News Releases from Region 04

EPA to Hold Public Meeting for the Fairfax Street Wood Treaters Site in Jacksonville, Fla. on Mar. 5

ATLANTA (Mar. 1, 2019) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a public meeting for the Fairfax Street Wood Treaters site in Jacksonville, Fla. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. The public meeting will focus on the upcoming Remedial Action (RA) cleanup activities that are planned to begin March 2019 and last for about six months.

What:               Public Meeting for the Fairfax Street Wood Treaters site

Who:                EPA

                        Florida Department of Environmental Protection

When:              Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 6:00 p.m.

Where:             Stanton College Preparatory School

                        1149 W. 13th Street

Jacksonville, Florida

Site investigations and cleanup activities will focus on the 12.5-acre parcel where wood treating operations took place and the off-site 52 residential properties identified as part of the cleanup. The initial phase of the RA will prepare the site for work and begin the remediation process. On-site activities include tearing down the on-site structures, digging up soil and loading it on trucks for landfill disposal, backfilling with clean soil, as well as removing sediment from the retention pond and site restoration. Two crews will work at the same time on two different residential properties. The on-site and off-site work will be going on at the same time.

Site Background

The Fairfax Street Wood Treaters site is in a predominantly residential area of Jacksonville owned by Fairfax Land Management, Inc., and was formerly used as a wood treating facility. From 1980 to 2010, the facility pressure-treated utility poles, pilings, heavy timber and plywood lumber products using the wood treating preservative chromated copper arsenate (CCA). Some of the CCA preservative dripped onto the ground during the wood treating, which resulted in soil and sediment contamination.  

Under the Trump Administration, the Superfund program has reemerged as a top priority to advance the Agency’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment.

More information on EPA's cleanup work at the Fairfax Street Wood Treaters (FSWT) site and https://semspub.epa.gov/src/document/04/11116367