Cleanup of contaminated surface soil within an area of a Superfund site in Navassa is expected to begin this fall.
That cleaning process will be discussed during a meeting 6-7 p.m. Tuesday at the Navassa Community Center, 338 Main St. An in-person only drop-in session will immediately follow the meeting.
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To join the meeting online use this Zoom link or tinyurl.com/NavassaMeetings. To join by telephone call 301-715-8592. Use meeting ID 946 584 8922 and passcode 664564.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, and the Multistate Environmental Response Trust, which is responsible for managing the remediation of the former wood treatment plant site, are hosting the meeting.
Officials will discuss safety measures, including traffic control, air monitoring and other precautions to minimize impacts to the small Brunswick County town during cleanup of operable unit 2, or OU2, according to a news release.
Two local firms that will administer the cleanup and related employment and training opportunities also will be covered at the meeting.
Cleanup plans include excavating surface soil and temporarily storing the soil in operable unit 4 where it will be covered and managed. The stockpiled soils will then either be reused or consolidated when OU4 is cleaned.
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Soils that cannot be stored on-site will be recycled or disposed of in accordance with state and federal laws, according to a news release.
The work is expected to take three to four months.
Once the cleanup is complete, the land within OU2 will not require long-term monitoring and be available for unrestricted use.
OU2 includes about 16 acres of land where treated and untreated wood was stored when the plant was operated by various companies, including Kerr-McGee, between 1936 and 1974.
Wood was treated and preserved with creosote, a gummy, tar-like substance later found in the groundwater, soil and sediment on portions of the more than 200-acre site. The Multistate Trust owns a little more than 150 acres of the property.
Investigations of operable units 3 and 4 and the future sale of nearly 90 acres of Multistate Trust-owned property on the site will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, as well.
