| Action Date |
Action |
Description |
DEC Staff |
| 8/1/1981 |
Preliminary Assessment Approved |
Preliminary investigation sometime in 1981 confirmed report of 18 drums labeled sodium cyanide, several of which were ruptured or leaking. 14 unlabeled drums also ruptured and contents were released into the building where they were stored. Outdoor drum storage area contained approximately 200 drums, 50 of which were full. |
Former Staff |
| 4/20/1982 |
Interim Removal Action Approved |
(Old R:Base Action Code = REM - Removal / Excavation). 20 drums of cyanide removed by Anaconda. 5 cardboard containers of unknown substance remain. |
Former Staff |
| 8/10/1982 |
Update or Other Action |
(Old R:Base Action Code = FI - Field Inspection (General)). Laboratory analysis of white chalk-like material from site detected 0.66 ppm cyanide and 257,000 ppm calcium. pH of substance 12.42. |
Former Staff |
| 8/25/1982 |
Update or Other Action |
(Old R:Base Action Code = FI - Field Inspection (General)). C. Pearson visited site and found no hazardous substances. |
Former Staff |
| 8/31/1984 |
Preliminary Assessment Approved |
TetraTech assigned low priority to site. Site survey not performed. |
Former Staff |
| 12/14/1990 |
Site Ranked Using the AHRM |
Initial ranking. |
Former Staff |
| 1/14/1994 |
Update or Other Action |
(Old R:Base Action Code = RAPR - Remedial Action Plan Review (CS)). Remedial Action Plan by America North. Propose in-situ containment. |
Jeff Peterson |
| 1/25/1994 |
Site Added to Database |
Drums of sodium cyanide and 10 drums of unknown content. PCBs, diesel fuel, and metals detected in soils. |
Former Staff |
| 2/4/1997 |
Update or Other Action |
(Old R:Base Action Code = SI - Site Investigation). Study by Roy F. Weston. A transformer and oily residue found in mill building. Approximately 200 drums, most empty, were observed in outdoor drum storage area. Remainder appeared to be partially full fuel drums. At least 100 sticks of dynamite, zinc wool, oil-stained soil, white powdery material, and mine tailings also observed. Samples collected from drums, soil, surface water and stream sediment. PCBs detected in sediment from Big Hurrah Creek (0.34 ppm), soil from drum storage area (0.54 ppm), near transformer (0.62 ppm), and from drum containing oil (3.6 ppm). No PCBs detected in surface water or drum marked "waste oil." Tailings contain barium, arsenic, and mercury at concentrations from 6 to 70 times background. Zinc wool contained cyanide at 266 ppm. Stained soil contaminated with diesel fuel up to 57,000 ppm. Stream sediment contained arsenic and cadmium 5 times upstream concentrations, and surface water contained metals above federal standards. ADEC assigned low "action ranking." Bogus action date entered because there was none. Action date reflects date action was entered. |
Former Staff |
| 3/12/1997 |
Site Ranked Using the AHRM |
Ranked site based on arsenic sediment and mill tailing contamination. Ranking based on data collected during 1985 EPA Site Assessment. |
Laura Noland |
| 3/12/1997 |
Update or Other Action |
Updated database. |
Laura Noland |
| 5/8/2006 |
Update or Other Action |
Conducted a file review in response to Hannah Lager's email concerning missing contaminants of concern (CoCs). DRO added as contaminant of concern. File review suggests that site should be re-ranked in accordance with RCRA Bevil Amendment, lack of ADEC sediment quality cleanup numbers, and insufficient data on natural distribution of metal concentrations in stream water. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 5/9/2006 |
Update or Other Action |
Informed Luke Boles with ADEC Water Quality Program about the status of this stie. Luke is working with the current owner/operator about developing the mine property. Luke will notify the parties of the open contaminated site issues. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 3/2/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
Received an email from Ms. Karen McLane of Nome on 2/25/07 while on annual leave inquiring about status of site. Luke Boyles is no longer with the department and consulted with Pete McGee who suggested contacting directly Charlotte MacCay with Bristol Engineering. Left a message with Ms. MacCay requesting she call me. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 3/6/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
Telephoned Charlotte MacCay with Bristol Environmental and Engineering concerning database entries. Complete contaminated site file will be mailed to Bristol for evaluation and response. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 3/7/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
Mailed complete file to Charlotte MacCay with Bristol Environmental and Engineering requesting a response by March 30, 2007. Copy of file and letter mailed to Ms. Karen McLane in Nome. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 3/21/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
