Page 1 of 5 Partial Deletion of OU9, Residential Soils California Gulch Superfund Site Responsiveness Summary

Introduction

A Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion for the Ca lifornia Gulch Superfund Site (Site) was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, May 24, 2011 (76 FR 30081). The intent of this notice was to inform the public that EPA plans to delete a portion of the Site from the National Priorities List, and provide a 30-day public comment period on the proposed partial deletion. The closing date for co mments on the Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion was Thursday June 23, 2011. Three written comments were received (these comments are available in the deletion docke t).

All comments were considered in EPA’s final decisio n to delete the Site from the NPL.

Responsiveness Summary

This Responsiveness Summary has been prepared to p rovide responses to comments submitted to EPA during the 30-day public comment period regarding the Notice of Intent for Partial Deletion (76 FR 30081) of the California Gulch Superfund Site. The original comments are summarized below a nd available at http://www.regulations.gov , Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-1983-0002, with the support materials under document type “Public Submi ssions”, and at the information repositories at the following addresses:

U.S. EPA Region 8, Superfund Records Center, 1595 W ynkoop Street, Denver, CO 80202. (303) 312-6473 or toll free (800) 227-891 7; Viewing hours: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holi days;

and

Lake County Public Library, 1115 Harrison Avenue, L eadville, CO 80461. (719) 486-0569: Viewing hours: Monday and Wednesday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Frida y and Saturday 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.;

and

Timberline Campus Library of Colorado Mountain Coll ege, 901 U.S. Highway 24 South, Leadville, CO 80461. (719) 486-4250; Viewing hours: Monday to Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m; Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Saturday 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p. m.Page 2 of 5

Summary of Comment from Jenna Dokken:

Mrs. Dokken is concerned that her yard is contamin ated from past mining waste and wants help getting her yard cleaned up. She states, “Even though our 3 year old son has had high lead levels, we cannot cl ean this up ourselves.”

Response

Deletion from the NPL does not alter or change the current program that addresses potential lead in residential soil in Leadville. T his program is called the Lake County Community Health Program Phase 2 (LCCHP) which is t he operation and maintenance phase of the remedy.

It may be helpful to understand the origin and hist ory of the LCCHP. In 1994, EPA, the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Enviro nment (CDPHE), and Asarco reached a settlement creating an interim lead risk reduction program called Kids First which would operate until EPA and CDPHE selected a permanent remedy for OU9, Residential Soils. Beginning in May of 1995, the K ids First program was developed to reduce the risk of lead exposure to young children and pregnant women from residential soils, dust, interior and exterior paint, and tap w ater potentially contaminated with lead and other heavy metals from nearby mining activitie s. In early 1999, EPA published for public comment a plan proposing the LCCHP as the pe rmanent remedy for OU9. Later that year and after receiving and considering publi c comment, the LCCHP became the selected remedy in the OU9 Record of Decision (ROD) . The Kids First program then

transitioned into the LCCHP in 2000. Asarco, the r esponsible party, funded and administered Kids First and the LCCHP until it file d for bankruptcy in July 2005. EPA, CDPHE, and Lake County assumed implementation of th e LCCHP in October 2005.

The primary elements of this first phase of the LCC HP (EPA and CDPHE term this the “remedial action”) are listed below: • Community awareness and education programs; • Free, voluntary blood lead monitoring with approp riate follow-up for young children (12 to 72 months) and pregnant and nursing women; • Voluntary residential environmental testing for l ead; • Voluntary response actions to reduce the risk of lead exposure to children in Leadville and surrounding residential areas; • High-efficiency particulate air filter (HEPA)-vac uum loan program; and • Institutional Controls to help ensure long-term e ffectiveness.

The 1999 ROD contained performance standards which EPA and CDPHE used to gauge the effectiveness of the first phase of the LCCHP. The performance standards for the LCCHP were based on two goals, 1) no more than five percent of all children (ages 0 to 72 months) who live at the site will have blood lea d values higher than 10 μg/dL, and 2.) no more than one percent of children (ages 0 to 72 months) who live at the site will have blood lead levels higher than 15 μg/dL. The perfor mance standards for the first phase of the LCCHP were considered met if the goals were met and maintained over a consecutivePage 3 of 5

three year period. In early 2006, EPA and CDPHE de termined that performance standards for the first phase of the LCCHP were met . Thus, except for implementation of

institutional controls, the remedial action was com plete and the transition into the second phase of the remedy could begin. This second phase in EPA terms is called “operation

and maintenance.”

EPA and CDPHE determined that as part of the transi tion from Phase 1 to Phase 2, property owners would be given a last opportunity t o voluntarily request an investigation of potential lead at their residential property. I n the spring of 2006, letters were sent to individual property owners outlining the “Last Call .” In addition, weekly notices were published in the Herald Democrat and bi-weekly noti ces were published in the Leadville Chronicle beginning in April and ending the first w eek of June. EPA also ran notices in Spanish in both Leadville papers between April and June 2006. EPA conducted the residential investigations and when lead levels in soil were found to be above the 3500 mg/Kg action level, cleaned up these Last Call prop erties. These investigations and remediations were financed using Superfund Trust Fu nd dollars and through funds received in the bankruptcy settlement with Asarco. The cleanups for the Last Call properties were completed in the summer of 2009.

