The italicized text below is extracted and summarized from US EPA's September 1995 Record of Decision for this site.

Prior to 1979, the site was owned by Penn Central Corporation and, in the period from 1960-1973, it was leased to several commercial waste hauling companies that used the site for industrial waste product disposal. The site was leased first for the disposal of calcium ferrosulfate containing about 30% solid.

It was then leased to a series of partnerships mainly for industrial waste disposal. From court records regarding these partnerships, the nature of the business was to purchase lime slurry, a waste product from Union Carbide Corporation, Linde Division, and to sell it to Ford Motor Company, in Indianapolis, Delco Electronics in Kokomo and Jones Laughlin Steel.

Neutralized metal plating sludge and neutralized calcium ferrosulfate were reportedly sprayed on the site from 1971-1972. There are unsubstantiated allegations of tank car dumping and disposal of oily filter cakes from Conrail Lines. In addition, from 1940-1985, Carter Lee Lumber operated a small quantity, batch-load wood preserving operation immediately off-site, north of the northeast corner of the site. This operation reportedly used consumer grade pentachlorophenol.

Carter Lee Lumber purchased the site in 1979. While the property was being developed for lumber storage, red soil was discovered. When the red soil interfered with proper soil compaction, it was moved. The red soil was stored near a trench area dug to hold construction debris. Asphalt was laid on portions of the site and the storage yard was fenced as part of this work. The red soil was later spread over an area of about 220 by 250 feet in the southeast corner of the site and covered with six inches clean soil and six inches of compacted gravel, where it is currently located.

SVOCs and heavy metals were detected in on-site soil at depths ranging from 4 to 8 feet below the ground surface. Several pesticides were also detected in on-site soil.

Groundwater sampling identified low concentrations of some SVOCs including phenol, phenanthrene, di-n-butylphthalate, pyrene, and bis(2-ethyl-hexyl)phthalate. These were found sporadically in groundwater samples. Low concentrations of arsenic and cyanide were detected in several site groundwater monitoring wells during one sampling event. Beryllium was detected at low concentrations during two sampling events.

A risk assessment determined that the site contaminants do not pose a significant risk to those who may come in contact with them. The risk assessment showed that risk to a hypothetical future worker exposed to on-site soil and groundwater was well below EPA's acceptable risk range. Although EPA expects future land use to remain commercial/industrial, a risk assessment for a hypothetical on-site resident found that the estimate of cumulative excess cancer risk for the hypothetical resident is at the low end of EPA's acceptable risk range for exposure to soils, and below the lower end of EPA's acceptable risk range for groundwater exposure.

Because contamination at the site could not be attributed solely to Carter Lee Lumber and because the risk assessment found the level of contamination attributable to the site results in negligible risk, EPA chose "no action" as its remedy alternative.

More Information

The information about Carter Lee Lumber Company on EcoIndiana is an attempt to provide a reasonably accurate but very brief summary of what's happened at this Superfund site, as reported by US EPA. There is far more information available from other sources, including those described below.

EPA maintains several web pages with additional information about this site. The EPA home page for Carter Lee Lumber Company is at https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0501376

There are also documents related to Carter Lee Lumber Company available in IDEM's Virtual File Cabinet (VFC). When searching VFC for documents related to Carter Lee Lumber Company, choose Advanced Search and enter 7500042 in the Site Number search field.