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APPENDIX A - SITE BACKGROUND INFORMATION <br /> A1.1 FACILITY HISTORY <br /> This former Nestle facility was located at 230 Industrial Avenue in Ripon (Site), California, seven <br /> miles north of the City of Modesto and along California Route 99 (Ref: Figure 1 of 2010 Annual <br /> Report). Originally built in the 1930s for dairy production, the facility began manufacturing <br /> soluble instant coffee in 1948. Manufacturing operations ceased in 1994, and the main <br /> buildings were demolished in 1995. A third party purchased significant portions of the property <br /> in 2005. <br /> Following the sale, Nestle retained ownership of properties at two locations: one at the <br /> northeast corner of the former manufacturing facility, and the other at 519 South Stockton <br /> Avenue. Both properties exist within industrial zones in the southeast portion of the City of <br /> Ripon. Other industrial properties lie to the west and south of the Site. According to the City <br /> master plan, the area will remain zoned as industrial at least until the year 20401 <br /> . <br /> A1.2 SITE BACKGROUND <br /> From the 1950s until 1970, the facility operated a closed-loop extraction process to decaffeinate <br /> coffee. This process used trichloroethene (TCE) as a solvent to extract caffeine from green <br /> coffee beans. Aboveground tanks stored the TCE immediately south of the decaffeination <br /> building. The decaffeination process included gravity separation and distillation of the solvent in <br /> a closed-loop system with TCE returning to a solution tank for reuse. The effluent from the <br /> separator discharged into a sewer line between the decaffeination building and the warehouse. <br /> This sewer line drained to the City-owned and operated sewer main along Industrial Avenue, <br /> which transported waste from many industrial facilities in Ripon. The City of Ripon industrial <br /> wastewater was discharged into the percolation/evaporation ponds. The details of the City's <br /> Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) operation can be found in City of Ripon Effluent <br /> Disposal Percolation Study Report2. In 1970, methylene chloride replaced TCE in the <br /> decaffeination process until 1986, when a water extraction process replaced the methylene <br /> chloride process. <br /> A1.3 DISCOVERY OF INITIAL RELEASE <br /> Four Nestle facility production wells (N-1, N-2, N-3 and N-4) supplied water for the <br /> manufacturing processes. In January 1986, routine sampling and analysis of N-1 and N-2 <br /> revealed TCE in the groundwater. In May 1986, TCE and associated solvent byproducts <br /> ("constituents of concern" or"CDCs") were detected in nearby municipal wells MW-1 and MW-6. <br /> Subsequent to these findings, groundwater extraction from well MW-1 was terminated. MW-1 <br /> was decommissioned sometime between 19943 and 1998. MW-6 ceased operation in 1989 and <br /> was decommissioned in July 2009. A granular activated carbon (GAC) system commenced <br /> treatment operations at well N-1 in July 1986. Nestle destroyed the Industrial Avenue <br /> production wells in 1995. <br /> A1.4 REGULATORY OVERSIGHT <br /> The Regional Water Quality Control Board — Central Valley Region (RWQCB) is the agency with <br /> primary jurisdiction over this project. In response to the detection of TCE in N-1, N-2, and the <br /> City of Ripon wells (MW-1 and MW-6) in 1986, the RWQCB required Nestle to develop a <br /> groundwater monitoring program for the facility and to investigate soil and groundwater <br /> Appendix A <br /> Page Al of A7 <br />