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EPA selects cleanup plan for Evansville, Ind., Superfund site

Release Date: 02/26/2008
Contact Information: (EPA) Mick Hans, 312-353-5050, [email protected]; (IDEM) Barry Sneed, 317-232-8596; (Evansville) Audra Levy, 812-436-4962

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 08-OPA019

MEDIA BRIEFING TODAY, Feb. 26, 10 a.m.: EPA, IDEM and local officials will brief media on the Evansville Superfund site at the C.K. Newsome Center, 100 E. Walnut St.

(Chicago, Ill. - Feb. 26, 2008) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has selected a $21 million final plan for Phase One of a comprehensive Superfund contaminated soil cleanup in Evansville, Ind. Phase One includes 141 acres of residential properties that will be addressed over a period of four to five years.

EPA, in consultation with Indiana Department of Environmental Management, evaluated three cleanup options for the Phase One area, which includes much of Evansville's Jacobsville neighborhood. A public comment period was held in early 2007. The final plan involves excavation of lead-contaminated soil that does not meet EPA's cleanup standard of 400 parts per million, backfilling with clean soil and restoration of several hundred residential yards and commercial properties. The excavated soil will be sent for disposal at a regulated landfill.

Work performed under Phase One will be managed and overseen by EPA in consultation with IDEM, which will contribute 10 percent of the cleanup cost. EPA's engineering design for the Phase One cleanup is expected to be complete by this summer, with cleanup work to begin in spring 2009. Public meetings will be scheduled. Phase Two will address a roughly 5-square-mile area surrounding Phase One.

Several long-closed manufacturing companies used lead and other metals in their operations, which has contaminated the soil. Since placing the site on the Superfund National Priorities List in July 2004, EPA has done six rounds of soil testing.

In addition to the comprehensive plan announced today, an EPA Superfund team is now completing a short-term $900,000 project to address yards with the highest contamination levels. Since September 2007, more than 50 properties with lead-soil contamination above 1200 parts per million have been cleaned and restored. The short-term cleanup will wrap up by April. By way of comparison, the long-term cleanup project will address properties with lead contamination between 400 and 1200 ppm.

Maps of the Phase One and Phase Two project areas, along with a map showing most of the properties addressed under the 2007-2008 short-term cleanup, plus EPA's Record of Decision document detailing the final plan, are at https://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/jacobsville.