Five Year Review Fact Sheet
GEIGY CHEMICAL CORP. SITE
Aberdeen, Moore County, North Carolina

October 2003

Site Background
The Site operated as a pesticide blending and formulation facility by various operators from approximately 1947 to 1967, and by retail distributors of agricultural chemicals from 1967 until 1989. The pesticides DDT, toxaphene, and BHC were received in bulk at the Site, blended with clay and other inert materials, repackaged, and sold. Pesticides were not manufactured at the Site but were formulated by dry mixing into a product suitable for local consumer use. EPA conducted an initial site investigation in March 1987. The Site was proposed for listing on the National Priorities List (NPL) in June 1988, and was officially placed on the NPL as of October 4, 1989. The Record of Decision was issued in 1992 selecting a pump-and-treatment system to remove pesticide contaminants from groundwater, and the contaminated soil was excavated and structures and their foundations were torn down and taken to an approved landfill. The previous owners took action to removed approximately 3,300 tons of contaminated soil and debris, and EPA removed approximately 6,935 tons of soil and debris. The contaminants of concern are; aldrin, BHC isomers, dieldrin, endrin, toxaphene, DDD, DDE, DDT and chlordane isomers. The Site was covered with clean soil and revegetated with native grass, plants and trees. The soil clean up actions were completed as of February 1997. The groundwater treatment system began operating in January 1997 and has currently treated approximately 30 million gallons of extracted groundwater from both the surficial and Upper Black Creek aquifers. Monitoring and sampling of groundwater has continued in order to characterize the migration pattern of the water in the Upper and Lower Black Creek aquifers.

What is the purpose of a Five-year Review?
The purpose of the review is to determine whether the remedy selected at a site is or remains protective of human halth and the environment, identify issues/problems and recommend corrective action, if necessary.

As required by the Superfund law, when a remedial action is selected that results in hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants remaining at the site above levels that allow for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure, the lead agency shall review such action no less often than every five years after the initiation of the selected remedial action. [40 CFR §300.430(f)(4)(ii)]

Since a groundwater treatment system was installed to treat contaminates in groundwater, a five year review is required because contaminants are still being detected in the groundwater at the Site. The next five-year review should occur by September 2008. These five-year reviews will continue until the levels of contaminants drop to concentrations that allow unlimited use.

Who conducts the review at a fund-financed or enforcement lead site?
EPA has the responsibility of either conducting the review or hiring a contractor or other agencies (i.e., U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) to perform studies, conduct investigations, and/or develop draft Five-Year Review reports.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers out of Wilmington, NC conducted the review for this Site between January 2003 through September 2003. The final report was completed, approved and signed in September 2003. The Corps was used to provide an unbiased assessment of the Site.

• All relevant data, monitoring/sampling results of groundwater, Operation & Maintenance reports, Record of Decision, monthly discharge monitoring results, and other documents were reviewed.
• Since the clean up action of soil and debris was completed in 1997, based on a final inspection of the Site by EPA and the State of North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 1998, the soil contaminant level goals established in the Record of Decision and Remedial Design have been met and no further soil remediation is required.
• Conducted a performance evaluation of the groundwater and treatment systems to determine if the groundwater remedy is functioning as intended, if the exposure assumptions, toxicity data, clean up levels and remedial action objectives are still valid, and if other information has come to light that could question the protectiveness of the remedy.
• Prepared a written Five-Year Review document

What did the assessment reveal about the remedies?
Based upon data from the past five years of operation, review of monitoring information, and general site conditions, the remedy implemented remains protective of human health and the environment because the on-going groundwater treatment clean up actions continue to remove contaminants of concern from the impacted areas. There have been no changes to the physical conditions of the Site or the adjacent land use that would affect the remedy. The review of documents, Applicable or Relevant & Appropriate Requirements (ARARs), risk assumptions, groundwater and monitoring well data, and the results of the Site inspection indicate, overall, that the groundwater remedy has functioned to this point as intended. No significant issues were noted during the five-year review of the remedial action components.

1. Fencing and signing of the Site as proposed in the documents of record have not been installed. Since the soil has already been cleaned up, this recommendation is no longer applicable. EPA should issue an ESD to eliminate this requirement.
2. The Site Groundwater Remediation Permit will expire in June 2004. Wording needs to be changed to reflect that the treatment facility consists of seven recovery wells rather than five since the permit only covered five wells.
3. There is evidence that a plume of trichloroethene (TCE) from another source is starting to encroach into the Site treatment area. This situation will continue to be monitored in order to recognize any impact from the TCE plume.

A display ad was placed in the local newspaper to notify the public that the Five-Year Review was being conducted. A number of citizens were interviewed by telephone during the review period. No one expressed any major concerns regarding the remedial action and its operations over the years at the Site. A copy of the completed questionnaires were placed in the back of the review document. A copy of the Five-Year Review was placed in the Information Repository located in the Aberdeen Town Hall, 115 N. Poplar Street, Aberdeen, NC making it available to the public. This fact sheet was prepared summarizing information in the 2003 Five-Year Review and mailed to people on the Site mailing list. A display ad was placed in the local newspaper to notify the public that a copy of the Five-Year Review had been completed and is available for reading in the repository.

Want to read documents about the Site?
Copies of all documents developed during the investigation and remediation of this Site have been placed in the Site Information Repository located in the:

Aberdeen Town Hall
115 N. Poplar Street
Aberdeen, NC 28315
(910) 944-1115

EPA Record Center, 11^th Floor
61 Forsyth Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 562- 8946

Name                                                                                                                                                               

Address                                                                                                                                                            

City, State, Zip Code