Fort Walton Beach Ordinance — 1750 sale real property 109 Ready — reading text

The investigation primarily focused on interview ofcity employees and employees of a company ( Catalina Yachts) that previously operated in the industrial park. Several individuals provided sworn affidavits In I I of their knowledge that dumping of industrial and possibly hazardous wastes had occurred at the site. According to a 1984 FDER inspection of Catalina Yachts, hazardous waste containing acetone and non- hazardous fiberglass resin were I generated in its process of making ' fiberglass boats. The Catalina Yachts t,/ stated that employees over an undetermined period of time( wastes, estimated to be equivalent in volume to 800 drums, had been disposed in onsite dumpsters and hauled to a landfill. However, the Ready Avenue Landfill was not in operation II during the time period over which this disposal practice occurred, therefore. it is possible that the alleged wastes were deposited in another active landfill. Also, affidavits taken from the current and former city employees reported that 1'1 the city transported several drums of waste left by Catalina Yacht~ and possibly other companies in the industrial park to the Ready Avenue Landfill site. In response to these allegations, the Fort Walton Beach Police Department conducted II their own investigation of the reported incidents and allegations and found no evidence of criminal activities by any representative of the city 4, 5, 6, 7. 13, 4l, 42, 62] . II Allegations by city employees of onsite waste disposal primarily focused on the fire fighter training operation, which used waste flammable liquids for training exercises. The former fire training area was used by the Fort Walton Beach . Fire Department from 1983 to 1988. A flash pan, consisting of a 700- gallon steel tank cut in half, was typically partially filled with diesel fuel nt gasoline, which was ignited to start practice fires. The fires were extinguished when fire the fuel. As a result, the liquid contents of II fighters sprayed burning water on the container overflowed onto the ground. Historically, diesel fuel and gasoline were used for burning, but a city employee reported to Mr. Maney that 75 barrels of unknown liquids had been collected onsite from surrounding industrial sites i for burning. Allegedly, after attempting to use the liquids, which proved too combustible for the fire fighters to safely handle, city workers buried most of them onsite. Stories conflict as to whether they were buried in drums or whether the containers were dumped onto the ground or into pi ts. The accounts also I conflict as to how many drums of combustible liquids were dumped or buried. According to city officials, there were 30 drums of liquid and these we,re transported to the city maintenance yard, and all but 3 of the drums were J subsequently transported offsite by a licensed hazardous waste hauler for legal disposal. The city also reported that the burning incident may have been confused by the city worker with an incident that occurred in the mid 1970' s, when a fire 1 erupted at the landfill, fueled by resin and chemical catalysts from Browning Marine, another boat manufacturer [ l, 42, 62, 7l]. the USEPA Region IV and J Mr. Maney reported the findings of his investigation the FDER Northwest District office. At the to city sampled the request of FDER, the aqueous mixture in the flash vessel ( referred to as a " witches in May 1990 brew'" for laboratory analysis, and it was found to contain a variety of chemical compounds characteristic of gasoline and diesel fuel as well as the solvent acetone. Shortly thereafter, FDER issued a Warning Notice to the city and requested them, to conduct a Preliminary Contamination Assessment of the fire training site which included soil and groundwater sampling. The Preliminary Contamination Assessment Report ( PCAR) was submitted by Environmental Protection Systems, Inc. ( EPS) to the city in January 1992. An estimated 200 to 300 tons of contaminated soils were excavated and removed from the site by the city as a RAL.P2 FWAL 11/ 24/ 115) 5  j rl result of the soil sampling findings of the PCAR [ 75 J. Soil and groundwater analytical findings presented in a following section. A metal detector was are also used by the city to search for buried metal obj ects beneath the fire training 1,/ site. assessment No buriedreportedly detected [ 72). obj ects was conducted by the city from November A were 1992 supplemental through March preliminary 1993 at the fire training area [ 75J. I An apparently separate incident also occurred in the landfill site area and is reported in the files. In June 1990, responding to a complaint of intermittent odors from the city storm sewer that extends along Ready Avenue, the city Ii collected stormwater samples for laboratory analysis. One sample collected for of the site laboratory analysis from the storm drain some distance to the south volatile aromatic ( VOA) compounds and on Ready Avenue contained organic II polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons ( PAHs) The results for the other samples were not included in the file. The Oka1oosa characteristic of petroleum fuel [ 26, 38] . dis tance from the County maintenance yard, located on Ready Avenue a short has in the sampling location, has in- service fuel storage tanks and reportedly Ii past experienced fuel losses [ 72]. It should be noted that strong odors emanating from the storm drain were noted during sampling of the storm drain by the investigative team members. The sample results are reported in the following II Surface Water Contamination section. in the vicinity of the Site Monitorin2 Activities. Known monitoring activities related to the assessment and soil remediation site have been principally activities in the fire training area and to June 1990 sampling of the storrnwater at Ready Avenue south of the landfill. system I] j At the fire training site, network of shallow monitoring wells a was installed, the site with one upgradient well to the west and two wells installed near Lead concentrations above the State P~ imary Drinking Water boundary to the east. 1'1 Maximum Contaminant Level ( MCL) in two of the monitoring wells samples of 15 micrograms per liter (~g/ i) were detected on two occasions.