Next Meeting is Sept. 12, 2013
Did you or someone you know work at the Superfund site in Swannanoa? Were you involved in earlier efforts to address contamination and cleanup at the site? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you may have information that would be helpful to the members of the newly-formed Swannanoa Chemtronics Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG).
The CAG, composed entirely of volunteers from the community, was established to work with the EPA and other state and federal agencies in addressing cleanup issues at the Swannanoa site, which was added to the federal Superfund list in the 1980s. CAG members are interested in gathering information from residents with knowledge about the site, located off Old Bee Tree Road. If you have information you’d like to share with the CAG, please send an email to swannanoasuperfund@gmail.com, call 581-9698 or attend a CAG meeting. The next meeting will be on Thursday, September 12, at 6:30 p.m. at the Bee Tree Fire Station, 510 Bee Tree Road. Public participation is invited and encouraged.
Recently, the corporations that are potentially responsible for cleanup at the site have proposed that the EPA re-define the site boundaries. The Technical Memorandum submitted in support of the proposal states that large portions of the 1,065-acre site were not actively used as part of the former industrial operations, and should therefore not be included within the Superfund boundaries. If the proposal is ultimately accepted, the size of the Swannanoa Superfund site would be reduced by almost 50% (from 1,065 acres to 535 acres), and the removed acreage would no longer be subject to Superfund regulations. However, if hazardous materials were subsequently found there, it could come back under Superfund purview. The EPA has stated that there will be a public meeting before any final action is taken on the boundary proposal.
To read the Technical Memorandum, as well as the EPA’s Five-Year Review Fact Sheet for the Chemtronics site, click here. To learn more about the CAG and the Superfund site, click here to visit the CAG’s website.