The remedy at a Superfund site in southeast Akron appears to be working, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports.
This is the latest assessment of the Summit Equipment & Supplies Inc. site, a 7.5-acre former salvage yard and scrap metal facility at 875 Ivor Ave., the agency says in a review of the cleanup that was largely completed in 2000.
“The remedy at the SES site is protective of human health and the environment in the short term,” the 20-page report says.
Evidence shows that contaminated water in the aquifer under the site is naturally cleansing itself with contamination levels continuing to drop, the EPA said.
The reports suggested that controls on the site in the future be formalized in an affidavit to be filed with the Summit County Recorder.
Superfund law requires regular federal checkups of sites where waste remains to make sure that the cleanup continues to protect people and the environment. The next review is scheduled in 2018.
The review is the EPA’s third of the Akron site that operated from the 1950s to the 1980s near Nesmith Lake.
Previous EPA reviews in 2003 and 2008 indicated that no additional remedies were needed.
Federal cleanup at the site began in 1987, when more than 3,000 tons of contaminated scrap was removed. This included 300 capacitors and 1,300 transformer carcasses. That preliminary cleanup cost more than $8.5 million.
Cleanup was halted in 1991 when military shells and grenades were discovered at the site. None were live.
Then, in 1995, about 972 cubic yards of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were removed from a nearby apartment complex.
The main cleanup of Summit Equipment took place from September 1998 to November 2000. That $11 million project included the removal of as much as 4 feet of PCB-laced soil and debris. More than 65,825 tons were hauled away for safe disposal.
The PCBs came from military-surplus electrical transformers bought by junkyard owners Benjamin and Michael Hirsch during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Soils also were contaminated with mercury and copper.
Groundwater under the site also showed pollution from chromium, a heavy metal, and five toxic chemicals. The contaminated aquifer is being allowed to cleanse itself naturally.
The 2013 review is available for public review at the Akron-Summit County Public Library, 60 S. High St., Akron.
It is also available online at www.epa.gov/region5/cleanup/summitequipment.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.