EPA plans to clean up Superior

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will be giving an update to the public on April 13 (Today), beginning at 6:30 p.m.  The meeting will be held in the ambulance building across from the clinic in Superior.

The agencies will address several topics including the overview of 2010 soil sampling results, plans for soil removal, the waste repository, their upcoming schedule and 2010 health screening results. There will also be time for questions as well.

The commissioners met with representatives involved in the EPA’s cleanup of Superior back and February and decided that a meeting with the public would be beneficial to go over what’s been accomplished, results and what still needs to be completed.

Les Smith, project manager from the EPA, spoke at the meeting in January and said that 31 properties were remediated last summer (2010) by the emergency response group.

In addition to the properties that were remediated, several more properties were also tested. During the summer of 2010, 297 properties were sampled. Of those, 277 sampled required no further action falling below 400 ppm (parts per million) in the lead/ arsenic screening. Sixteen homes, or 5.4 percent of those sampled, need further evaluation to determine if the property needs remediated. Four homes were found to be of high risk, with readings indicating that they were above 3000 ppm.

“We feel confident we captured most of the contamination,” Smith said back in January. “And the good news is that 93 percent of the homes we sampled were clean.”

At the January meeting, the analytical results were not available, as they were being validated and will be made available at the meeting this week.

Last summer, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) also came in and did an exposure investigation.

Dan Strausbaugh, senior regional representative for ATSDR, told the commissioners in December that they tested people within a snapshot of 20-48 hours of exposure time. A total of 63 adults and children participated during the exposure investigation.

Strausbaugh said that the results will be added to the overall health report that they are compiling. The full report should be available at the meeting as well.

“At that time, we will be available to answer questions that the public may have,” Strausbaugh said.

The meeting is expected to run until about 8 p.m.