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Federal Facility Response Awards Underground Storage Tanks Awards Superfund Awards Emergency Management Awards Regional Science Awards Environmental Justice Superfund Enforcement Awards RCRA Corrective Action Awards Resource Conservation Challenge Awards Cross-Program Revitalization Awards Brownfields
United States Environmental Protection Agency

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2005 National Notable Achievement Awards
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RCRA Corrective Action Award Recipients

Outstanding Use of Innovative Approaches – Individual
Edgar Davis, Region 1

During the past year, Edgar Davis has managed 13 RCRA facilities projects. He moved three of his GPRA Baseline facilities to a yes determination for the Human Health Environmental Indicator and three to a yes for the Groundwater Under Control Environmental Indicator. Without his actions in this area the region would have missed its FY 2004 target for human health indicators. Edgar also issued an innovative Section 3013 Order and served as a point of contact for people working or living near projects in potential environmental justice (EJ) areas that has helped maintain a focus on EJ within the region’s RCRA corrective action program.

The Rogers Corporation facility in South Windham, CT, is an excellent example of Edgar’s taking action to move a facility toward achieving a Human Health Environmental Indicator. Due to concern that contamination from sediments in the Shetucket River would pose a health risk for people consuming fish, Edgar evaluated the area using a regional EJ mapping tool. He found there was no subsistence fishing occurring in the area and normal risk assumptions could be made. A risk assessment using this exposure route found the risk to be within acceptable limits.

Edgar also achieved the Groundwater Environmental Indicator goal at the Rogers Corporation in Killingly, CT. Groundwater from the facility discharges to the Quinebaug River, and in one monitoring well has concentrations of zinc that exceed applicable surface water criteria. Edgar’s expertise led to the finding that the discharge of groundwater contaminants does not pose an unacceptable impact. Groundwater monitoring will continue to determine if concentrations of key contaminants are increasing.

He was instrumental in securing Superfund funding at the Ball & Socket site in Cheshire, CT, which should result in its achieving the environmental indicators by the end of FY 2005. With help from legal interns and a staff lawyer, Edgar drafted an innovative Section 3013 Order. The order utilizes the deadlines set out in the statute to expeditiously characterize the facility and emphasizes actions that will achieve the Human Health Environmental Indicator. Edgar plans on using this facility to pilot electronic data transfer for the review and interpretation of chemical and geological data.


Outstanding Use of Innovative Approaches – Team
RCRA Innovations Team, Region 8
Steve Burkett, Tom Burns, Nancy Morlock, Robin Coursen, Marcella DeVargas, Bill Rothenmeyer, Corbin Darling, Chuck Figur, Walter Avramenko, Joe Schieffelin, Carrie Jacobson, Brad Maulding

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The efforts of this team grew out of the RCRA Search Conference held in November 2003, in Denver. The charge to the team was to review implementation of the RCRA program in Region 8, devise any needed changes, and clearly define roles. The team consisted of program implementers from EPA and the states who brought together cross programmatic, headquarters and state input to accomplish the tasks. Together they developed a Framework for Partnership with States, EPA and State Roles and Responsibilities Document/Table and Program Standards of Performance and Oversight Procedures, the latter of which was incorporated into the Region 8 Oversight Manual.

The documents developed by the team clearly lay out state technical and fiduciary responsibilities and federal oversight responsibilities. When fully implemented the documents should result in improvements in the overall efficiency of the program, minimize duplication of effort, and set the stage for improved communications and a stronger partnership. In addition, by laying out clear expectations for oversight (such as quality reviews for corrective action), the effort will assure on-going technically defensible Environmental Indicator determinations for human health or groundwater migration where such oversight previously had not been done. Finally, these new procedures seek to change the “culture” of the corrective action program through new definitions of roles and responsibilities in Program Technical Assistance and Training. Expectations and roles clarification will result in program improvements and efficiencies and allow more focused time to be spent on technical and program issues.


