EPA Fact Sheet October 1992                          
                          
                          ABB PLANT CLEANUP PROGRESS
                             Bloomington, Indiana

This fact sheet will tell you about...

  The excavation at the ABB plant
  Location and type of Air Monitoring
  Next steps
  Where to obtain more information

Background

Westinghouse Electric Corporation, 300 North Curry Pike in Bloomington,
Indiana, manufactured and sold electrical capacitors containing
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from 1957 until the late 1970's, when
the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) banned the use
of PCBs for most commercial applications.

On May 3, 1989, USEPA issued an Administrative Order to Westinghouse
Electric Corporation to excavate PCB contaminated soils and to
dispose of or temporarily store the contaminated soils and materials
from the ABB (former Westinghouse Plant) facility. Based on this
order, Westinghouse prepared a plan to excavate and store the PCB-contaminated 
soils and started preliminary work prior to excavation in December 1991.

Westinghouse submitted their final excavation plan in July 1991.
Under that plan the following areas were included for excavation:

        East Retention Pond
        Ellettsville Drainage Ditch
        Mobile Home Park Drainage Area
        North Drainage Ditch Area
        South Drainage Ditch Area
        South Retention Pond

Also in July 1991, they submitted their engineering plan for the proposed
on-site temporary storage facility (TSF). In November, 1991, Westinghouse
submitted an addendum to their final work plan that identified the
following areas to be excavated:

        Archery Field
        Archery Field Drainage Ditch
        RCRA Pad

After site cleanup work began in Spring 1992, two additional areas
were identified:

        Northeast Drainage Ditch
        Water Towff Area

See the May 1992 USEPA fact sheet regarding the ABB cleanup for more
information.

Excavation of Contaminated Soils

By late 1992 these five areas will have been completely cleaned up
(excavated and backfilled). They are:

        Archery Field
        Ellettsville Drainage Ditch Area
        RCRA Pad
        South Drainage Ditch Area
        South Retention Pond

The contaiminated materials are stored in the on-site TSF.
 
The Mobile Home Park Drainage area was found to contain low levels of
PCB contamination during the development of the first work plan. This
area is currently being sampled to better define the extent of PCB
contamination. Once sampling is complete, excavation will begin.

PCB contamination was identified at the Water Tower Area. This area was
saturated with an oil and water mixture, however the source of the oil is
unknown. A leaking high pressure fire water piping loop partially
saturates soils underlying the Water Tower Area. The cleanup of this area
will be conducted in two steps:

   containment of the oil/water mixture in 1992 and excavation in Spring
   1993. After EPA approves Westinghouse's work plan, the following steps
   are planned for this year:

     Install a water recovery system to contain the oil/water mixture and
     prevent them from migrating towards nearby areas (East Retention
     Pond and the Archery Field Drainage Ditch).

     Build a dike at the north portion of the East Retention Pond to prevent
     stormwater from entering.

     Construct another ditch to redirect stormwater around the East Retention 
     Pond.

The Northeast Drainage Ditch will be excavated by late 1992 and the materials 
stored in the TSF. Actual excavation of the contaminated soils in the East 
Retention Pond and Archery Field Drainage Ditch will not start until Spring 
1993.

Some soils and sediments in the North Drainage Ditch area contained relatively 
low concentrations of hazardous wastes in addition to the PCB, contaminated
materials. These solvent-laden wastes could not be placed on site after
excavation without treatment.

Westinghouse excavated these contaminated soils (approximately 1100 tons) and 
transported them to a permitted facility for disposal.

Air Monitoring

During the site cleanup, Westinghouse uses high volume PolyUrethane Foam
(PUF) air samplers (Figure 1) to provide measurements of airborne PCBs.
These samplers are temporarily placed at each of the excavated areas just
before excavation begins and after completion are moved to the next area to
be excavated. Air samplers are in place near the mobile home park, the 
Ellettsville Drainage Ditch, and around the perimeter of the TSF. Air 
monitoring will continue until the cleanup is completed.

The PUF samplers are designed to simultaneously collect suspended airborne 
particulates while trapping airborne vapors. A dual chambered aluminum 
sampling module (See Flgure 2) contains both filtering systems. The upper 
chamber supports the airborne particulate filter media in a circular filter 
holder and the lower chamber encapsulates a glass cartridge which contains 
PUF for vapor entrapment.

During the excavation of hazardous and toxic materials in each of the
eleven areas, miniature realtime aerosol monitoring (MINIRAM) devices are
used to detect airborne particulates and to provide shortterm measurements of 
them. Estimates of PCB concentration in air can also be derived from the 
MINIRAM.

The USEPA determined that 1 microgram/cubic meter would conservatively
safeguard the mobile home park residents from experiencing harmful PCB
concentrations in the ambient air. To date, none of the off-site air monitors 
have exceeded that level. The air monitoring results are available at the 
Monroe County Information Repositories located on the back page of this fact 
sheet.

Next Steps

  Containment of the oil and water mixture in the Water Tower Area (1992)

  Cleanup of the Water Tower Area (Spring 1993)

  Soil characterization of the Archery Field Drainage Ditch and the East
  Retention Pond (ongoing)

  Excavate East Retention Pond and Archery Field Drainage Ditch (1993)

  Based upon the amount of materials excavated from the Archery Field
  Drainage Ditch, a decision will be made whether or not to construct an 
  additional TSF

  USEPA will consider options for stored soils' disposal through an
  Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA)

This document scanned by COPA for the BBS.