EPA plans to decontaminate property

The agency decides to take action as groundwater contamination has spread recently at the old Alaric site.

By JOSH ZIMMER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 9, 2001

TAMPA -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to spend up to $2.8-million on an interim cleanup plan for the old Alaric Inc. Superfund site in Orient Park, agency officials said Thursday night.

The money would be used to clean up contaminated soil and groundwater on the property, which has been used by various industrial companies since the early 1970s.

Although no surrounding residents are threatened by drinking water contamination, the EPA wants to stop the rapid spread of discarded solvents as soon as possible, project manager Brad Jackson said at a public meeting Thursday.

The groundwater contamination "seemed to have doubled in size the last two years," Jackson said. "We want to make sure it doesn't get any worse."

No residents attended the hearing.

The agency, which took the project over from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 1999, hopes to have a plan ready by February and start work in 2003, Jackson said. The EPA currently oversees two neighboring Superfund sites.

The agency proposes spending $1.3-million to pump out the polluted groundwater, which spread out over about 4 acres from the old Alaric building, where workers are thought to have stripped paint from metal with powerful solvents. Jackson said the nearest drinking wells are 3 miles away.

The top choice for cleaning up the soil involves decontaminating with special chemicals, he said. Cleaning the soil, which is more contaminated than the water, will cost between $570,000 and $1.4-million, according to agency estimates.

The agency will give the interim plan five years to succeed, Jackson said. After that, the only work may be monitoring the site.

Negotiations for a monetary settlement are under way between the EPA and representatives of the property owner, the Lee Oglesby Living Trust, agency lawyer Karen Singer said. Oglesby already has paid a state penalty, as well as investigation costs, but Singer could not provide specific figures.

"I think we're close," to an agreement, she said, without offering details.

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