Received email from Ms. Karen McLane requesting ADEC costs for the various sites in the Nome area. Forwarded the email to Jim Frechione for assignment. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 4/12/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
Contacted Ms. Charlotte McCay with Bristol Environmental and Engineering concerning ADEC's March 7, 2007 letter requesting a response by March 30, 2007. Ms. MacCay plans a site visit when the area is free of snow and will provide a response within 30 days of her inspection. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 4/20/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
Received letter dated April 18, 2007 attached to Charlotte MacCay email of same date. Letter states that Bristol Environmental and Engineering will perform a site visit during June 2007 and will provide a report to ADEC by July 30, 2007 addressing ADEC's Contaminated Sites Program's concerns. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 5/7/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
Received a telephone call from Mr. Rick Robinson with CDC in Seattle requesting environmental data associated with the property. The entire site file will be scanned and either sent via email or fax. |
Douglas Bauer |
| 6/26/2007 |
Update or Other Action |
ADEC conducted a site visit with Charlotte MacCay (Alaska Gold). During the site visit we found one transformer; drums with zinc wool in them; and misc. partial drums of oil all within the Mill site building; a waste oil drum which was located in one of the piles of drums located to the right of the Mill site. We also found several drums that were partially full of fuel. The partially full drums are located in several piles at the site interspersed amongst the empty drums. There were also fuel stains under many of the caches of drums. The dynamite shacks were not found during the site visit. Charlotte stated that she would have her technicians cleanup and properly dispose of the miscellaneous contaminants on-site. |
Deborah Williams |
| 3/19/2008 |
Meeting or Teleconference Held |
Met with Brent Murphy from Novagold. An updated report will be provided to DEC with all actions taken at Big Hurrah gold mine. Awaiting report. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 4/24/2008 |
Exposure Tracking Model Ranking |
Initial ranking with ETM completed. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 8/13/2008 |
Update or Other Action |
Received call from new NovaGold contact. Will put together a report for ADEC with site updates. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 8/14/2008 |
Update or Other Action |
Sent letter to new contact at Novagold indicating the information and updates needed for this site. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 9/10/2008 |
Site Visit |
Visited site with NovaGold representatives. Discussed actions already taken on site. Some barrels with petroleum products remain as well as stained soils. Contaminated soil will be landfarmed after landfarming plan is approved by PERP. Drums will be disposed through Emerald. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 5/23/2012 |
Document, Report, or Work plan Review - other |
DEC received the Surface Soil Sampling Report for the Nome Legacy Sites submitted by Oasis. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 5/24/2012 |
Meeting or Teleconference Held |
DEC met with Novagold and Oasis to discuss the findings of the field work conducted in 2011. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 9/12/2012 |
Update or Other Action |
The soil resulting from the excavation surface soil stains conducted in August 2012 is currently stored as a stockpile at the Satellite Field site. Two stockpiles have been created; one with VOC's (~300 cy) from the Former Alaska Gold Power Plant site and a second one with DRO and RRO contaminated soil (~180 cy). Soil is expected to be treated and removed druing the next field season (2013). |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 10/16/2012 |
Update or Other Action |
During a removal of petroleum soil stains mercury was observed at a depth of 18 inches. Based on visual observations, contaminated soil was removed and shipped as hazardous waste. Samples were collected from the limits of the excavation. Results indicate that contamination remains above migration to groundwater cleanup levels. All actions were conducted without DEC approval. Additional site characterization will be required to determine if there is additional mercury contamination at the site. Property is likely to be transferred within the next couple of weeks. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 11/8/2012 |
