Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage
A consent agreement between the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the city of Anchorage and three other entities was reached last Thursday in a hazardous waste case in the city’s Kincaid Park. The city, Kincaid Project Group, Land Design North and Roger Hickel Contracting, Inc., have agreed to complete the cleanup of lead-contaminated soil at Kincaid and must submit a cleanup plan to EPA within 90 days. Kevin Schanilec is an EPA compliance officer.
According to the EPA, contractors for the soccer field moved lead contaminated soil from the site of the shooting range which operated in the park between 1988 and 2007. The construction generated approximately 30 tons of lead contaminated hazardous waste soil and debris. The EPA says the material was disposed of on site without treatment or proper testing. The EPA charges the shooting range was contaminated with lead from bullets, with lead soil levels ranging as high as 68,000 parts per million. Lead contamination was disturbed and spread over approximately four-acres without prior testing to determine whether the lead levels would be classified as hazardous waste.
Shanilec says the state Department of Environmental Conservation alerted the EPA to the fact that construction was underway without determining the level of contamination
Under the Thursday’s settlement, the parties agreed to pay a penalty of over $63,000 for violations of federal hazardous waste management rules also known as Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
Peter Van Tuyn, an attorney representing the Kincaid Project Group, says the group is committed to the cleanup under today’s settlement.
Van Tuyn says it will be some time before a final decision is made on who pays the additional costs of cleanup and waste removal.
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