Northpinellas: Stauffer leader: Progress too slow

TARPON SPRINGS -- The president of Stauffer Management Co. has proposed a plan to speed up a series of studies at the Stauffer Superfund site by several months.

Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency withdrew its cleanup plan for Stauffer until tests were done to satisfy concerns raised by residents and an EPA watchdog official. THe EPA's original plan was to push contaminated soil at the former phosphorus-processing plant into a huge pile and seal it with an impermeable cap.

During a public meeting Sept. 28, U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, chastised EPA and Stauffer officials for taking too long to begin those studies.

EPA project manager Nestor Young said several all-but-approved study plans were waiting on the review of a controversial groundwater plan.

Last week, Stauffer Management president Brian Spiller sent a letter to the EPA suggesting that, rather than wait until all studies have been fully approved, the company could move forward with studies on which all sides agree. Details of the groundwater study could be hashed out later, he said.

In particular, that would allow Stauffer to move forward on a geophysical study to determine whether sinkholes could jeopardize the viability of the mound-and-cap plan. It also would allow Stauffer to move forward with a study to determine the long-term effectiveness of the mound-and-cap plan.

Young welcomed Spiller's offer, which signaled a change from the company's original position. Stauffer had previously insisted that the work plans for all the studies be approved as a whole before moving forward with them.

"This is a step in the right direction," Young said.

Spiller said he, like many residents, has been frustrated by delays.

"We're not moving forward," Spiller said. "All we're doing is meeting every year to regurgitate the same issues. . . . The public has a reason to be upset that we are just talking about these things time and again without making any progress."

Young said while some community members may be frustrated by the time it has taken to review the studies, he reminded them that many of those same residents said they wanted the studies done right.

"That has been the complaint from the community from Day 1, that the previous studies were flawed somehow or incomplete," Young said. "I just want to make sure the studies are done correctly.

"If you push the data through just to get it through and you get back questionable data, then we've made no progress," he said.

Young estimated that if begun now, all the studies will be completed by this time next year.

Still to be debated is the scope of the groundwater study. Young believes the groundwater study ought to be expanded further than originally proposed to include tests to determine how much saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico makes it to the site, and how saltwater might affect the viability of the mound and cap plan. The groundwater study also seeks to determine how much of the contaminants from the site might have migrated from the surficial aquifer to the deeper, drinking water aquifer below.

Spiller is convinced the EPA will ultimately conclude there is no reason to broaden the scope of the groundwater tests beyond what is already proposed.

"We think there is enough information between what's been done to date and what's been promised," Spiller said.

Stauffer is responsible for cleanup of a number of Superfund sites across the country, and Spiller said the company has set a goal to finish cleanup of all of those sites by 2004. That's an ambitious goal for the Tarpon Springs site, he said. But the plan offered this week may help make that possible, he said.

"We were trying to find a way to get started," Spiller said.

-- Staff writer Robert Farley can be reached at (727) 445-4185 or farley@sptimes.com.

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