RETURNING A PENNSYLVANIA PROPERTY TO PRODUCTIVE USE

 

By Joseph W. Standen, Jr., P.G., Senior Hydrogeologist, Leggette, Brashears & Graham, Inc. West Chester, PA

  Pennsylvania enacted a Land Recycling Program in 1995 that came to be known as "Act 2". The program, which affords cleanup liability protection and relief from deed acknowledgment requirements to property owners, has been nationally recognized as one of the country’s leading environmental initiatives and has received several awards and commendations.
   That same year, Sackville Mills Assocation (SMA) retained Leggette, Brashears & Graham, Inc. (LBG) to conduct a site characterization investigation of the its Sackville Mills property. The 42-acre parcel of land had been a snuff and textile mill in operation from 1789 to 1993 in Nether Providence, Pennsylvania. Since the late 1980’s SMA had been trying to turn the site into a residential development. However, even after several years of cleanup under the previous regulation, the site could not qualify under the 1995 Act 2 requirements.
   As part of its investigation, LBG reviewed historical environmental documents concerning the property and developed a Scope of Work (SOW) intended to enable the site to qualify for Act 2 protection. The SOW was designed to fully characterize the site with specific attention to those areas that presented the potential for environmental liability.

A Comprehensive Evaluation
  The portions of the site that were investigated included background areas, concrete troughs and sumps in the manufacturing areas, above ground storage tanks (ASTs), electrical transformers, a cesspool, and a burn area. A field investigation involved collecting soil samples in all of these areas and installing monitor wells in the manufacturing areas.
  The results of the investigation indicated that soils underneath the concrete floor of the manufacturing area and below an outdoor AST required corrective action. Stained soils and elevated photoionization detector (PID) readings were encountered during excavation activities in both areas. As a result, LBG supervised excavation of approximately 340 tons of soils from these two areas. Analysis of post-excavation samples indicated that petroleum hydrocarbons were no longer present in these two areas. In addition, lead was detected in the soil samples collected in the manufacturing area and several RCRA metals were found in soils within the burn area at concentrations that exceeded Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) actions levels in place at the time.

Providing Statistical Proof
  Using a calculation of the mean concentration of metals in the soils within the burn area and the PADEP 75-10X statistical evaluation for lead in soils within the manufacturing area, LBG was able to demonstrate that the soils in both areas did not pose a threat to human health. The PADEP 75-10X rule is a statistical evaluation that tests whether the true site median concentration is below the cleanup standard. This rule requires that 75 percent of the samples collected for attainment be equal or below the risk based cleanup standard and that no single sample result exceed the risk-based standard by more than ten times.
   Because the ACT 2 program was in its infancy in 1996, The soil cleanup standards had not yet been finalized by the adoption of the regulations, Therefore, many questions regarding the interpretation of the new regulation arose during the site investigation. For example, because the 75-10K rule had only interim status, it was not clear what would happen if the lead standards were more stringent once the regulations were adopted.
   Through close coordination with PADEP, LBG was able to deal with these ambiguities and bring the project to a successful conclusion. The Sackville Mills site was qualified for cleanup liability protection and relief from deed acknowledgment requirements under Act 2.
   This Act 2 success was the first for LBG and one of the first in Pennsylvania. Sackville Mills Associates is now proceeding with development plans for a property that might otherwise have remained unusable and off the tax rolls for years to come.