Pennsylvania DEP Announces Consent Assessment at Superfund Site

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced that it has executed a consent assessment of civil penalty with Advanced GeoServices Corp. of West Chester, PA, and Earth Tech Inc., Wilder, Ky., for significant erosion and sediment control violations at Jacks Creek, a federal Superfund cleanup site in Decatur Township, Mifflin County.

The consent assessment carries a $40,000 civil penalty for violations to the Clean Streams Law. AGC is a consulting engineer and remediation design contractor for the site and a nearby borrow site. Earth Tech is the primary site contractor for both sites.

 “Wet conditions last year caused extensive runoff at both sites,” Diamond said. “Had proper controls been in place and had the companies followed the conditions spelled out in their approved storm-water plan, these problems most likely would not have occurred.”

Jacks Creek is the site of a former smelting and precious metals reclamation facility. Remediation for lead contamination at the site began in 2002. AGC should have but did not develop erosion and sediment control measures meeting DEP requirements for the site prior to the start of remediation excavation activities. The controls, which were included in the plans, were not implemented properly or completely by Earth Tech.

The failure of AGC and Earth Tech to develop and implement adequate erosion and sedimentation controls properly led to several severe sediment pollution discharges to Jacks Creek and unnamed tributaries to Jacks Creek in July and August last year. Some of the sediment discharge to these waters was contaminated with lead.

Last August, at the request of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and DEP, the Mifflin County Conservation District began inspecting the site and documented significant violations. The conservation district inspector provided short-term recommendations on erosion and sedimentation controls that could be installed immediately to prevent additional sediment discharges from the site. Those controls were implemented and the site has remained mostly in compliance since late fall 2003.