Expert: Clean-Up at Frisco Lead Smelter Site Should Be 100x Stricter

Landfill redo(Frisco) — Representatives of local groups that were instrumental in shutting down the ill-fated Exide lead smelter in Frisco say the company is now using the wrong environmental standard to direct the clean-up of the facility and surrounding property.  

Their primary source is testimony from an Austin engineer hired by the City of Frisco that says the smelter decontamination should be governed by toxic contamination standards that are 100 times stricter than the ones currently being used.

 

"Based on evidence already in the record and cited by the City's new expert, its clear that Exide is trying to get away with a cheaper, less protective clean-up than the Agency's own regulations demand," said Colette McCadden, the Chair of Frisco Unleaded, the citizens group that campaigned for almost a year to successfully close the last secondary lead smelter in Texas.

 

She referred to testimony submitted by Austin-based engineer William Wheatley in July on behalf of the City of Frisco for Exide's bankruptcy proceedings. In it, the former Director of the Waste Permits Division for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), concludes that the company is erroneously using a less-protective classification for categorizing the groundwater running underneath the smelter site.  

 

That classification is the basis of all decontamination and closure efforts at Exide, including how to deal with a still-active landfill full of lead waste.

 

In his testimony, Wheatley explains what this mistake means in practical terms when it comes to cleaning up lead contamination at the site:

 

"Exide is operating under the assumption that a Class 3 groundwater designation will be approved and, as a result, that remedial action levels for soils at the site will be less stringent (in most cases, soil action levels based on Class3 groundwater would be 100 times the levels that would be required for Class 2 groundwater).

 

It is my opinion that existing information clearly demonstrates the groundwater at the site is Class 2 and significantly more stringent action levels are therefore appropriate and necessary."

 

Jim Schermbeck, Director of the clean air group Downwinders At Risk accused Exide of purposely trying to get by with a cheaper clean-up in Frisco because it's already bankrupt. He applauded the City for hiring an independent expert who could provide oversight of the company's claims, and double-check the state's assertions as well.

 

"The city is finally providing a much needed second opinion on the way Exide is conducting its clean-up of the smelter site. We hope it listens to its own expert and demands a clean-up that's 100 times better than it has been to date."

 

At issue is whether there's sufficient groundwater flow underneath the smelter site to categorize it as a Class 2 or Class 3 groundwater resource under state rules.  

 

If a well produces more than 150 gallons of water a day, then it's a Class 2 resource. Below that number and it's a Class 3.  

 

The difference is not only a soil clean-up standard that's 100 times stricter, it also means more work for Exide in cleaning up existing groundwater contamination that's not acceptable when the higher standard is applied.

 

Wheatley doesn't mince words in calling out the company's mistake, stating,

 

"(Exide's engineering consultants) concluded that groundwater at the site is not impacted. However, as discussed below, that conclusion is based in part on the characterization of the uppermost groundwater bearing unit as a "Class 3" groundwater resourceIt is my opinion that a "Class 3"designation is unsubstantiated and technically incorrect based on currently available information which clearly indicates that the groundwater is a 'Class 2' resource."

 

Frisco Unleaded and Downwinders both used Wheatley's report for the City to request that the state reject Exide's planned remediation of its active landfill in official comments that were submitted last Friday because, they said, that plan is based on the wrong groundwater classification.

 

After a swift campaign that closed the smelter last year, it's been a more difficult task to deal with decades of toxic contamination. In June, Downwinders and Frisco Unleaded released City of Frisco reports that showed widespread lead-contaminated waste in Stewart Creek, including parts of the City's planned "Grand Park."

 

Citizens say it's unacceptable to leave tons of lead waste behind in Frisco, as Exide wants to do, because it would mean the creation of an economic and public health "dead zone" in the middle of town.

 

"We know we have to get this right the first time because we night not get a second chance, "said McCadden, who's lived in Frisco since the mid-1990's. "We have to demand the most protective clean-up we can get under the law."

Happy DFW Non-Attainment Day!

Merry Ozone SeasonIt came a little later than usual this year, but the final dog days of August finally churned out the inevitable DFW Non-Attainment Day on Saturday. And nature was just cheeky enough to wait until right before the state's open house on yet another clean air plan for the area.

Non-Attainment Day is the (so far) annual day when one lucky regional air monitor registers its fourth "exceedence" of the old 85 parts per billion smog standard left over from the 1990's, signaling an official violation of the federal Clean Air Act and meaning that DFW is still mired in high levels of ozone. 

On Saturday it was the Denton Airport monitor that saw an 8-hour average of 85 ppb, one that matched Friday's result as well. Together, the two readings combined with another 85 ppb from August 20th and a 90 ppb level from early July to produce four readings of 85 ppb or more by the end of the month. That makes it official. It's the 17th year in a row that DFW hasn't met the old smog standard.

Although it's bad news that we're once again in violation of an obsolete smog standard, this summer's cooler weather and rain has kept smog down to levels not seen since 2007. If Denton is the only monitor to record an official violation of the 85 standard, that will be the fewest number doing so since 2007 as well, when there were two. Last year there were five and the year before that, six.

But as of 2015, the region will need to get ozone levels down to no more than the new EPA-approved level of 75 ppb if it wants safe and legal air. A plan to help the region do that is supposed to be drafted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, although no one knows exactly when that process will start.

As it happens however, the TCE is hosting a "public information meeting" on such a new air plan at the public-friendly hour of 10 am this coming Thursday at the North Texas Council of Governments headquarters in Arlington at 616 Six Flags Road. Don't expect any explanations for what that is, because there aren't any. However, it is most assuredly not a meeting of the local North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee, the advisory group charged with assisting the TCEQ in putting together a clean air plan. That would require more concern for clean air than the state can muster right now, with a deadline still a whole 16 months away.

With the summer trending well up to now, we suspect the TCEQ crew thought they could come up to DFW from Austin without having to use the dreadful N-word to describe DFW's condition. Now, not so much. It's an embarrassment too. If the region can't reach attainment when the weather is on your side, what's it going to be like when real a Texas Summer returns? 2013 was absolutely the best shot we had at finally seeing the numbers drop significantly. And now that's been blown. 

Of course, if the last state clean air plan had worked the way Austin told us it would, we wouldn't even be writing this blog post because DFW would have reached attainment status last year. But the plan didn't exactly work the way Austin said it would. in fact, it made air quality measurably worse.