After cleanup of Saco tannery Superfund site, limits and controls remain
Courtesy / U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently completed a five-year review of the Saco Tannery Waste Pits Superfund site, which found that controls and limits to using the site must remain in place.
Environmental safety controls continue to be in place at the 212-acre Saco Tannery Waste Pits site, where the Saco Tannery Corp. closed operations in 1981.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently completed a required review of the cleanup work at the site, according to a news release. The inspection, conducted every five years, was part of the federal Superfund program, which investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country and attempts to return them to productive use.
"EPA performs five-year review evaluations at Superfund sites to ensure that our implemented site remedies continue to protect public health and the environment,” EPA New England Regional Administrator Dennis Deziel said in the release.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection provides ongoing monitoring and oversight to assure clean-up actions remain protective.
The review concluded that “institutional controls” are required for the site, due to some remaining level of contamination or remedies that restrict use of the site. The controls are required to help ensure the site is used in an appropriate way and that activities at the site do not damage the cleanup components. They will remain in place for as long as the contamination and/or cleanup components stay on site.
Institutional controls reduce exposure to contamination by limiting land or resource use. For instance, zoning restrictions prevent land uses — such as residential uses — that are not consistent with the level of cleanup.
Saco Tannery Corp. operated from 1959 until 1981, when the company filed for bankruptcy and ceased business.
The waste pits site, located about 4 miles north of the tannery, was used as a disposal area for process wastes such as chromium sludges, acid wastes, methylene chloride and caustic substances. It is estimated that more than 23 million gallons of waste was deposited in two lagoons and 53 disposal pits. After immediate actions to protect human health and the environment, the site’s long-term remedy was put in place.
Clean-up
In 1983, EPA performed a removal action that included the removal of liquid wastes, neutralization of sludges, capping of three pits, and installing a fence along Flag Pond Road to prevent vehicular traffic into the site.
Long-term remedial action was performed in two phases. The first phase, site preparation was completed in 1992. The second phase began in March 1993 and was completed in October 1993. It included the construction of soil cover systems for the 53 waste pits, two lagoons, plus two areas outside the waste pits; re-vegetating the site; creating compensatory wetlands; and constructing permanent security fencing.
In addition to the soil covers, the remedy required the creation of on-site wetlands as compensation for the wetlands permanently lost with the construction of the soil covers. Investigation in 1991-1992 found insufficient suitable acreage on-site to offset the acreage lost through the remediation. EPA and Maine DEP then explored off-site options.
The agencies contacted the Nature Conservancy, which identified the Saco Heath, located within two miles of the site and within the same watershed. Maine DEP took the lead in the negotiations, culminating in the purchase of 247 acres of the threatened habitat.
The next review is scheduled to be conducted in 2024.
EPA is actively involved in Superfund studies and cleanups at 16 sites across Maine.
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