EPA Proposes Removing Most of Fulton, NY Site from Superfund List

After cleaning up more than 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and about 9 million gallons of contaminated groundwater, the EPA is proposing to remove a portion of the Fulton Terminals Superfund site, located in Fulton, New York, from the federal Superfund list of the most contaminated hazardous waste sites.

A 50-foot section of the site between the former Fulton Terminals facility and the Oswego River where groundwater is still contaminated will remain on the Superfund list. The soil and the groundwater at the site were contaminated with volatile organic compounds as a result of spills and leaks from storage tanks at the site.

From 1972 to 1977, the property was used by Fulton Terminals as a staging and storage area for solvents and other materials that were scheduled for processing at Pollution Abatement Services, a chemical waste incineration facility in Oswego County, which is also a federal Superfund site. The Fulton Terminals Superfund site was listed on the Superfund list in 1983.

The EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation have determined that all necessary cleanup actions have been completed on the 1.5-acre former facility and that it no longer poses a threat to people’s health or the environment. The proposal to remove most of the site from the Superfund list comes after several reviews of the site and contamination in the groundwater beneath the site.

The city of Fulton, the current owner of the former facility property, is interested in developing the land for community use once this portion of the site it is deleted from the Superfund list.

More than $14 billion will be spent in 2015 to remove metals, VOCs and other contaminants from groundwater — largely at Superfund sites —  according to a McIlvaine Company report published in October.