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EPA approves partial removal of Oahu's Del Monte site from Superfund List

Release Date: 1/14/2004
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi (808) 541-2711

HONOLULU--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently approved the removal of the Poamoho section of Del Monte Corporation's Kunia, Oahu pineapple plantation from the national Superfund list.

The decision was made after a public comment period where the EPA received two comment letters in favor of the partial deletion.

Del Monte Fresh Produce has agreed to investigate contamination throughout the site, including a former fumigant drum burial site, a closed underground storage tank site, a former fumigant mixing area and a rag disposal area in the Poamoho section. The main contaminants of concern are the pesticides ethylene dibromide, dibromo-chloropropane, dichloropropane and the solvent trichloropropane.

The EPA will now focus its efforts on cleaning up soil and groundwater contamination on the southern portion of the federal Superfund site known as the Kunia section.

The Del Monte site consists of the Kunia and Poamoho sections. The Kunia section is south of Wheeler Air Field and Schofield Army Barracks, a separate site removed from the federal Superfund list in 2000. The Poamoho section is north of these facilities.

A 1977 ethylene dibromide spill at the facility prompted local officials to disconnect the nearby Kunia Well after detecting contamination above safe drinking water levels in the well in 1980. Since groundwater flows south, contamination from the Kunia spill does not affect the Poamoho section.

The EPA placed the Del Monte Site on the national Superfund list in December 1994.

The announcement was published on Jan. 13 in the Federal Register and can be viewed at: www.epa.gov/fedrgstr
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