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Nestl6 USA, Inc. —Rip3I, CA October 31, 2006 <br /> Public Participation Plan <br /> ' 2 COMMUNITY BACKGROUND <br /> 2.1 FORMER FACILITY DESCRIPTION <br /> Nestle's former facility, located at 230 Industrial Avenue, Ripon, California, consists of <br /> approximately 13 acres east of downtown Ripon. California Highway 99 and the <br /> Southern Pacific Railroad form the northeastern border. Industrial Avenue forms the <br /> west border, and 4th Street lies on the south side. Other industrial properties lie to the <br /> west, south, and east. The Stanislaus River flows in a westerly direction approximately <br /> 0.7 miles to the south. <br /> As part of this Project, Nestle operates groundwater extraction and treatment systems at <br /> 230 Industrial Avenue. A second groundwater extraction system at 519 South Stockton <br /> ' Avenue has been operating since 2000. Nestle upgraded the S. Stockton Ave. <br /> treatment system in 2004. <br /> ' 2.2 FACILITY HISTORY <br /> Nestle operated a food and coffee processing facility (Facility) in the City of Ripon, <br /> California. The Facility started operation in the 1930s. Figure 1 depicts the former <br /> ' Facility. The Facility initially was built for the production and processing of dairy <br /> products and in 1948 was converted to manufacture instant coffee products. A <br /> decaffeination process was added in 1957. TCE was used in the decaffeination <br /> process. TCE was a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) accepted and widely <br /> used chemical for coffee decaffeination. TCE was used between 1957 and 1970 at the <br /> Facility. Nestle discontinued the use of TCE in 1970. <br /> ' Nestle converted the decaffeination process to a methylene chloride (MC) extraction <br /> method in 1970. Nestle operated the decaffeination process until 1986 and then closed <br /> the decaffeination plant. Nestle ceased all operations at the Facility in 1994. Both the <br /> ' TCE and MC decaffeination processes involved closed loop systems in which the <br /> solvents were stored in above ground tanks and were continually recovered, distilled and <br /> reused. <br /> ' Test results from samples collected in 1986 from a water-production well at the Facility <br /> showed the presence of TCE. Nestle immediately implemented a program to test for the <br /> presence of TCE in soil and groundwater in the area. Nestle subsequently implemented <br /> ' a variety of cleanup and groundwater protection measures, several of which are <br /> ongoing. It is believed that TCE was unintentionally released to soil during handling of <br /> containers and through small leaks in pipes and sewer lines transmitting wastewater <br /> ' from the Facility to the City of Ripon industrial sewage treatment lagoons. <br /> 2.3 PLANNED PROJECT ACTIVITIES <br /> ' Acting at the direction of the RWQCB, Nestle's Project has included removal of affected <br /> soil, installation of soil vapor extraction (SVE) systems, and the installation of <br /> groundwater extraction and treatment systems. <br /> ' To clean up impacted groundwater and reduce the potential spread of chemicals of <br /> concern (COC) to other areas, Nestle has installed and continues to operate two <br /> groundwater extraction systems in the vicinity of the former Facility. Nestle first installed <br /> a groundwater extraction system at the former Facility in 1986. That system, which <br /> remains operational today, uses activated carbon to treat the water removed from the <br /> subsurface. Nestle upgraded and improved this system most recently in April 2005, and <br /> t <br />