Redwing Carriers, Inc. (Saraland)

• Site Profile
• Administrative Record Index (All PDF): OU1 (35 pp., 1.5M), Amend (3 pp., 148K)
• Record of Decision OU1

Site Background:
The Redwing Carriers, Incorporated site is 5.1 acres in size and is located in the City of Saraland, Mobile County, Alabama. From 1961 to 1971, Redwing Carriers, Inc., a trucking company, owned and operated the site as a terminal for cleaning, repairing and parking its fleet of trucks.  The firm transported a variety of substances, including asphalt, diesel fuel, chemicals and pesticides from local plants.  During cleaning, untreated hazardous substances were released to the ground creating a tar-like sludge and contaminating site soils.  The tar-like sludge is composed predominately of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds together with lesser amounts of pesticides, herbicides and volatile organic compounds.

In 1973, Saraland Apartments Ltd., purchased the site and built a HUD subsidized apartment complex on the site. The apartments were built after the sludge and contaminated soil had been covered over with up to five feet of clean soil.   The complex consists of 60 apartment units located in 12 buildings and until recently housed approximately 160 residents including eighty to ninety preschool-age or elementary school-age children

Cleanup Progress: Threat Mitigation by Physical Cleanup Work
In 1984, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management investigated apartment residents' complaints about the tar-like sludge seeping to the surface at numerous locations at the Site.  In 1985, EPA conducted initial studies in which high concentrations of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene and naphthalene were detected in the soil and in leachate coming from the sludge.  On July 9, 1985, the Agency and Redwing entered into an Administrative Order on Consent which required Redwing to (among other things) conduct a limited sludge and contaminated soil removal. The site was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL) in February 1990.  On December 15, 1992, EPA issued a Record of Decision for the Site.  Redwing continued periodic removal of surface seeps until 1994 when they stopped doing any work at the site.

On July 12, 1996, EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order to Redwing and Saraland Apartments, Ltd. directing them to remove the source of the recurring tar seeps.  When both parties refused to comply with the order, EPA took action to do the removal by temporarily relocate 57 families living in the complex and excavating and transporting off site for disposal approximately 20,724 tons of sludge, contaminated soil and debris.
Air monitoring conducted in the apartments after the removal was completed detected unacceptable levels of benzene and the pesticide Aldrin in some of the apartments.  Based on this monitoring, EPA determined that the residents could not return to live in the apartments. Working together, EPA and HUD have relocated the residents to comparable permanent housing.

In July 1997, EPA collected soil, sediment, and water samples from twenty-three properties adjacent to the Redwing Carriers Superfund Site.  The purpose for this sampling was to address community concerns about possible releases from the site.  Based on a risk evaluation of the analytical results of these samples, the Agency determined that there is no unacceptable health risk or hazard in the neighborhood adjacent to the Redwing site.

In April 1999, EPA published a Proposed Plan to amend the 1992 ROD based on new data collected during the 1996-1997 Removal Action.  The amended ROD was signed on June 14, 2000.

A global settlement between the Redwing PRPs and the Federal government was reached on the final cleanup of the Redwing Site.  A Remedial Design/Remedial Action Consent Decree was entered on February 26, 2002.