast corner of the plant has migrated offsite, 
sulfates are the predominant offsite contaminant, but carcingenic 
solvents and explosives have reached the water table near the source. 
The facility-wide cleanup is expected to cost $250 M. Well, you get the 
picture...

What I originally wanted to raise as an issue, rather than focus one or 
two sites, was to examine the broad effects of the EPA's apparent 
internal decision to indefinitely suspend ranking federal facilities in 
Region V, or any other Region for that matter. Successfully lobbying the 
State to list one facility or another in Region V only addresses the 
issues for that site. 

The way the system currently works, access to resources like TAG grants 
and health assessments are tied to NPL rank. The net effect of EPA's 
decision is no community access to these resources. I believe, therefore, 
we should consider offering other avenues of access to these resources 
for the communities that need it most -- something I am not convinced 
they have considered. 

Anyway, that's my blurb on this one. Looking foward to your response as 
this is an issue worth the debate.

Laura Olah
Executive Director
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger