On May 1, 2014, FMC filed a notice of formal dispute regarding the recommended cleanup remedy for the Air deposition Area and Culvert 105 in Middleport, seeking a USEPA review of the NYSDEC/NYSDOH remedy.
The USEPA has withdrawn from the negotiations concerning the Air Deposition Area and Culvert 105 only being involved for informational purposes. This request by FMC is an attempt to bring the EPA in for a review under the current contract FMC has with the Agencies under the past consent decree. This project is still under the guidelines of a federal RCRA program even if the State is making the decisions.
FMC has spent the past year in discussions with the New York State Agencies trying to understand how the parameter “flexibility” will be incorporated into the remedy. After these discussions it has been concluded there is no flexibility and we are actually back to CMA-2, everything above 20 PPM would be remediated.
Some of the factors FMC plans to dispute are:
- The use of 20 PPM as a maximum instead of an average of 20 per property.
- The calculation method used for the Middleport background using sampling from Gasport.
- The lack of adherence to federal guidelines in some instances.
- The ignoring of public comments by the Agencies.
- The lack of use of a site based risk assessment as specified in the Cleanup Objectives and instead using background as a maximum.
- The selection of land use for cleanup objectives where the assumed land use is not the current use of the property.
The dispute procedure should begin in 30 days and could take a year or so to resolve. Our state elected officials will endorse FMC's dispute.
Click
Read Full Article below for more.
FMC is also extending their Home Value Assurance program until the end of 2015. This program assures eligible home owners in effected areas to receive fair market value when they decide to sell.
Another item is some may have heard the the Royalton-Hartland School plans to rebuild their softball diamonds this summer. They have made a request to the State that FMC remediate the school grounds this summer to coincide with that rebuild. FMC has told the school they will haul and store any soil removed during the school’s rebuild but will not remediate the school yard at this time in accordance with the stated Agency conclusion that the school yard is within requirements and safe as a school yard. If the use of the property changes from a school in the future, FMC will re-address.
