SWMU 1 – Former Army Cremator Disposal Site

SWMU 1 is an abandoned, unlined waste-pile/landfill on the edges of the mangrove swamps along the shoreline of the Ensenada Honda Bay. The landfill stretches into the mangrove swamps. This site was the Station’s main waste disposal site from the early 1940s to the early 1960s. During the IRP Round 1 investigations (1986) and Round 2 (1987), surface water, sediment, and groundwater samples revealed metals (arsenic, chromium, thallium, and selenium), low-level pesticides, and low-level organics in the surface water, sediments, and groundwater at this SWMU. An RFI of soil, sediments, surface water, and groundwater was required in the permit.

Status

  • Investigations at the site are complete and a draft RFI report was submitted in March 1998.  Comments on the report were received in December 1998 and a revised report was submitted in April 1999.
  • A Corrective Measures Study (CMS) outline was submitted in April 1999. The Final CMS Work Plan was submitted in October 1999. The revised Final CMS Work Plan was submitted in March 2000. Following receipt and response to comments, the Revised Final II CMS Work Plan was submitted in July 2000. The CMS was initiated in 2001.
  • The Draft Final Additional Data Collection Report and Screening Level Ecological Risk Assessment and Step 3a of the Baseline Ecological Risk Assessment (BERA) submitted in March 2005.
  • The Final Additional Data Collection Report and Screening Level Ecological Risk Assessment and Step 3a of the BERA was submitted to EPA in May 2006.
  • EPA approved the Final Additional Data Collection Report and Screening Level Ecological Risk Assessment and Step 3a of the BERA in June 2006.
  • EPA approved the 3b and 4 of the BERA for SWMU 1.
  • The Site Verification for the Baseline ERA was initiated in February 2007.
  • The Baseline ERA field investigation was initiated on April 27, 2007.
  • The RCRA 7003 Administrative Order on Consent recommends the implementation of the CMS for SWMU 1.
  • A Draft Phase I Interim CMS Work Plan was submitted on November 19, 2009.
  • The Draft Final Steps 6 and 7 of the Baseline ERA Report was submitted to the EPA on December 1, 2009.