Davis South Campus Superfund Oversight Committee
Rt. 2 Box 2879
Davis, CA 95616
916-753-9446
fax 916-753-8220
e-mail [email protected]
http://www.members.aol.com/dscsoc/dscsoc.htm


September 30, 1999

Kathy Setian
LEHR Project Manager
Environmental Protection Agency
75 Hawthorne Street H-9-1
San Francisco, CA 94105

via: e-mail

Dear Kathy,

After the discussion of DSCSOC's concern items you listed regarding the LEHR site at yesterday's RPM meeting, you expressed that you were disappointed with the discussion results and that you would have to re-think if you would use this approach again. DSCSOC appreciates your efforts to discuss our concerns but DSCSOC felt disappointed too and I wanted to let you know why.

I do not think that DSCSOC had a clear understanding of your intentions with regard to your list of DSCSOC's concerns. Upon reflection, a better approach would have been for DSCSOC to prepare a summarized list of concerns which DSCSOC felt the PRPs needed to address. Prior to the meeting, DSCSOC felt that if US EPA wanted to raise some of DSCSOC's issues, we would not disagree with your approach, but some of the items you listed did not reflect DSCSOC's priority concerns. For example, while DSCSOC has previously raised concerns about the UCD campus landfill No. 4 since it received LEHR site wastes (your item #9 - "Investigation of Landfill #4"), DSCSOC has accepted that under current circumstances this landfill will not become part of the LEHR investigation. This was communicated to you by Dr. Lee in response to review of your list. We were surprised when your final list, that you asked UCD and DOE to address, still contained this item. DSCSOC did not object to US EPA listing this item for discussion by the PRPs at this time, as we felt the items listed reflected DSCSOC concerns that the US EPA wanted discussed.

Dr. Lee expressed that he had concerns about some items on your list when he responded to you, "While the Hg issues that you have listed are all important, I feel that several of them (i.e., dredging for hot spots) are beyond the scope of US EPA authority in a Superfund site investigation." In light of the current understanding of the role of the LEHR site as a source of mercury that bioaccumulates to excessive levels in Putah Creek fish, as Dr. Lee indicated, the first step is to determine whether the elevated concentrations of mercury in LEHR site soils are contributing to the excessive mercury present in Putah Creek fish. If yes, then as Dr. Lee has previously discussed, dredging for hot spots might be an appropriate approach. DSCSOC feels a discussion of the Hg issues is a DSCSOC priority at the site, and Dr. Lee listed DSCSOC's assessment of Hg issues in his response to you which were items we hoped would be discussed.

DSCSOC was not sure how the PRPs were expected to address our concerns. Each time thus far, the PRPs have attempted to ignore addressing our concerns. It is through the assistance of Duncan and Susan that UCD and DOE have been forced to discuss some of these issues. DSCSOC had hoped that the PRPs would review Dr. Lee's comments and address his specific comments on the items listed. If the PRPs disagreed with DSCSOC's comments, we expected the PRPs to provide points of authority, data to support their position, and that a discussion based on this information would follow. DSCSOC had hoped that the RPMs would express their positions on the issues.

DSCSOC felt that what happened instead was a general, superficial discussion by Dames & Moore and Weiss & Assoc., where they did not provide points of authority or data to support their position, and they maintained their previous positions on the issues without addressing Dr. Lee's comments. It is unacceptable to DSCSOC/the public that our concerns were dismissed without the PRPs conducting a credible discussion of the issues, and where there was no consensus by the RPMs on the appropriate stormwater runoff monitoring program that UCD and DOE should be conducting for the LEHR site. Dr. Lee will provide the RPMs with a detailed discussion regarding the PRPs discussion of DSCSOC's listed items of concern.

It was also unfortunate that the meeting conditions were such that not all of the discussions could be heard by everyone at the meeting, and at times several discussions were taking place.

DSCSOC appreciates your efforts on our behalf and we hope to work with US EPA Region 9 in the future to develop a credible surface water quality monitoring program at the LEHR site that errs on the side of protection of public health and the environment, rather than enabling UCD to continue to practice cheaper than real cost waste disposal.

Sincerely,

Julie Roth
Executive Director

cc: RPMs
PRPs

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