Watch PGC member Bob McPeek’s music video here: \"Under the Rug\"
The Site:
- The Koppers site was used as a wood-treatment facility from 1916-2009. This once-remote 90-acre site is now well-integrated within the developed area of the city and is adjacent to a residential neighborhood.
- Cabot/Koppers was placed on the National Priorities List as a Superfund Site in 1984. Remedial actions to date have been minimal.
- Beazer East, owner of the site prior to Koppers (and now subsequent to Koppers), is the Responsible Party for cleaning up the site.
- US EPA is responsible for developing a clean-up plan and enforcing its implementation.
The Contamination:
- Contamination resulted from environmentally irresponsible processing operations; storage of process chemicals in large unlined lagoons; the disposal of waste liquids directly onto the ground; and from contaminants leaching onto the ground from treated poles and timbers. The primary contaminants of concern (COCs) include creosote, dioxin, and arsenic.
- In the 4 primary source areas, which total 10 acres, contaminants have penetrated all the way down to the Floridan Aquifer (120’), jeopardizing the Gainesville regional drinking water supply (it’s not just a neighborhood problem).
- Outside the primary source areas, shallower contamination is widespread over the entire site.
- Off-site surface soils of nearby residential properties have become contaminated from fugitive dust and stormwater runoff.
- Sediments in Springstead and Hogtown Creeks are contaminated from 93 years of environmentally irresponsible operations on the Koppers site. Contaminated stormwater runoff from Koppers continues to flow into the Creeks.