Update or Other Action |
DEC received notice that Alaska Gold has been aquired by Bering Straits Native Corporation. However, additional cleanup at the site is expected to be completed by Novagold. DEC is currently awaiting for a workplan to address the concerns regarding the finding of mercury at the site. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 11/26/2012 |
Update or Other Action |
DEC received and reviewed the ADEC Compliance Letter Response submitted by Oasis for NovaGold. Additional mine history is included in the response and as well as a brief description of additional sampling. The deadline for the submission of a work plan is January 15, 2013. |
Tamara Cardona-Marek |
| 5/16/2013 |
Meeting or Teleconference Held |
DEC met with NovaGold and OASIS to discuss the current status of the site and proposed future work. The majority of the contamination at the site has been removed; a mercury sampling work plan has been submitted and OASIS is awaiting comments. The proposed activities should take place this summer. |
Robert Burgess |
| 5/28/2013 |
Document, Report, or Work plan Review - other |
DEC provided comments and requested revisions for the Mercury Soil Sampling Work Plan. |
Robert Burgess |
| 6/7/2013 |
Exposure Tracking Model Ranking |
A new updated ranking with ETM has been completed for source area 71788 Misc. drums . |
Robert Burgess |
| 6/18/2013 |
Update or Other Action |
Site symbol visually adjusted using ArcGIS and topo maps/state satellite imagery. |
Robert Burgess |
| 6/20/2013 |
Site Characterization Workplan Approved |
DEC reviewed and approved the final Mercury Soil Sampling Work Plan for the Big Hurrah mine dated June 11, 2013. Project manager's comments on the draft work plan were addressed in the report and/or via email conversations. All discussions are documented in the file. Oasis/ERM will sample soils starting from areas suspected to be least contaminated and ending with the area of known mercury contamination (specific order documented in WP). Four samples will be taken from around previous excavations and six will be collected from BH04, the excavation location with known contamination. |
Robert Burgess |
| 10/2/2013 |
Document, Report, or Work plan Review - other |
Reviewed the Big Hurrah Mercury Surface Soil Sampling report. Most sampling locations resulted in detections of mercury below cleanup levels. However, several locations around excavation BH04, where liquid mercury was discovered in 2012, had mercury concentrations above migration to groundwater cleanup levels. At one location the concentrations were higher than any previous sample. At least one sampling location differed from the location outlined in the workplan, resulting in incomplete delineation of the mercury contamination to the west of excavation BH04 where liquid mercury was discovered in 2012. ADEC is requiring additional sampling to fully delineate the extent of contamination. |
Robert Burgess |
| 10/3/2013 |
Meeting or Teleconference Held |
DEC met with NovaGold and ERM to discuss the results of the 2013 soil sampling event. DEC project manager expressed the need for additional delineation of mercury contamination in soil. |
Robert Burgess |
| 10/10/2013 |
Site Characterization Workplan Approved |
DEC project manager reviewed and approved the Big Hurrah Work Plan amendment submitted on October 7, 2013, and provided written comments on the previously submitted soil sampling report. |
Robert Burgess |
| 10/10/2013 |
Site Characterization Workplan Approved |
DEC project manager reviewed and approved the Big Hurrah Work Plan amendment submitted on October 7, 2013, and provided written comments on the previously submitted soil sampling report. |
Robert Burgess |
| 12/30/2013 |
Document, Report, or Work plan Review - other |
DEC received and reviewed the October 2013 Mercury Surface Soil Sampling Report. Sampling appears to have delineated the extent of mercury contamination around excavation area BH04, where mercury was discovered in 2012. |
Robert Burgess |
| 2/5/2014 |
Meeting or Teleconference Held |
DEC met with NovaGold to discuss data gaps preventing site closure, including investigation around former drum storage areas and other areas identified through file reviews as potentially contaminated. |
Robert Burgess |
| 9/15/2014 |
Update or Other Action |
DEC sent a letter to Bering Straits Native Corporation (current landowner) and NovaGold Resources explaining ongoing concerns and data gaps at the site. |
Robert Burgess |
| 4/22/2015 |
Update or Other Action |
DEC responded to the letter from Bering Straits Native Corporation dated November 17, 2014. DEC reiterated the need for a small number of cyanide samples from beneath tank valves, in addition to the need for investigation of former drum storage areas at the site. |
Robert Burgess |
