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Poly-Cycle Industries, Jacksonville

No further Superfund environmental response actions are required on this former lead-acid battery chips recycler and lead recovery facility in Jacksonville, Cherokee County.

Site Background

The former Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville site is located on the south side of the city at 2505 South Jackson Street in Cherokee County. The site is bordered by State Highway 69 to the east and Loop 456 to the south. Nichols Intermediate School is to the west and several business properties are located to the north. During its operations, Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville recovered lead from lead acid batteries and recycled plastic and rubber chips from ground up battery cases. Following a Texas Department of Health investigation of the Jacksonville property in 1983 that found lead levels in the soil that exceeded 100,000 micrograms per kilogram, Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville moved contaminated soil from the Jacksonville location to Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc.'s, Tecula site. The removal allowedPoly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville to receive a clean closure certification letter from the Texas Department of Health for the Jacksonville location. The company then sold the Jacksonville property to Texas Farm Products, Inc. which removed all remaining Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville structures and built a feed store. The feed store is still active. The results of February 2000 soil sampling showed lead still to be a matter of concern. Battery chips were visible in the roadside ditch in front of the feed store. A probable surface water pathway leads 1.8 miles northeast to Lake Jacksonville. The City of Jacksonville surface water intake from the lake is located 1.7 miles from the probable point of entry of runoff from the site. The closest residences are located approximately one quarter of a mile north of the site.

Superfund Actions Taken to Date

  • February 2003, a hazard ranking system (HRS) documentation record was prepared for the Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville site.
  • November 2003, TCEQ began mailing notifications to the potentially responsible parties, asking for a response that would show a good-faith offer to enter into an agreed order to perform a remedial investigation and feasibility study at the site.
  • December 5, 2003, a legal notice was published in the Texas Register (28 TexReg 11012) describing the site, proposing the site for listing on the state Superfund registry, and proposing the use of nonresidential specifications for remediation of site contamination. A public meeting to receive citizen comments was to be held January 15, 2004 at the Jacksonville Public Library Auditorium.
  • January 15, 2004, a public meeting was held at the Jacksonville Public Library to receive community comments on the proposal to list the Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville site on the Superfund registry and to propose nonresidential land use specifications for remediation of the site contamination.
  • February 2004, with none of the identified potentially responsible parties responding to the requests for a response action, TCEQ initiated the field investigation at the site.
  • March 2004, a community relations plan was prepared for the Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville site.
  • April 6, 2004, TCEQ initiated the remedial investigation at the site by issuing a work order to the consultant to visit the site and collect information needed in the preparation of a field sampling plan.
  • June 2004, TCEQ prepared a draft field sampling plan and issued a work order to the contractor to finalize the plan. TCEQ completed a Tier 1 ecological exclusion criteria checklist and determined that no further ecological risk assessment is needed.
  • July 2004, TCEQ approved the finalized field sampling plan and issued a work order to the contractor to implement the sampling plan.
  • August 2004, the contractor implemented the field sampling plan. Soil and groundwater samples were collected, and the sampling locations and monitor wells were surveyed.
  • November 2004, four monitor wells were sampled, and the water was analyzed for the presence of metals.
  • December 2004, results of the November sampling of the four monitor wells was received and accepted. The results indicated a possible presence of an isolated, perched, shallow water zone in which monitoring wells MW-3 and MW-4 are installed but not penetrated by the other wells. A work order was issued to define the perched water zone and to collect soil and groundwater samples. All of this investigation will be conducted simultaneously with the January 2005 groundwater monitoring. All four monitor wells were also sampled in December.
  • January 2005, a field investigation was performed to define the perched aquifer. Soil and groundwater samples were also collected. and all sampling locations were surveyed.
  • March 2005, TCEQ reviewed the results of the groundwater samples taken in January and requested the contractor perform another round of sampling of all four monitoring wells. The sampling event was completed March 30th.
  • April 2005, TCEQ's contractor resampled the four monitor wells. Monitor well No. 3 was redeveloped twice and sampled again. The sample results from this monitor well continued to show an elevated concentration of beryllium in the groundwater. Further investigation continues to define the source of beryllium detected in monitor well No. 3.
  • June 2005, five monitor wells, MW-5 through MW-9, were installed around monitor well No. 3. All monitor wells were samples and the water was analyzed. All the wells, except No. 3, had breyllium concentrations less than the maximum contaminant level.
  • November 2005, two more monitor wells (MW-10 and MW-11) were installed in areas where unlined impoundments were previously located. Surface soil in these locations has beryllium, although less than the protective concentration level, however, the analysis of groundwater collected from the new wells did not have beryllium concentration above the maximum contaminant level. All the monitor wells were sampled and analyzed. Monitor well No. 3 again showed beryllium over the maximum concentration level. The contaminated areas of the site were delineated. It was decided to excavate and remove the contaminated soil in the monitor well No. 3 area.
  • March 10, 2006, a legal notice was published in the Texas Register (31 TexReg 1801) of the intent to perform a removal action consisting of excavation and off-site disposal of soil containing concentrations of hazardous substances above commercial/industrial use cleanup levels.
  • April 2006, the contractor prepared a removal action work plan.
  • June 2006, all of the potentially responsible parties were notified by mail about the removal action at the site.
  • July 17, 2006, the contractor began the removal action at the site.
  • August 3, 2006, the on-site removal action was completed.
  • August 28, 2006, TCEQ received the final report and concurred that no further remedial action is required at the site.
  • December 15, 2006, a legal notice was published in the Texas Register, (31 TexReg 10167) announcing a public meeting would be held January 25, 2007 at the Jacksonville Public Library Conference Room to present to the public the intent to delete the site from the state Superfund registry in accordance with 30 TAC §335.344(c). No further remedial action is planned.
  • January 25, 2007, no objections or comments were received from the public at the meeting on the TCEQ proposal to delete the site from the state Superfund registry. The deletion process is continuing.
  • February 5, 2007, the monitoring wells on site were plugged and abandoned.
  • March 2, 2007, a legal notice was published in the Texas Register, (32 TexReg 1138) officially deleting the Poly-Cycle Industries, Inc., Jacksonville site from the state Superfund registry in accordance with 30 TAC §335.344(c). No challenges or comments were received on the determination that the site no longer presented an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and safety or the environment. No further remedial action is planned.
  • March 2007, a notice has been filed in the Cherokee County real property records, restricting future use of the site to commercial/industrial purposes only.

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