EPA RCRA ID: WVD988766127

On this page:

Cleanup Status
Facility Description
Contaminants at this Facility
Institutional/Engineer Controls
Enforcement and Compliance
Related Information
Contacts for this Facility

Cleanup Status

Note: The lead agency for managing cleanups at this facility is the West Virginia Department of Environment (DEP).

An Administrative Order on Consent requiring investigation of the site was signed by EPA and the owner (Kaiser) on April 3, 1995.

In compliance with the Administrative Order on Consent, the following activities have been completed:

A Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Facility Investigation (RFI) was performed to evaluate the impact of the site on surrounding soils and groundwater. The RFI was completed on March 10, 1997.
A Part I Corrective Measures Study (CMS) was completed on January 22, 1998, and identified the need for testing of the facility cover.
A Part II CMS involved field and laboratory testing of the cover material. The draft CMS Report was submitted to EPA on May 28, 1998.

The draft CMS Report concluded that the most effective option for elimination of risk due to the facility was leaving the material in its present location, performing initial repairs to the seams in the cover, and then continuing to maintain the cover, replacing as necessary.

In 2004, Kaiser divested itself of the The Spent Potliner (SPL) Pile as part of bankruptcy proceedings. At that time, TRC Environmental Corporation took ownership of the Spent Potliner Pile.

EPA concurred with the recommended remedy in the CMS Report, and on August 25, 2011 the proposed remedy was put out for public comment. No comments were received during the 30 day public comment period and a Final Decision and Response To Comments (FDRTC) was issued to TRC on November 8, 2011.

EPA and TRC both signed an 7003 Consent Order in August 2012. The Consent Order is the authority EPA uses to enforce the selected remedy with TRC.

On August 17, 2011, EPA proposed a final cleanup remedy in the Statement of Basis for the SPP Facility consists of the following components: 1) leaving the spent potliner material in place and repairing and maintaining the existing EPDM liner, and 2) compliance with and maintenance of institutional controls.

EPA issued a Final Decision and Response to Comments (FDRTC) for the TRC Spent Potliner Pile in November 2011. A Consent Order between EPA and TRC was signed in August 2012 requiring implementation of the corrective measures set forth in the FDRTC. TRC submitted an Environmental Covenant (UECA) to West Virginia and EPA. The UECA was signed by West Virginia on September 24, 2011.

On May 24, 2016, the EPA conducted a Long Term Stewardship assessment to assess whether the remedy was implemented and protective of human health and the environment. EPA determined that the remedy institutional and engineering controls have been fully implemented and no control deficiencies were identified.

Cleanup Actions or environmental indicators characterizing the entire facility are shown below. It is not intended as an extensive list of milestones/activities. This listing, and all the data on this page, come from EPA’s RCRAInfo and are refreshed nightly to this page. For this table and the Cleanup Activities Pertaining to a Portion of the Facility table that follows, a blank in the Status column could mean the action either has not occurred or has not been reported in RCRAInfo.

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to the Entire Facility

Action	Status	Date of Action
(CA725)
(CA750)
(CA400)
(CA550)
(CA800)
(CA900)
(CA999)

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to a Portion of the Facility

	Action	Area Name	Date of Action

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Facility Description

Link to a larger, interactive view of the map.

The Spent Potliner (SPL) Pile is a 2.7-acre, encapsulated deposit of aluminum-smelting wastes located southwest of Ravenswood, West Virginia. The site is completely surrounded by an active aluminum smelting facility (Century Aluminum). The SPL Pile was originally part of an integrated aluminum manufacturing facility which began operation in 1957 by Kaiser Aluminum. Between 1972 and 1980, spent potliner from the smelting process was stockpiled on concrete and clay pads, awaiting shipment for mineral recycling. An EPDM cover was installed in 1981 to isolate the material from the environment and to prevent contact with rainwater. The site is completely enclosed by a chain-link fence and is located wholly within an active industrial facility.

Contaminants at this Facility

SPL was designated by USEPA as a listed hazardous waste under RCRA in 1988. The main contaminants in soil and groundwater are cyanide and fluoride.

Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility

Institutional and Engineering controls consist of:

A restriction on the use of groundwater beneath the SPL Facility for potable purposes or any other use that could result in human exposure, unless such use is required by the Final Remedy or until groundwater is restored to drinking water standards
A restriction on well drilling at the SPL Facility without prior written EPA approval, to prevent inadvertent exposure to the contaminated groundwater and adverse affects to the Final Remedy
A restriction that the SPL Facility not be used for any purpose other than industrial unless it is demonstrated to EPA that another use will not pose a threat to human health or the environment and EPA provides prior written approval for such use
A restriction that earth moving activities, including drilling, and construction activities are prohibited on the SPL Facility unless it is demonstrated to EPA that such activity use will not pose a threat to human health or the environment and EPA provides prior written approval for such activity
Quarterly Inspections of the liner to ensure liner integrity and repair of any field seams and patches

Institutional and Engineering Controls help ensure human exposure and groundwater migration are under control at a cleanup facility. Where control types have been reported by states and EPA in EPA’s RCRAInfo, they are shown below. Not all control types are needed at all facilities, and some facilities do not require any controls. Where there are blanks, the control types may not be needed, may not be in place, or may not be reported in RCRAInfo.

Are Controls in Place at this Facility?

Control(s) Type		Control(s) in Place?	Areas Subject to Control(s)	Documents available on-line:
(CA 772)	(ID)
	(GC)
	(EP)
	(PR)
(CA 770)	(GW)
(CA 770)

Enforcement and Compliance at this Facility

EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) provides detailed historical information about enforcement and compliance activities at each RCRA Corrective Action Site in their Enforcement and Compliance Historical Online (ECHO) system.

RCRA Enforcement and Compliance Reports from ECHO

Related Information

For more information about this facility, see these other EPA links:

RCRA information in EPA’s Envirofacts database
Information about this facility submitted to EPA under different environmental programs as reported in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Alternative Names for this facility as reported by EPA programs in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Cleanups in My Community provides an interactive map to see EPA cleanups in context with additional data, and lists for downloading data
Search RCRA Corrective Action Sites provides a search feature for Corrective Action Sites

Documents, Photos and Graphics

Contacts for this Facility

EPA Region implements and enforces the RCRA Corrective Action program for and federally recognized tribes.

For further information on this corrective action site, use the Contact Information for Corrective Action Hazardous Waste Clean Ups listings that are accessible through Corrective Action Programs around the Nation.

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