SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

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5.0 EMERGENCY RESPONSE CONSIDERATIONS The National Contingency Plan [40 CFR 300.415 (b) (2)] authorizes the EPA to consider emergency response actions at those sites that pose an imminent threat to human health or the environment. For the following reasons a referral to Region IX's Emergency Response Section does not appear to be necessary: • The City of Lodi monitors its municipal wells periodically. Contamination was detected in Well 3 and Well 4, and they were put out of service. No currently operating well appears to be contaminated. • Currently, there appears to be no hazardous discharges from the facility. Hazardous wastes generated are stored in barrels on site before being collected by Technichem, Inc., a licensed hauler. 6.0 SUMMARY The Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning site is located in a commercial and residential area in Lodi, San Joaquin County, California. The facility consists of one 2,800-square-foot building. The site is completely paved. Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning has been operating as a laundry and dry cleaning facility since 1985. Alvin Allmendinger founded the dry cleaning operation at the site in June 1985. Fred Roes, the current owner, took over the business in October 1987. Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning uses the solvent tetrachloroethene, also known as perchloroethylene (PCE), in the dry cleaning process. PCE-contaminated wastewater is likely to have been discharged into the sewer lines around the site between 1985 and 1988. Since 1988, wastewater has been collected in a barrel and stored on site before being collected by Technichem, Inc. In June 1989, the City of Lodi detected PCE contamination in Well 3, located 0.3 mile downgradient of the site. Well 3 was put out of service after confirmatory sampling in July 1989. The City of Lodi subsequently notified the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region, about the groundwater contamination. The Regional Water Quality Control Board inspected the Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning site in August 1989 and concluded that wastewater was likely to have been discharged into the sewer lines. A sample of the wastewater was found to have 12 ppb of PCE. To confirm subsurface contamination, the Regional Water Quality Control Board conducted soil gas and sewer line sampling in September and December 1989. From the soil gas sampling, the Regional Water Quality Control Board detected a "hot spot" of PCE around the Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning site. Background values of PCE in the soil gas indicated 3,000 to 9,000 ion counts, while values near the Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning site were as high as 240,000 ion counts. An ambient sewer water sample collected downstream from the site contained 700 ppb of PCE. Based on their findings, the Regional Water Quality Control Board requested Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning to provide a work plan to determine the extent of soil and groundwater contamination on site. Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning contracted with Luhdorff & Scalmanini, consulting engineers, to conduct site-specific investigations in February 1991, as requested by Regional Water Quality Control Board. As part of their investigations, Luhdorff & Scalmanini collected soil and groundwater samples for volatile halogenated hydrocarbon analyses. Upon reviewing the results of the investigations submitted by Luhdorff& Scalmanini, the Regional Water Quality Control Board concluded that there is soil and SI Busy Bee Laundry and Cleaning-0 (F) • 1/93 10 Printed on 50% recycled paper. 7)��