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EPA and New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Complete Wetlands Restoration at Ottati and Goss / Kingston Steel Drum Superfund Site

Release Date: 04/11/2002
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Affairs Office, (617) 918-1064

BOSTON – EPA New England announced today that it has restored a six-acre wetlands that had been damaged by contamination from the Ottati and Goss / Kingston Steel Drum Superfund Site in Kingston, New Hampshire.

The wetland has been restored with new organic material and young trees to recreate the marsh area that had been contaminated. More that 20,000 cubic yards of wetland material was imported to recreate the marsh area, and 261 hummocks were constructed, approximately 10 hummocks for every 10,000 square feet in the restored area.

EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers excavated and properly disposed of more than 9,600 tons of contaminated soils and sediments from a six-acre portion of the wetland east of Route 125 and adjacent to County Pond in Kingston.

More than 1000 trees and shrubs have been planted in the six-acre area as part of the restoration effort. Plantings include: Red Maple, Yellow Birch, Swamp White Oak, Silky Dogwood, Elderberry, Highbush blueberry, winterberry, Pussy Willow, Serviceberry and Red Chokeberry.

"This is a great Johnny Appleseed kind of project," said Richard Leighton, EPA liaison to the U.S. Corps of Engineers who is overseeing the wetlands restoration activities and tree planting.

Working under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers and EPA, Environmental Chemical Corporation, Inc. has constructed a thermal desorption unit to treat soils contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). This phase of the project is expected to be complete later this spring.

The 35-acre Ottati and Goss / Kingston Steel Drum Site was placed on the EPA's National Priorities List in 1983, making it eligible for federal funding to address contamination at the site. Previous actions taken at the site include the removal of approximately 4,000 drums of waste in the early 1980's. The site is the former location of the Great Lakes Container Corporation which conducted a drum reconditioning operation from the late 1950's through July 1980.