Protect Gainesville’s Citizens [PGC] mission includes helping to keep our local citizens informed on the progress of the Koppers superfund site cleanup. Using funds awarded in a Technical Assistance Grant from the USEPA, PGC pays a professional engineer to review documents and interpret them for a lay audience. Below are current activities associated with the site remediation process. Should anyone want more information, and/or think others would be interested, more detail can be obtained by emailing ta@protectgainesville.org or, by contacting the Alachua County Public Health Unit, Alachua County Environmental Protection Department, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or the USEPA Region 4.

• Beazer has proposed a plan to collect more soil samples to delineate the extent of the offsite contamination (dioxins, PAHs and arsenic). EPA/FDEP/City have provided comment. On Tuesday, January 24th, ACEPD and others will meet with the sampling team to finalize the exact locations. PGC’s Technical Advisor is invited and will participate. Sampling should then be done soon after that – it will be a month or two before we have the data.
• EPA will implement an indoor dust study using their experts. The Local Intergovernmental Team [LIT] will discuss the protocols, labs, etc. Scott Miller, USEPA Region 4 Director has asked PGC’s Technical Advisor to be involved in the selection of homes. We agreed that the report prepared by EPA will have the protocols and the results but limited data interpretation. The community can then prepare and conduct our own discussions.
• In the 5 year review, PGC’s Technical Advisor commented that groundwater and possibly soil contamination remains on the former Cabot site (Big Lots, etc) beneath the buildings and potential impacts from “vapor intrusion” should be evaluated (migration of contaminants into the buildings). Cabot Corporation has prepared a work plan which the LIT is currently reviewing. This vapor intrusion is an interesting and complicated issue.
• The Consent Agreement is still being negotiated. It is unclear when it will be finalized. However, work around the site is still ongoing. For example, additional offsite sampling will begin prior to the Consent Agreement and there are onsite pilot tests being conducted as well as installation of additional groundwater monitoring wells.

Dr. Patricia Cline
Technical Advisor

“Water we can’t drink, air we shouldn’t breathe and soils in which we cannot grow our food nor allow our children to play.  These are the issues that surround the Koppers Superfund site.”  To read more of this article on the Koppers Open House happening today, September 21st at 7 p.m. click on this link to the Gainesville Sun: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110919/OPINION/110919419/-1/opinion?Title=Kim-A-Popejoy-Important-Koppers-community-meeting-on-Wednesday

The US EPA is conducting a Site tour of the former Koppers facility located at 200 NW 23rd Ave in Gainesville, on Thursday 9/21 at 7:00 PM. For more info please see the .pdf here. The purpose of the Site tour is to provide information regarding the Site progress since the Record of Decision was published on February 2, 2011, and top provide information on the next steps in the cleanup process.

An informational workshop will be held on Saturday, Sept 17th from 10 a.m. to 12 noon at the Thomas Center [302 NE 6th Avenue, 32601]. The purpose of this workshop is to provide information to artists who are interested in submitting work for the Region4: Tranformation Through Imagination Exhibit.  Several local scientific experts will provide background information on the Cabot Carbon/Koppers Superfund site and will be available for questions and answers

Concerned Gainesville residents trickled in to the Alachua County Health Department on Monday for an open house on the health impacts from the Koppers Superfund site, where full-scale remediation work is still several months away… Chad Smith, Gainesville Sun  http://www.gainesville.com/article/20110829/ARTICLES/110829506