News Releases from Region 04
EPA Releases Proposed Cleanup Plan for Petroleum Products Corporation Superfund Site in Pembroke Park, Florida
PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. (January 12, 2021) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a cleanup plan to address waste oil and petroleum product contamination at the Petroleum Products Corporation (PPC) Superfund site in Pembroke Park, Florida. The proposed cleanup plan involves contaminated soil excavation, building demolition, soil stabilization and the collection and treatment of groundwater.
As part of the public comment period, EPA will hold a virtual public meeting on the proposed plan on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Please register in advance of the meeting by https://www.eventbrite.com/e/us-epa-petroleum-products-corp-site-proposed-plan-community-zoom-meeting-tickets-132275877711 or by emailing Spencer.LaTonya@epa.gov.
EPA is accepting comments on the proposed plan. Comments must be submitted no later than Friday, February 12, 2021. A copy of the proposed plan and associated documents related to the site are available in the Administrative Record of the Information Repository housed at the Broward County Public Library, 100 S. Andrews Avenue, Level 5, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301. The Administrative Record can also be found at www.epa.gov/superfund/petroleum-products-corporation. Written comments should be submitted by February 12, 2021, to Taylor.Michael@epa.gov or Oneal.Marcia@epa.gov or via the U.S. Postal Service to Michael Taylor/Marcia O’Neal, U.S. EPA, Superfund & Emergency Management Division, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, 11th Floor, Atlanta, GA 30303.
For further information, please contact L’Tonya Spencer-Harvey, EPA Community Involvement Coordinator toll free (877) 718-3752, directly (404) 562-8463 or via email Spencer.LaTonya@epa.gov.
SITE BACKGROUND:
The approximately 7-acre Petroleum Products Corporation site is located in Pembroke Park, Broward County, Florida at 3150 W. Pembroke Road. The former PPC facility operated from approximately 1957 to 1971, as a reprocessor and broker of waste oil and other petroleum products mainly using a sulfuric acid-clay re-refining process. This process generated sulfuric acid sludge and spent clay materials containing petroleum aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), metals, chlorinated solvents, PCBs and dioxin contamination. The sludge waste and spent clay were disposed of on-site in two excavated unlined pits approximately two acres in size. Process leaks and releases from several on-site storage tanks also added to the site contamination. After the re-refining operations ceased in the early 1970s, PPC made efforts to address the site contamination and fill in the pits with clean soils. Soon thereafter, PPC constructed numerous warehouse buildings on top of the disposal pits, which are still present and in use today. The PPC site contamination includes three Operable Units (OUs). OU1 is the free product or free-floating oil on the water table, OU2 is the waste soils and sludges in the disposal pits and OU3 is the contaminated groundwater. A remedy and settlement from the early 1990s for the OU1 contamination resulted in the removal of approximately 43,000 gallons of waste oil from the subsurface. This cleanup work lasted until 2014, while the development and implementation of a final remedy for the OU2 materials was not successful during the late 1990s. The current Proposed Plan for a final OU2 remedy and an interim OU3 remedy documents EPA’s preferred comprehensive remedy that will address the main contamination source material at the PPC site. EPA’s proposed remedy will include the relocation of certain business and residential tenants, demolition of several warehouse buildings, soil excavation and off-site disposal, in situ stabilization of the deeper contaminated soils and limited groundwater treatment and monitoring. The on-site cleanup work is not expected to begin for at least 24 months.