OXFORDChildren and their parents crowded the Oxford ball fields Thursday night, while environmental regulators and Solutia employees waited in a meeting room nearby, available to talk to residents about the PCBs lurking next to the ball fields.
Only four or five residents showed up for the 6 p.m. public "availability" meeting, at the Oxford Civic Center, held to inform the public of Solutia's plans to seal the PCBs from the ball fields under an asphalt parking lot.
The dirt will be covered with eight inches of gravel and three inches of asphalt, and a buffer of 12 inches of clean soil will be placed around the lot. It will be investigated regularly, probably on a semi-annual basis, said Craig Branchfield, Solutia's manager for remedial projects.
Oxford Mayor Leon Smith said he's not too worried about polluted potholes. "We'd certainly fix them quickly," he said.
While sampling near Snow Creek, Solutia discovered elevated levels of PCBs in the ball fields and 15 adjacent acres last July. With the city of Oxford's approval, the company collected the contaminated dirt from the ball field into a big pile and covered it with plastic. The dirt has been sitting there since January.
Smith said he hopes to seal more of the nearby PCBs - most likely washed up from the banks of Snow Creek on their way down from Anniston's former Monsanto plant - under a proposed tennis court.
However, that's subject to more testing and planning, Branchfield said.
"Eventually we want to investigate the whole flood plain," Branchfield said.
For now, the Environmental Protection Agency is not taking a formal position on Solutia's handling of the dirt, other than to make sure it is removed safely.
Eventually, EPA or the Alabama Department of Environmental Management will decide how Solutia should handle PCBs throughout the watershed, through either Superfund or Resource Conservation and Recovery Act administrative decisions.
That may or may not invalidate Solutia's activities at the ball field, said Steve Spurlin, EPA's on-scene coordinator for the Superfund investigation.
In the meantime, Solutia plans to begin work on the parking lot June 4. The estimated completion date is Aug. 31.
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