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The VandM/Albaladejo Farms Superfund Site in Vega Baja No Longer a Threat; No Further Federal Action Warranted

Release Date: 10/03/2000
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(#00180) SAN JUAN, P.R. – The public health threat posed by a site once used to dump and burn plastic-coated electric cables, electrical equipment and car batteries, called the V&M/Albaladejo Farms Superfund site, has been eliminated and no further federal action at the site is warranted, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision announced today. EPA placed the site, located a mile off Route 160 in the rural Almirante Norte Ward in Vega Baja, on its National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites in December 1996. EPA had a public meeting this past August in Vega Baja to propose its no further action decision for the site. EPA removed nearly 3,000 cubic yards of soil contaminated with heavy metals from the V&M/Albaladejo Farms Superfund site in the winter of 1998 and disposed of it off-site. This action, taken under the federal Superfund program, eliminated the source of a potential groundwater contamination problem. EPA’s current decision is based on its investigation of soils and groundwater in the area following the completion of the cleanup which revealed only sporadic contamination at low levels that does present a public health threat. "The federal Superfund program works, and this site is a good example of that," EPA Regional Administrator Jeanne M. Fox said. "We are very pleased for the residents of Almirante Norte Ward who no longer have to worry about this site posing problems for their health and local environment. Without the federal Superfund, communities like this one would have nowhere to turn when faced with serious hazardous waste problems," Ms. Fox pointed out. EPA's cleanup grew out of an investigation of the area conducted by the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB), which identified four areas on the site where dumping and burning took place. Burning reportedly stopped on the V&M farm property in 1986, but continued on the Albaladejo property through at least 1988. The wastes were burned to recover copper, aluminum and lead. Soil samples were collected by EPA around the dump areas. High levels of lead, arsenic, copper, zinc, antimony and cadmium were detected and heavy metal contamination was also found in surface water on the site and in sinkholes within the immediate vicinity of the site. The Agency spent about $2.4 million on the site cleanup.