Massive cleanup of contaminated site on Capital Hill

Tons of soil believed contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, lead, organochlorine pesticides, diesel, motor oil, and other toxic chemicals dumped during and after World War II are now being extracted from the I-Denni area on Capital Hill for off-island shipment and disposal, some nine years after the federal government completed a $20-million cleanup that rid Tanapag of over of 40,000 tons of PCB-laced soil.

Several dozens of jumbo white sacks containing contaminated soil were located by the entrance to the I-Denni removal site. The white sacks are labeled, “Non-RCRA Regulated Waste,” and the shipper is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Honolulu District.

Big trucks carrying soil were seen leaving the site, which was off-limits to the media as of yesterday afternoon.

An Army Corps contractor and a staffer from the Historic Preservation Office were at the site but refused to speak, referring questions to the Department of Public Lands.

DPL Secretary Oscar M. Babauta, in a phone interview, confirmed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in coordination with local agencies such as DPL and the Division of Environmental Quality, are currently cleaning up the I-Denni area on Capital Hill of soil with “contaminants” left behind after the war.

Babauta said I-Denni on Capital Hill is one of the identified Formerly Used Defense Sites, or FUDS, on Saipan, similar to Tanapag.

He said the federal government needs to clean up the site to give way to a long-planned homestead subdivision.

“Besides cleaning up the site of contamination, the significance of this is that DPL would be allowed to open up the site as a new homestead subdivision. A lot of families will benefit from this project,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Rep. Stanley Torres (Ind-Saipan), a Capital Hill resident who chanced upon the ongoing massive cleanup, said he’s surprised that federal and local agencies involved in the cleanup have kept it under wraps.

“Why have they kept quiet about this ongoing cleanup? The public needs to know that finally, the federal government is cleaning up what the U.S. military dumped in our backyard after so many decades,” Torres told Saipan Tribune in an interview at the cleanup site yesterday afternoon.

Torres, one of the longest serving lawmakers in the CNMI, said this particular I-Denni area was a “dumping ground” for different chemicals, as well different types of trash.

Other information such as estimated volume of contaminated soil to be extracted, where they will be shipped off and disposed of, the specific chemicals found in the soil, amount of federal funds budgeted for the cleanup, and length of time needed to complete the cleanup have yet to be known from agencies involved.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had confirmed in 2002 the PCB and lead contamination in the I-Denni area on Capitol Hill, noting that the levels of these chemicals present in the site exceeded EPA’s cleanup standards.

PCB Aroclor 1254 was detected in 25 soil samples collected from the I-Denni area, and Aroclor 1254 was detected in six soil samples, the Army Corps said in an August 2002 report.

It said 21 of the soil samples tainted with PCB exceeded EPA’s preliminary remediation goal of 66 microgram per kilogram.

The Army Corps also said 30 soil samples collected from the area contained lead concentration in excess of EPA’s preliminary remediation goal of 400 mg/kg. The maximum lead concentration measured in the area was 4,400 mg/kg.

Mercury was detected at low levels with a maximum concentration of 8.4mg/kg.

Also detected were organochlorine pesticides, diesel and motor oil, and tetrachloroethylene, among others.