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EPA Completes Review of Cleanup Progress at Auburn Road Landfill Superfund Site

Release Date: 09/27/2002
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Press Office, 617-918-1064 Darryl Luce, EPA Project Manager, 617-918-1336

Boston--The United States Environmental Protection Agency today confirmed that the soil and groundwater remedies already in place at the Auburn Road Landfill Superfund Site in Londonderry, New Hampshire, continue to be effective and protective of human health.

The study, called a five year review, was undertaken to assess soil and groundwater treatment remedies at three main contaminant source areas of the site. This is the third five year review for the Auburn Road Landfill site.

The Auburn Road Landfill was a former municipal landfill that was placed on EPA's National Priorities List in 1983 after hazardous wastes were identified in soil and toxic organic chemicals were found in surface water and groundwater. In 1986, EPA removed 1,900 drums from the site. In 1987, EPA issued a cleanup decision, called a Record of Decision, requiring the town of Londonderry to connect homes with private drinking water wells to a municipal water source and to fence the property. Groundwater at the site is not currently used for drinking. EPA removed an additional 316 drums in 1988. A second Record of Decision in 1989 directed the capping of the landfill and the construction of a ground water pump-and-treat facility. In 1996, EPA determined, based on monitoring data that showed improved groundwater conditions, that the pump-and-treat system was no longer necessary and that natural processes could be relied on to continue to make improvements to the groundwater. This process is called natural attenuation.

In EPA's report, the agency found that the water line installed in 1987 and the landfill caps installed in 1994 remain protective of public health and the environment, and that arsenic levels are declining. Although the 50 parts per billion cleanup levels for arsenic have not been reached, EPA's review determined that the remedy for monitored natural attenuation, continues to be protective of human health and the environment in the short-term. To ensure long-term protectiveness, restrictions on groundwater use are in place and a groundwater monitoring program is in place and will continue.

More information about cleanup activities at the site may be found on the EPA New England web site at: https://www.epa.gov/region1/superfund. EPA technical reports and documents are available for public review in the site information repository located at the Leach Public Library on Mammoth Road in Londonderry, New Hampshire.