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EPA Names Jarvela On-scene Coordinator for Tranguch

Release Date: 3/9/2001
Contact Information: Ruth Wuenschel, (215) 814-5540

Ruth Wuenschel, (215) 814-5540

PHILADELPHIA – Stephen D. Jarvela has been named lead on-scene coordinator for the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup of the Tranguch underground gasoline spill in Hazleton, Luzerne County, Pa.

With more than 17 years’ experience, Jarvela, 50, is the EPA mid-Atlantic region’s most senior coordinator. He chairs the agency’s Inland Oil Spill Response Committee, and has managed dozens of petroleum spill responses.

Within the past year, he led the EPA response in the successful cleanups of oil spilled from a Sun pipeline in Jackson Township, Luzerne County, and from a Mobil pipeline in Chester County, Pa..

A resident of New Jersey, Jarvela is married and has three children.

Jarvela succeeds Richard Fetzer as on-scene coordinator. Fetzer has directed EPA’s work at the Tranguch site in Hazelton since state officials requested EPA assistance in 1996.

“Rich Fetzer did good work in identifying the gasoline plume that is plaguing this community. His diligent monitoring and sampling underlies the chosen remedy. Now we will call on Steve Jarvela’s expertise to clean it up,” said Thomas Voltaggio, EPA acting regional administrator.

EPA’s remedy will include sewer vent traps for all homes in the affected area; replacing the main sewer interceptor under 22nd St., Hazleton, to eliminate infiltration; and installing systems to extract gasoline vapors from soil and to recover and treat contaminated ground water.

The Tranguch spill of an estimated 50,000 gallons of gasoline is named after one of the private companies whose leaking underground storage tanks are believed to have contaminated Hazleton area ground water before 1993. A persistent plume is migrating through ground water, releasing gasoline vapors into sewer pipes as it goes. Gasoline produces noxious fumes, and contains benzene, a dangerous chemical linked to cancer.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responded to gasoline fumes in 1993, and ventilated 18 homes before calling in federal officials in 1996 to investigate the pollution plume and identify the source. EPA then arranged for preliminary studies of the plume by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers with funding from the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. The U. S. Coast Guard administers that law and its funds.

At the same time, EPA monitored air quality in 55 homes and found no gasoline vapors. Thereafter, investigators responded to a few complaints over the next three years, finding no evidence of vapors moving into homes. Additional work concentrated on gasoline-contaminated groundwater seeping into Black Creek and studies to identify the best place to intercept and treat the plume. State health officials also investigated cancer clusters, but found no unusually high levels of cancer in the community.

In the summer of 2000, some residents complained of gasoline vapors in their homes. EPA monitored the neighborhood and confirmed that vapors were present.

With that new evidence, EPA has moved aggressively to address the current conditions. Air sampling has been performed, and even though benzene levels are barely or non-detectable in most homes, all 355 homes in the affected area have or will receive sewer vent traps as a precaution to keep fumes out of living areas.

Recently the agency increased community involvement, developed a cleanup plan to solve the problem, and has doubled staffing and contractor support. Four or five EPA staff members will work daily at the agency’s office on the former Tranguch property at the corner of Church and 22nd streets.

Copies of the cleanup plan are available at the EPA field office.

EPA also has assigned three community information coordinators to the cleanup, David Polish, Lisa Brown and Carrie Deitzel. They may be contacted by calling EPA’s community information number at (570) 455-9007.