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South Carolina NPL/NPL Caliber Cleanup Site Summaries

Admiral Home Appliances
EPA ID: SC0002333227
Location: Williston, Barnwell County, SC
Congressional District: 04
NPL Status: Superfund Alternative Site
Project Manager
Local Site Repository:
None at this time
Documents:About Adobe Portable Document Format

Site Background:
The Admiral Home Appliance (AHA) Site is a Superfund Alternative Site located in Williston, Barnwell County, South Carolina. The site involves a former wastewater plant utilized by a variety of industries located adjacent to a manufacturing plant (Admiral Home Appliances). The wastewater plant consisted of an Imhoff Tank, Trickling Filter, Sludge Drying Bed, and discharge pipe to adjacent wetlands that drain into a perennial stream (Spur Branch), then Willis Millpond, and again into Spur Branch. The treatment system was removed in early 2005. The manufacturing plant is the current location of Dixie Narco Inc., a division of Maytag Appliances. The plant currently manufactures vending machines for soda, bottled water, and several other products. The wastewater treatment plant was initially constructed for the treatment of domestic wasterwater for a trailer park that housed construction workers for the nearby Savannah River Plant. After the trailer park ceased operation, a variety of manufacturing operations began and expanded over time at the trailer park location. These manufacturing operations continued to use the wastewater plant to inadequately treat industrial wastewater until 1982, when the adjacent manufacturing plant began to pretreat their wastewater and discharge to Williston's Sewage Treatment Plant.

The RI/FS for Admiral Homes Appliances began several phases of field work in late 2001. The last phase of field work was completed in summer 2004. The RI and FS were completed with a revision in March 2005. A Proposed Plan was issued in August 2005, and a Public Meeting was held on August 25, 2005. The comment period for the Proposed Plan has been extended at citizen request and was scheduled to end on November 7, 2005. The Remedial Investigation detected chromium, zinc, nickel, and lead contamination in the soils of the wetland discharge area, and in sediments in Spur Branch. Other contamination was also discovered during the RI. Mercury was found in six residential wells in a neighborhood adjacent to the Dixie Narco Plant with two wells having mercury detections exceeding the MCL. All six homes were offered bottled water. The town of Williston is extending municipal water to the affected area. Carbon tetrachloride and TCE were also detected in the groundwater adjacent to the plant. Remedies contained in the Proposed Plan to deal with the contamination include and excavation and reconstruction of wetlands, an Enhanced Reductive Dechlorination (ERD) system, and removal of a former equalization lagoon located beneath the Dixie Narco parking lot.

Cleanup Progress: Remedial Design/Remedial Action Negotiations Underway
Construction of the proposed remedy has not yet begun. The Record of Decision was issued in September, 2006. Extensive negotiations with the PRPs, led to signature of a Consent Decree in the Summer of 2007 to perform the Remedial Design and Remedial Action.  The Consent Decree was entered in the district court on September 19, 2007. EPA approved the PRPs selection of contractors in early March, 2008 and Remedial Design Work Plans are due to EPA in April, 2008.  The Remedial Design Work Plans are anticipated to be approved by early Fall, 2008.  EPA will perform oversight of the Remedial Design and Remedial Action..   During the completion of the RI/FS, a removal action was conducted in January and February, 2005 to remove the Imhoff Treatment System and a portion of the transfer pipe from the adjacent Dixie Narco plant.

For information about the contents of this page please contact Donna Bledsoe

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