EPA schedules informational meeting on Callahan mine site in Brooksville

BROOKSVILLE – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold an informational meeting on the investigative work being done at the Callahan mine site at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14, at the Brooksville Public Service Building.

The EPA identified the mine as a Superfund site in 2002, and since 2004 has been conducting a remedial investigation to determine if metals are leaching and possibly contaminating areas around it.

According to the EPA, this year is expected to be the final major field work program necessary to complete the remedial investigation and feasibility study for the site.

Since 2005, the Maine Department of Transportation has overseen the field work in conjunction with the EPA and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

Earlier this year, the EPA issued a Phase 1A report that reviews the work done at the site so far including any findings, and also outlines the work scheduled for this summer, which already is under way. Preliminary conclusions from the completed field work shows that:

. Areas of the former mine site, specifically the ore processing and extraction areas, waste rock piles and tailings areas, contain levels of metals – including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and zinc – that may pose a threat to human health and the environment.

. Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, have been found in the soil of the former mine operations area.

. Metals have been detected above background levels in the sediments of Goose Pond, Goose Cove and Marsh Creek.

. Groundwater within limited areas around the site contain levels of some metals that are above federal and state drinking water standards as well as Maine DEP maximum exposure levels for groundwater.

Those conclusions confirm the conceptual models developed at the start of the study, according to Dwight Doughty, the MDOT project manager for the work at the site.

The meeting, Doughty said, will review those findings and the ongoing work as well as what happens after the field work is done this year.

The EPA previously has set these informational meetings during the summer in order to reach as many people as possible, including summer residents of the area, he said.

According to EPA information, the agency will create four major reports on the site: a final remedial investigation report; a human health risk assessment; an ecological risk assessment; and a feasibility study, which will identify cleanup goals and evaluate potential cleanup options. The feasibility study is due by September 2008.