Problems/Comments

The City of Palmer submitted a request to EPA for a Targeted Brownfield Assessment (TBA)of the site which was approved on February 21, 2012. The Mat-Maid Block property, a city block in Palmer, Alaska, comprises seven individual commercial/industrial lots (Parcel A through G) containing a total of 8.74 acres. Development of the block began in 1935 as the industrial and commercial heart of the 1935 Matanuska Colony. The Mat-Maid block remained under single ownership by Matanuska Maid, Inc. until 1963, when Parcel F and G were sold, the remaining parcels were sold/transferred between 1977 and 1985 from Matanuska Maid Inc. to other parties. In 2012 the City of Palmer had a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment conducted for all seven parcels of the Mat-Maid Block property. Three of the parcels are not currently occupied (A, D, and E), the other four parcels are currently being used for commercial or industrial purposes including: office space, mechanics shop, storage, retail, and bulk fuel storage/distribution (Crowley Petroleum Distributors in Parcel G). The Phase I Environmental Site Assessment identified areas of potential contamination on each of the seven parcels based on past/current use and field observations. In 2013 under EPA Brownfield grants, soil and groundwater samples were collected from three parcels (A, B, and D) that they were able to obtain site access to. Groundwater was encountered at 22 to 37 feet below ground surface in the monitoring wells installed as part of the EPA Brownfield grants. On 2013 as part of a EPA Brownfield assessment soil and groundwater sampling on Parcel A identified two large (each approximately 10 foot by 10 foot) petroleum surface stained areas in the open storage shed on the north central part of the parcel. 19 surface (0 to 6 inches below ground surface) and 18 subsurface (at 1.5 to 4 feet below ground surface) soil samples were analyzed, including some from the surface stained areas. DRO and RRO were identified over default cleanup levels in the soil samples collected at the surface stained areas. The depth of contamination at each surface stained area has not been defined, and extends greater than a 2.5 foot depth at one location and greater than a 3.5 foot depth at the other location. Up to 900 mg/kg DRO (but higher concentrations may exist since some of the samples had higher detection limits of up to 3,000 mg/kg), 27,000 mg/kg RRO in the soil. Chromium and arsenic were also identified over default cleanup levels in most of the samples but they appear to be at naturally occurring concentrations for those soils and not related to a past spill. Also in 2013 three monitoring wells were installed (MW-1S, MW-1D, and MW-2) and two of them (MW-1S, and MW-2) had groundwater samples collected. Monitoring well MW-1D has a deeper well screen at 82 to 102 feet below ground surface but because of freezing conditions in the sample tube it was not sampled this monitoring event. Static depth to groundwater ranged from 22 to 33 feet below ground surface in the other monitoring wells. The groundwater flow direction during this sampling event was to the southwest. The two groundwater samples collected did not contain contamination above Table C cleanup levels for metals and was non-detect for VOCs, PAHs, GRO, DRO, RRO, and Pesticides/PCBs. In May 2014 another round of groundwater monitoring was conducted from the three monitoring wells. Monitoring well MW-1D has a deeper well screen at 82 to 102 feet below ground surface but it had a static water level of 27.1 feet below ground surface. Static depth to groundwater ranged from 23.64 to 33.83 feet below ground surface in the other monitoring wells. The groundwater flow direction during this sampling event was to the west by northwest for Parcel A (which was different than Parcel D which was toward the south). The three groundwater samples collected had up to 20 ug/l arsenic, 296 ug/l chromium, 163 ug/l nickel and non-detect for GRO, DRO, and RRO. These metals results may be due to turbidity in the samples collected and appear to be from naturally occurring metals in the soil. In July 2015 a total of 45.94 tons of contaminated soil was excavated from the two surface stained areas. That soil was transported to ASR for thermal treatment. Field screening and analytical samples were collected from the base and sidewalls of the two excavations. 15 soil samples were analyzed for DRO and RRO and 2 soil samples (+2 duplicates) were analyzed for PAHs. Up to 120 mg/kg DRO, 230 mg/kg RRO, 0.015 mg/kg 1-Methylnaphthalene, 0.020 mg/kg 2-Methylnaphthalene, 0.014 mg/kg Naphthalene, and 0.013 mg/kg Phenanthrene is the samples analyzed. All soil samples meet current and proposed cleanup levels. On September 7, 2016 the three site monitoring wells were decommissioned. Recommend site for closure. Site is part of a Brownfield area-wide assessment, file #2245.57.002.

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Requirements

No associated sites were found.