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Departments Home EPA Home NALEMP NALEMP Documents Barrels Project

Project Summary Description:

The Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Red Cliff) contracted with EMR, Inc (EMR) to prepare a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), compliant Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI?FS) Work Plan Set. The Work Plan Set included three components; a Field Sampling Plan (FSP), a Site Safety and Health Plan (SSHP), Dive Safety Submittal, Explosives Siting Plan (ESP), Explosives Management Plan (EMP), and a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP). The work was funded by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Native American Lands Environmental Mitigraion Program (NALEMP). The Work Plan Set will be used in the 2008 implementation of the Lake Superior Barrels Project. The EMR Team for the Lake Superior Barrels Project includes EarthTech Inc. for munitions site management and material handling.

The purpose of the investigation is to determine if 1,449 barrels deposited in Lake Superior by the US Army between 1959and 1962, and the 400 tons of crates deposited in Lake Superior by the US Army in 1945, pose a threat to human health or the aquatic ecosystem. Upon completion of the Remedial Investigation (RI), sufficient data will have been collected to perform a risk assessment and Feasibility Study (FS). Data will be used to determine whether a sufficient threat exists to warrant site remediation, or if conditions of the site are such that no action is required.

Completed Work:
The FSP was prepared compliant to applicable portions of EPA/540/G-89/004 and includes site background, sampling objectives, sample location and frequency, sample designation, sampling equipment and procedures, sample handling and analysis, and barrel retrieval sampling methods. The FSP will guide the field procedures used during the investigation.

The SSHP was prepared to identify the safety and occupational health documents, training, technical certifications, and procedures that were developed and are required ot be implemented during the investigation process of the project. The SSHP was developed per applicable portions of the ER 385-1-92 and EM 385-1-1.

The QAPP was prepared compliant to EM-200-1-6 and/or MPCA Draft Quality Assurance Project Plan Guidance 2003. The QAPP will be used to ensure the appropriate levels of Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) are maintained throughout investigative work for the project.

Future Work:
Two distinct phases of investigation are discussed in the Field Sampling Plan (FSP), a geophysical
sampling plan, and a sampling and recovery plan. The geophysical sampling plan discusses the methods and procedures that will be used to determine the location and condition of the barrels potentially submerged in Lake Superior. Two types of geophysical surveys, side scan and sector scan survey, will be conducted as part of the investigation. The side scan survey, will be used to determine the location of the potential barrels while the sector scan survey will be used to pinpoint location and assess the condition of the potential barrels.

The second phase of the investigation will consist of lake water and sediment sampling followed by barrel recovery and barrel content sampling. The sampling and recovery portion of this project will be used to collect the data required to perform a human health risk assessment and an ecological risk assessment in accordance with the EPA Risk Assessment Guidance for Superfund Sites.

This project is expected to take place in several steps. Following completion of the Work Plan Set, Red Cliff applied for additional funds through NALEMP to implement the geophysical, sampling, and recovery phase of this project. It is expected that funding will be dispersed separately for each unique phase of this project, including the geophysical survey phase, the sediment and water sampling phase, and finally the barrel recovery and sampling phase.

Project Team:
Scott Carney, P.G., CHMM, Project Manager
Suzanne Anderson, G.I.T., Project Geologist
Jennifer Thiemann, M.S., Project Ecologist
Kurt Carlson, M.S., G.I.T., Project Chemist
John Dickerson, Munitions Project Manager
Ralph Keller, PhD, P.G., CIH, Prject Health and Safety Coordinator

Attention: Red Cliff Environmental Department
NALEMP Program
88385 Pike Rd. Hwy 13
Bayfield, WI 54814

Email Comments to: tracey.ledder@redcliff-nsn.gov