SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

Home Browse Search

1.0 INTRODUCTION The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region IX, under the authority of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) and the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA) has tasked Bechtel Environmental, Inc. to conduct a Site Inspection (SI) of the Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning (Busy Bee) site in Lodi, San Joaquin County, California. The Busy Bee site was identified as a potential hazardous waste site and entered into the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) on December 14, 1990 (CAD 982053944) (1). The site was entered into CERCLIS because of the presence of contaminants in groundwater detected by the City of Lodi (2). A Preliminary Assessment (PA)of the Busy Bee site was conducted for the EPA by Ecology and Environment, Inc. on August 8, 1991 (3). The purpose of the PA was to review existing information on the site and its environs to assess the threat(s), if any, posed to public health, welfare, or the environment and to determine if further action under CERCLA/SARA was warranted. After reviewing the PA, the EPA decided that further investigation of the Busy Bee site would be necessary to more completely evaluate the site using EPA's Hazard Ranking System (HRS) criteria. The HRS assesses the relative threat associated with actual or potential releases of hazardous substances at the site. The HRS has been adopted by the EPA to help set priorities for further evaluation and eventual remedial action at hazardous waste sites. The HRS is the primary method of determining a site's eligibility for placement on the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL identifies sites at which EPA may conduct remedial response actions. This report summarizes the results of the SI investigation of the Busy Bee site. 1.1 Apparent Problem The apparent problem at the site is as follows: Busy Bee, a dry cleaning and laundry facility, uses the solvent tetrachloroethene, also known as perchloroethylene (PCE),in the dry cleaning process (4). As part of the dry cleaning process, separator water, which contains PCE, was probably discharged into the sewer between June 1985 and October 1988 from the Busy Bee facility (5). PCE concentration levels as high as 160 parts per billion (ppb) were detected in a municipal drinking water well (Well 3), located 0.4 mile downgradient of the Busy Bee site, by the City of Lodi in June 1989 (6). A soil gas survey indicated that the PCE ion counts as high as 240,000 were detected around the Busy Bee site. A sewer water sample collected downgradient of the site under ambient conditions indicated PCE concentrations of 700 ppb. (7) In a site-specific investigation by Luhdorff & Scalmanini (L&S), consulting engineers, PCE concentrations of 290 ppb and 4,400 ppb were detected in the soil and groundwater sample analyses, respectively (8). SI Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning-0(F) • 1/93 1 Printed on 50% recycled paper. -