Connecting Communities to Cleanups – Team
GTE/Whisman Site Team, Region 9
Katherine Baylor, Patrick Wilson, David Cooper, John Moody, Alana Lee, and Hamideh Khayat

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When EPA changed the provisional toxicity value for trichloroethylene (TCE), a reassessment of the former clean-closed GTE/Verizon site in Mountain View, California, revealed an imminent and substantial danger to human health due to TCE vapor intrusion into homes. Over 500 homes had been built on the site.

The voluntary nature of GTE/Verizon’s response, the ambiguity of regulatory authority, the controversy of the provisional TCE toxicity assessment, the desire of the city and developers to build additional housing on and adjacent to the site, the absence of an enforceable order or permit, and the very real fears of current residents posed immediate, unique, unprecedented and potentially very serious challenges. Region 9’s project team took early action to involve the community and guided the site investigation and remediation efforts while earning the often articulated respect and trust of both the community and various other stakeholders. The team studied the social and economic demographics of the community to better understand and include the immediate and broader community in all of its efforts.

The team’s approach won support for EPA’s plans and actions while enabling the broader community to participate in the decisions. Meeting early in the process and often throughout the reassessment, the team provided exceptional responsiveness to the widely diverse stakeholder needs expressed by the homeowners, school district, city, and realtors. Because English is not the first language for much of the community, the team provided translators in as many as four languages during meetings and translated fact sheets and other documents as needed. The team meets regularly with the various communities and stakeholders to provide them with all proposed and draft plans and reports. Because of the complexity and controversy of the issues involved, the team has regularly made itself available for ad hoc educational and information exchanges with various community and stakeholder workgroups.


Capitalize on Redevelopment Potential – Individual
Jonathan Adenuga, Region 5

Jonathan Adenuga’s creative leveraging of resources for implementing the remedy at the Federated Metals Corporation facility in Hammond, Indiana, highlights his management skills as a corrective action project manager. His actions proved essential to cleaning up this site after the near bankruptcy of Federated Metals’ parent company, Asarco, Inc., left implementation of this environmentally significant project in serious jeopardy.

In 2003, $350,000 from the federal Asarco trust became available for the remediation. However, since the initial cost for remediation was projected to be $3.4 million, the trust amount was insufficient to allow work to begin. In response to this challenge, Jonathan found several ways to leverage more money. For instance, he alerted the Office of Regional Counsel of the existence of a closure trust fund for the landfill closure administered by the state and successfully negotiated to use some of the money to make up some of the shortfall. He pursued other avenues that tapped additional trust funds from the state and federal governments.

Throughout the process, Jonathan provided information and analysis in support of funding requests to EPA headquarters, the Department of Justice, and the state, and coordinated and reviewed requests to federal and state trustees for reimbursement for corrective action work performed at the site. He also helped manage both trust funds, which involved reviewing invoices against specific remediation work performed at the site and approving reimbursement to the contractors.

The construction of the Federated Metals corrective action project is scheduled to be completed during 2005, and could not have been accomplished without Jonathan’s extraordinary efforts. The overall project has been touted by federal, state, and local officials as an example of intergovernmental cooperation, economic revitalization, and environmental restoration of an important redevelopment site.


Capitalize on Redevelopment Potential – Team
Allied Baltimore Redevelopment Team, Region 3
Russell Fish, Bob Greaves, Harold Dye, and Jim Leizear

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The Allied Baltimore Redevelopment Team has demonstrated an outstanding effort to capitalize on the redevelopment potential of the 27-acre, former Allied-Signal (now Honeywell) chromium processing facility in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The team’s creation of strong partnerships among the stakeholders has facilitated property reuse, demonstrated innovation, and improved the efficiency of the corrective action process.

