By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- A years-long cleanup effort at the former General Motors site is expected to be finished in 2018, according to a spokesman for the RACER Trust. EPA officials say the Trump administration’s order that the EPA issue no new grants or contracts will not affect the project.

“We expect to complete most of this work this year and during the first half of 2018,” RACER Spokesman Bill Callen said. “The work schedule is largely weather-dependent, so it’s impossible to say with any certainty when the work will be complete. Mid-2018 is a good ballpark estimate.”

The site is being cleaned up with funds put into the RACER (Revitalizing Auto Communities’ Environmental Response) Trust by General Motors after a 2007 bankruptcy court settlement. GM bought back all the properties they wanted to keep and the rest, 89 locations in 14 states, were given to RACER. Most of the cleanup money went to the Massena site, just over $121 million.

He says the Trump administration’s order that the EPA issue no new grants or contracts will have no bearing on the work.

“The temporary pause on some EPA contracts and grants is not expected to apply to Superfund cleanup efforts that are underway. The Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the cleanups, rather than passing the costs to taxpayers,” said David Kluesner, EPA Region 2 chief of public outreach. “The GM Massena site has mostly been funded by parties liable for the cleanup and the EPA expects that work to continue. The EPA fully intends to continue to provide information to the public. A fresh look at public affairs and communications processes is common practice for any new Administration, and a short pause in activities allows for this assessment.”

Callen said there are three main jobs left. They need to remove and remediate the storm-water lagoon (which is visible in the upper right side of the above photo, just south of the riverbank) and associated structures. They need to finish installing a groundwater collection, treatment and discharge system. They also need to place of clean soil and grass cover over approximately 59 acres, engineered and graded to promote natural storm-water runoff, according to Callen.

They have completed several large projects on the site over the last few years.

The main manufacturing building and various smaller buildings have been demolished. The main plant foundation slab has been removed and necessary sub-slab basement and soil excavations are completed.

The north and east disposal areas, including process lagoons, have been excavated and backfilled with clean soil fill.

The industrial landfill was reconfigured to be set back 150 feet from the property line and the St. Lawrence River. A new permanent synthetic cap and soil covering, which Callen says meets RCRA standards, is now in place (see foreground of the above photo).

“All of the above tasks achieved compliance with the cleanup standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which ordered the remedies long before RACER Trust took ownership and oversees our cleanup activities,” Callen said in an email.

In 2014, RACER and EPA officials announced the site was 250 percent more contaminated than originally anticipated. They discovered hundreds of thousands of tons of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), in concentrations has high as 500,000 parts per million - 50 percent pure PCB - in some areas. Federal regulations call for cleanup at 10 parts per million.

“In total, more than a half million tons of PCB-contaminated materials have been removed from the site since RACER Trust assumed ownership,” according to a statement from the EPA. “While in operation, various industrial wastes were generated and disposed of on-site. Contamination is located in two disposal areas (the North Disposal Area and the East Disposal Area), an industrial landfill and four industrial lagoons. PCBs have been found in the groundwater, on- and off-site soil and sediment in the St. Lawrence and Raquette rivers, Turtle Cove and Turtle Creek. Groundwater was also found to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds and phenols have been detected in lagoon sludge, as well as in the disposal areas. Public water supply systems have not been impacted.”

The industrial landfill and east disposal area were capped. The cap is six layers that go down about 27 inches, which is on top of a layer of subgrade covering the contaminants.

“Caps do not destroy or remove contaminants. Instead, they isolate them and keep them in place to avoid the spread of contamination. Caps prevent people and wildlife from coming in contact with contaminants. The multilayer cap installed at the GM landfill eliminates exposure of the contaminants to the atmosphere and prevents rainwater from contacting the waste, which prevents infiltration of contaminants to the groundwater.” EPA said.

The cleanup also removed 21,389 tons of scrap metal, which was recycled; 2.6 tons of asbestos; 59,000 tons of contaminated waste that was not classified as hazardous, but was removed and disposed; 23,000 tons of PCB-contaminated sediment dredged from the St. Lawrence River; and treated 21.2 million gallons of remedial wastewater, EPA said.

The St. Regis Mohawk reservation is downstream from the site. Tribal leaders for years have been advocating for a thorough cleanup so their community is not exposed to PCB and other toxins being carried downstream. Their Tribal Council did not return a request for comment.

EPA says they created a waste-free buffer zone between the site and tribal lands.

“In 2015, cleanup work included creation of a 150-foot landfill setback – a waste-free buffer zone along the Tribal border and the St. Lawrence River,” EPA’s statement said.

Of the contaminated sediment removed from the river, 16,900 cubic yards came from Turtle Cove and the surrounding area, which is on tribal property.