OSWER/OSRTI Washington, DC 20460



## N ATIONAL 

## P RIORITIES 

## L IST 

## (NPL)

***Proposed Site*** September 2011


### CONTINENTALCLEANERS Miami, Florida

Miami

- Dade County

 **Site Location :** 
The Continental Cleaners site i s located at 798 NW 62 nd Street in the City of Miami

, Miami -Dade County, Florida, and

is on the southeast corner of NW 62 nd Street (Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard) and NW 8 th Avenue. The site is in the Liberty City neighborhood and it is surrounded by residential and commercial properties.

 **Site History:**
Laundry and dry cleaning operations were conducted at the site from approximately 1967 to 2005. The facility is currently used as a pickup and drop off location for offsite dry cleaning. In the 1990s, local environmental officials found dry cleaning chemicals had been released to the ground and ground water. Since then numerous studies have documented tetrachloroethene (PCE), a common dry cleaning solvent and its breakdown products in the soil and ground water at the site. The facility was determined by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to be ineligible to participate in the state Drycleaner Solvent Program due to gross negligence at the Site. Subsequently, the site was referred by FDEP to EPA for Superfund evaluation.

 **Site Con tamination/Contaminants:** 
PCE was found at high concentrations in the floor drain and in groundwater at the site. Trichloroethene (TCE) and cis

1,2- dichloroethene (DCE) were also detected at concentrations two and three times the level of PCE in the ground water. TCE and DCE are breakdown products of the PCE. The ground water concentrations of these volatile organic compounds (VOCs) significantly exceed state and federal drinking water standards.

 **Potential Impacts on Surrounding Community/Environment :**  The site is small, approximately half an acre. Contamination may exist beneath the building and in the back of the facility in the soils from the surface down to the ground water table. The ground water is contaminated on the site, but it likely to have mi grated offsite. The aquifer beneath the site is the sole source of municipal drinking water for

southeast Florida.

 **Response Activities (to date):**
There have been a number of investigations conducted by Miami

- Dade County Department of Environmental

Resources (DERM) and FDEP. Waste discharge violations and enforcement issues were identified by DERM. However, no cleanup activities have taken place at the site.

 **Need for NPL Listing:**

The S tate of Florida referred th e site to EPA to allow for a comprehensive cleanup to address all the human health and environmental risks posed by the s ite . Other federal and state cleanup programs were evaluated , but are not viable at

this time

. EPA received a letter of support for placing this s ite on the NPL fro m the s tate

.

[The description of the site (release) is based on information available at the time the site was evaluated with the HRS. The description may change as additional information is gathered on the sources and extent of contamination.]

For more information about the hazardous substances identified in this narrative summary, including general information regarding the effects of exposure to

these substances on human hea lth, please see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs. ATSDR ToxFAQs can be found on

the Internet at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html or by telephone at 1

- 888

- 42

- ATSDR or 1

- 888

- 422

- 8737.