A major challenge faced by the team was how to keep a $250 million project on schedule and in compliance with consent decree requirements. In response, the team took a proactive role in the bi-monthly meetings between Honeywell and the developers, which proved to be the key to success. By attending their meetings, the team was able to cultivate a positive and successful working relationship between the two entities and address regulatory issues and potential technical problems on a real time basis. This strong partnership and the team’s prompt technical review of preliminary design plans, a service not required by the consent decree, avoided any project delays and facilitated cooperation.

Because the consent decree contains no criteria for approval of interim uses of the site while the developer completes a comprehensive redevelopment plan, the team worked with their respective counsel and developed the necessary criteria. Thus, the team’s creative use of an enforcement tool made interim uses of the site possible as long as they did not interfere with the implemented remedy or adversely affect human health. One interim use to promote interest in the site has been an outdoor recreational ice skating rink, which has been a huge success and continues to be a City of Baltimore “event.”


State Corrective Action Reform – Team
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Region 4
Division of Waste Management: Corrective Action Engineering Section and Operations Engineering Section; Division of Hydrogeology: RCRA Hydrogeology Sections I and II

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The outstanding leadership and innovation demonstrated by all four sections involved with corrective action in the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control have improved the overall efficiency of the RCRA corrective action program. This accomplishment is especially noteworthy because South Carolina contains some of the largest and most complex corrective action sites in the country. To improve the efficiency of cleanups, the state has formed several dedicated, high performing teams that are empowered to make decisions at the table and use partnering as a tool to reach consensus on key decisions. Although traditionally the goals of RCRA corrective action are achieved through permits, in special circumstances, the state has involved the enforcement program and produced alternative administrative mechanisms to reach the corrective action objectives.

An example of South Carolina’s adaptability occurred during the bankruptcy proceedings at the Safety-Kleen, Inc. site. South Carolina found a timely and creative way to reach a settlement agreement with the company apart from the standard procedure of remaining with all of the other creditors. The state’s actions resulted in an early settlement with the best possible outcome. The Charleston Naval Complex, a complicated RCRA corrective action site, is another example of the state’s redevelopment success, which has attracted more than 100 private, local, state, and federal entities to the former base.

The state has allowed facilities and their contractors the flexibility to combine steps in the cleanup process, thereby eliminating most of the prescriptive, linear process. The state’s approach at the Gaston Copper Recycling Corporation facility has resulted in final cleanup in four years compared to the typical ten years.


State Corrective Action Reform – Team
Virginia RCRA Brownfields Team, Region 3
Maria Williams, Dennis Lund, and Kelly Ward

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Maria Williams of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality developed a pilot program in 2004 to establish an effective approach for facilitating revitalization at targeted corrective action facilities. The RCRA Brownfields Intervention Team that she assembled included Dennis Lund, a technical expert, and Kelly Ward, a representative of Virginia’s Brownfields Remediation Loan Program. Kelly’s participation in the meetings with the facilities gave the team a unique quality because she could discuss low-interest state loans for facilitating cleanup and redevelopment. Maria also included local officials to help address questions from the three targeted facilities and Region 3 to help with the agreements.

The team focused on results over process and avoided the conventional methods of issuing permits or orders, which typically do not lend themselves to the highly time-critical needs of owners and developers who wish to revitalize RCRA facilities. The team creatively used a combination of state programs, including the voluntary cleanup program and Region 3’s Facility Lead Program, to develop a successful template for accelerating corrective action. Facility lead agreements encourage a streamlined corrective action approach resulting in more expeditious investigations and subsequent cleanups. By offering facility lead agreements and economic incentives concurrently with the site visits, the team successfully leveraged cooperative facilities to accelerate corrective action and redevelopment.

Two of the three facilities joined EPA Region 3’s Facility Lead Program and have already developed plans to revitalize their facilities. One site was approved for a low interest loan and the second is in the process of applying. The team also showed that at one recalcitrant facility, it was able to leverage the additional state and city resources to quickly address conditions posing a serious health threat. As a result of the pilot’s success, the team plans 15 additional site visits in FY 2005.

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Page Last Modified: May 17, 2005