Site Report: Ekwok School Fuel Storage Area and Pipeline
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Problems/Comments
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) completed a Targeted Brownfields Assessment (TBA) (final report dated July 2007; field work done September 2006) at the Ekwok village - Potential Brownfields Inventory. This report is located in brownfield File No. 2545.57.001. The City of Ekwok was interested in a community-wide assessment and inventory of a variety of environmental conditions. The site inventory identified the following sites: City of Ekwok Former Bulk Fuel Storage Area, Former Community Dump Site, Current Community Dump Site, Private Home Dumps, School Fuel Storage Area and Pipeline, Backup Generator, City Shop, Soil Stockpiles, Proposed Bulk Fuel Storage Area, and the Sewage Lagoon.
Ekwok has one public school, the William 'Sonny' Nelson School, and is part of the Southwest Region School District. The school owns and maintains a bulk fuel storage facility on the school grounds that includes one *18,500-gallon tank and three *8,000-gallon tanks containing diesel fuel. There is also one 300-gallon heating-oil day tank located next to the school. The larger tanks are surrounded by a fence and a berm with a formed liner creating a secondary containment system. The 300-gallon tank is not enclosed in a bermed or lined area.
(Tank capacities were corrected based on information from SWRSD.)
The fuel tanks are filled from a pipeline that runs north-south from the school to the Nushagak River barge landing area. The pipeline extends out from the bluff, immediately upriver of the barge landing area where the fuel barge connects to the line and pumps fuel to the school tanks. There is at least one location on the line where community residents fill small jugs for personal use with fuel leaking from the line. A hole has been dug under the pipeline large enough to place a coffee can, to allow leakage to fill the container while the pipeline is full. The TBA reported that this practice has been occurring for at least one generation of residents in Ekwok (30 to 40 years). The known pipeline leak area is located adjacent to one of the community cemeteries. The integrity of the remaining segments of the line is unknown.
A 1996 Remedial Investigation and Corrective Action report related to a fuel spill found under the pipeline behind the school in May 1995. Contaminated soil was excavated and stockpiled, and confirmation samples were collected from the limits of the excavation, but no further work was documented. Results of the TBA would indicate this was not an isolated release, and that further investigation is warranted.
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There are no documents for this site report.
No associated sites were found.