EPA, CDPHE, and Lake County developed the LCCHP Pha se 2 Work Plan that set out the elements of this second phase of the LCCHP. Pr ior to the adoption of the LCCHP Phase 2 Work Plan, EPA and CDPHE requested comments from the community in May/June of 2009. After reviewing and considering comments, the LCCHP Phase 2 Work Plan was officially adopted and became effecti ve on October 23, 2010. The LCCHP Phase 2 Work Plan serves not only as an opera tion and maintenance plan but it established the institutional control for OU9 resid ential soils.

The primary elements of this second phase of the LC CHP are listed below:

• Enhanced community awareness and education progra ms; • Free, voluntary blood lead monitoring with approp riate follow-up for young children (12 to 72 months) and pregnant and nursing women; • Residential environmental testing for lead if rec ommended by the LCCHP Workgroup or Lake County Public Health Agency; • The County Health Department in conjunction with the CDPHE can investigate, make recommendations, and clean up contaminated soils wh en appropriate; • An informational institutional control to help en sure long-term effectiveness.

The LCCHP Phase 2 continues and enhances the educat ional outreach of the first phase of the LCCHP. The LCCHP Phase 2 will continue effo rts to reduce the risks to resident children resulting from exposure to lead from vario us sources including: consumer foods and products, interior and exterior house paint, so il, house dust, and other sources.

The LCCHP Phase 2 provides a range of services to a ssist residents in reducing their exposure to lead in and around their homes. The se rvices include community outreach and education on prevention, free blood lead testin g, investigation of potential sources ofPage 4 of 5

exposure, and cleanup if recommended by the Workgro up or Lake County Public Health Agency. The educational services focus on how to p revent exposure to lead, and how to reduce impacts through nutrition if exposed. Addit ionally, services are offered to pregnant and nursing women and children under six y ears old. The County Health Department offers free blood lead and hemoglobin te sting to pregnant women and children under six years old. If a high blood lead or low hemoglobin is detected, the Lake County Public Health Agency in conjunction wit h the CDPHE can investigate, make recommendations, and clean up contaminated soi ls when appropriate. Future environmental testing and investigations will be co nducted as recommended by the LCCHP Workgroup or the Lake County Public Health Ag ency.

In regards to your specific concern with potential contamination in your yard, EPA recommends working with the LCCHP Work Group and th e Lake County Public Health Agency to identify the source of your child’s expos ure to lead and potential options for decreasing exposure. The Work Group can be contact ed through the Lake County Public Health Agency.

Our experience with the LCCHP has shown that educat ion regarding risks of exposure to lead in the environment and how to reduce your expo sure to lead is effective in reducing and maintaining low blood lead levels community wid e. Thus, the emphasis of LCCHP Phase 2, as explained above, is on education, in pa rticular, increasing awareness of the risks, and reducing exposure to those risks.

As part of this program, opportunities for soil sam pling exist when the LCCHP Workgroup or Lake County Public Health Agency deter mines that a potential environmental risk to nursing/pregnant women and ch ildren exists from contact with contaminated soils. The decision to sample and inv estigate residential properties is at the discretion of the LCCHP Workgroup and/or the La ke County Public Health Agency.

The County Health Department is available to discus s any concerns about exposure to lead. For more information on the Health Services pertaining to lead, you can contact the County Health Department at 719.486.0118. Thei r website is www.lakecountyco.com/health

.

Summary of Comment from Christina Reiff:

Mrs. Reiff objects to the proposed deletion becaus e all residential properties were not investigated. Mrs. Reiff would like the s ame resources that were available under the voluntary program Kids First to be availa ble now. Mrs. Reiff has a child whose blood lead level is below the trigger level o f 10 micrograms per deciliter and “did not qualify for residential testing because my daughter’s blood levels were not high enough.” Mrs. Reiff also states that “there i s no such thing as a safe level of

lead and that there are observable detrimental effe cts on children at much lower

levels.”Page 5 of 5

Response

See Response for Jenna Dokken’s comment above

.

Summary of Anonymous Comment:

The comments explains that because Operable Unit 1 2 (OU12), Site-wide Water Quality, has not been deleted, OU9, Residenti al Soils, cannot be deleted. The commenter noted that OU9 and OU12 overlap geographi cally and share parcels.

Response

Both OU9 and OU12 are defined by media as well as geography. The medium for OU9 is residential soils, and the contaminant of co ncern is lead as defined by the OU9 Record of Decision. The media for OU12 is site-wid e surface and ground water and the contaminants of concern are arsenic, cadmium, coppe r, lead, manganese and zinc. A specific operable unit and the media it includes ca n be partially deleted from the National Priorities List (NPL) independent of other operable units and their media. To date, operable units 2, 8, 10, and a portion of OU9 have been partially deleted from the NPL (see 66 FR 28106, 74 FR 58554, 66 FR 10367, and 67 FR 7279). Although other OUs overlying OU12 groundwater have been deleted, r emedy implementation for OU12 will continue and will not be impacted by the delet ion of other medium.