General Electric Company/Shepherd Farm

• Site Profile
• Administrative Record Index (All PDF): OU1 (13 pp., 585K), ESD2 (1 pp., 22K)
• Additional Site Documents including Five Year Reviews, Records of Decisions (ROD) and Explanation of Significant Differences (ESD).
• For documents not available on the website, please contact the Region 4 Freedom of Information Office (http://www.epa.gov/region4/foiapgs/submit.htm).

Site Background:
The GE/Shepherd Farm Site, located in Henderson County, North Carolina consists of two noncontiguous disposal areas: the GE Lighting Systems approximately 50-acre facility; and the 3-acre portion of the Shepherd Farm property located 1500 feet southwest of the GE property. The Shepherd Farm property now contains a trailer park and residential housing. Since 1955, GE has manufactured several types of luminaire systems. The GE property contains a manufacturing plant, a warehouse, eight plots formerly used for landspreading wastes, two unlined waste treatment ponds, a sludge impoundment, two former landfills, and a recreation center. From 1955 until 1975, GE generated a substantial quantity of PCB wastes as a result of transformer production. Disposal of these wastes prior to 1980 is not well documented, but in 1974, PCB wastes were sent to Emelle, Alabama for disposal. From approximately 1957 to 1970, wastes from the GE plant were disposed of on the plant property as well as in an old dry pond on the Shepherd Farm property. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as vinyl chloride, trichloroethene, and tetrachloroethene have been found in the groundwater. Metals and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found in the soil.

Cleanup Progress: Actual Construction Underway
GE has removed all underground storage tanks (USTs), contaminated soil from the USTs and a ruptured drain line, and has extended city water mains to some households. Other households are provided bottled water by GE. A final cleanup decision (ROD) for the site was reached between EPA and the State in September 1995. In 1996, EPA entered into a Consent Decree with GE to conduct the design and construction of the remedy. The removal of contaminated soil from the Shepherd Farm portion of the Site was completed in November 1997. Soil remediation activities at the GE facility, which included removal of contaminated soil from 2 landfills and capping on-site, was completed in December 1999. Construction of the groundwater pump and treat system was completed in September 2000. The system is currently operational.  The first Five Year Review was completed in August of 2004.   The remedy as designed and implemented was found to be protective of human health and the environment in the short term.  To assure long term protectiveness at the GE Site the mandated institutional controls needed to be implemented. The institutional controls have not yet been implemented. Performance monitoring is being conducted on a annual basis. The latest Annual Groundwater Remedial Action Performance Monitoring Report was submitted December 2007.