Final phase I report and phase II work plan : QuickSite{reg_sign} investigation, Centralia, Kansas.
- Environmental Research
The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), formerly operated a grain storage facility approximately 1,100 ft north of Centralia (Figure 1.2). The CCC/USDA operated this facility from 1949 until 1971. None of the CCC/USDA structures remain. Two additional grain storage facilities currently exist in and near Centralia: the Nemaha County Co-op, approximately 4,000 ft south of the former CCC/USDA facility, and a private grain storage facility near the Don Morris residence, 3,500 ft north of the former CCC/USDA facility. Prior to 1986, commercial grain fumigants containing carbon tetrachloride were commonly used by the CCC/USDA and the grain storage industry to preserve grain. In April 1998, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) sampled the domestic well at the Don Morris residence near Centralia (Figure 1.2) as part of the CCC/USDA Private Well Sampling Program, which was initiated to determine whether carbon tetrachloride was present in domestic wells located near former CCC/USDA grain storage facilities in Kansas. Carbon tetrachloride was detected in the Morris well at 19.3 mg/L and confirmed at 25.4 mg/L, both concentrations above the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 5 mg/L for carbon tetrachloride in drinking water. On the basis of the detection of carbon tetrachloride in the Morris well, the KDHE in August-September 1998 conducted preliminary investigations at the former CCC/USDA facility. For the details of previous investigations in the area and a summary of their findings, see the QuickSite{reg_sign} Phase I Work Plan for Centralia (Argonne 2002a). Because the KDHE found carbon tetrachloride at the former CCC/USDA facility at Centralia that might, in part, be linked to historical use of carbon tetrachloride-based grain fumigants at the facility, the CCC/USDA is conducting an environmental site investigation at Centralia. However, the KDHE established in 1998 that the probable groundwater flow direction at the former CCC/USDA facility is not toward the Morris well, and thus the former facility is not responsible for the carbon tetrachloride measured in that well. The town of Centralia and all residents near the former CCC/USDA facility currently obtain their water from Rural Water District No.3 (RWD 3). Therefore, these local residents are not drinking and using contaminated groundwater. The investigation at Centralia is being performed by the Environmental Research Division of Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary research center operated by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The CCC/USDA has entered into an interagency agreement with DOE, under which Argonne provides technical assistance to the CCC/USDA with environmental site characterization and remediation at its former grain storage facilities. At these facilities, Argonne is applying its QuickSite environmental site characterization methodology. QuickSite is Argonne's proprietary implementation system for the expedited site characterization (ESC) process. Argonne's Environmental Research Division developed the ESC process to optimize preremedial site characterization work at hazardous waste sites by obtaining and then applying a thorough understanding of a site's geology, hydrogeology, and hydrogeochemistry (e.g., Burton 1994). This approach is fundamental to successful site characterization because the geology and hydrogeology of a site largely govern the mobility and fate of contaminants there. Argonne's ESC process has been used successfully at a number of former CCC/USDA facilities in Kansas and Nebraska and has been adopted by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM 1998) as standard practice for environmental site characterization. This report documents the findings of the Phase I activities at Centralia. Section 1 provides a brief history of the area and the QuickSite process, a summary of the geologic/hydrogeologic model, objectives of the Phase I investigation, and a brief description of the sections contained in this report. Section 2 describes the investigative methods used during the Phase I investigation. Section 3 presents all of the data obtained during the investigation. Section 4 describes the interpretation of the pertinent data used to meet the technical objectives of the investigation, including the contaminant migration pathways in soil and groundwater. A summary of the findings is also provided in Section 4. Section 5 presents the conclusions of the investigation relative to the technical objectives and outlines recommendations for Phase II. To streamline the reporting process, materials from the Work Plan (Argonne 2002a) and relevant sections of the Master Work Plan (Argonne 2002b) are not repeated in detail in this report. Consequently, these documents must also be consulted to obtain the complete details of the Phase I investigative program.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDA
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1014783
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ER/TR-02/009; TRN: US201111%%706
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
Similar Records
Final Phase II report : QuickSite(R) investigation, Everest, Kansas.
Final master work plan : environmental investigations at former CCC/USDA facilities in Kansas, 2002 revision.