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U.S. EPA TO HOLD COMMUNITY MEETINGS ON GROUNDWATER PLAN FOR BKK

Release Date: 9/4/1998
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

NOTE TO CORRESPONDENTS
     
     (San Francisco)-- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is inviting the public to attend community meetings and public hearings on Friday, September 11 and Saturday, September 12, 1998, to comment on a proposed plan to contain waste and control a polluted groundwater plume at the BKK Landfill in West Covina, Calif. On September 11, the meeting and hearing will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at St. Martha's Catholic Church, 444 N. Azusa Ave. in Valinda. On September 12, the meeting and hearing will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at West Covina City Hall, Community Room, 1st floor, 1444 W. Garvey Ave., West Covina. The plan calls for BKK to install about 57 new wells that will extract groundwater and leachate at the site. Leachate is a contaminated liquid that forms as water passes through the waste in the landfill. By extracting leachate and groundwater, the wells will contain the waste and minimize further movement of contaminated groundwater off the site. The contaminated groundwater will be treated to remove volatile organic compounds by a leachate treatment plant that already exists on site. The treated water will be used for irrigation of the closed hazardous waste landfill. The groundwater beneath BKK is not currently used as a drinking water source.  The 190-acre BKK landfill accepted hazardous waste from 1972 to 1984. During that time, about 3.9 million tons of liquid and solid hazardous waste were disposed of there. BKK also operated an adjacent municipal solid waste landfill from 1987 to 1996. This landfill stopped accepting waste in September 1996 and is undergoing closure. Documents on the groundwater plan are available at the West Covina Public Library. Written comments must be mailed and postmarked by October 9, 1998 and sent to:  

     Carmen Santos, U.S. EPA Project Manager
     U.S. EPA, Mail Code WST-5
     75 Hawthorne St.
     San Francisco, California  94105-3901
     (415) 744-2037

     They can also be e-mailed to:  [email protected]  

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