Hernando: New Pockets of Pollution Found at County Site
By Asjylyn Loder, St. Petersburg Times, Fla.
Dec. 21–BROOKSVILLE — New “hot spots” of contamination have been found at Hernando County’s former fleet maintenance compound on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
A new battery of tests detected high levels of petroleum byproducts and other pollutants in a drainage ditch along the southern border of the site, within 10 feet of neighboring yards, according to the county’s consultant.
Additional investigation found evidence that another underground fuel storage tank was once buried on the site, raising the possibility of more contamination. All told, the consultant added eight new areas of concern to the roster of contaminated sections of the site.
While cause for further testing, the test results revealed no immediate health threat, said George Foster, president of Creative Environmental Solutions, the county’s new consultant.
“It’s a significant risk, it’s just not an immediate risk,” Foster said. “But it needs to be cleaned up, no doubt.”
There’s good news as well, Foster said. No pesticide contamination was found on the site, and the contamination that was detected appeared to be confined to small pockets. In addition, a well set up to draw contaminated groundwater from the site showed decreasing levels of contaminants.
“The levels aren’t screaming hot, and the contaminants aren’t widespread, so I don’t think cleanup will to be too hard, unless we turn up something in the future,” Foster said.
On Tuesday, the County Commission agreed to pay Foster’s Brooksville company an additional $89,983 for further testing to outline the scope of the contamination, bringing the total contract to $189,910.
Additional testing will begin in January and February. Soil will be tested around the hot spots to determine how far the contamination has spread. In addition, soil borings will be tested down to 40 feet to determine the depth of the pollution.
“The overall thing is that we defined some of the problems we need to clean up,” said Charles Mixson, county public works director.
While contamination has been found in groundwater on the site, the water is separated from the aquifer tapped for drinking water, which is below the site by 105 to 115 feet, Foster said.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection had previously determined that neighborhood residents use city water instead of wells, greatly reducing the risk that the residents have consumed contaminated water.
The contaminants are left over from the county’s 50-year tenure on the site. Used as a fleet maintenance compound until 2003, the 5-acre site housed the county’s refueling depot, road striping and tar operations, and pesticide supplies. Pollutants found include petroleum byproducts, arsenic, lead and solvents.
The county hired Foster’s company in October amid growing concerns that the previous consultant was not aggressive enough. On Tuesday, the County Commission approved a $12,089 final payment to its former consultant, Environmental Technology of America of St. Petersburg. Over the course of a decade, the county paid ETA more than $1-million.
Gregg Sutton, a county engineer helping to spearhead the cleanup effort, said the county did not know ETA was performing poorly until the state got involved and threatened to fine the county.
“We didn’t know that,” Sutton said. “Hindsight is 20/20.”
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