EPA
LENEXA– U.S. Environmental Protection Agency representatives from EPA Region 7 will present at the Great Bend City Council Meeting on Nov. 6, to provide community members with information about the Plating Inc. Superfund Site.
Over the next several months, EPA will be conducting cleanup work under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, commonly known as Superfund. In April 2023, Plating Inc. was one of three Superfund sites in Kansas on the National Priorities List to receive funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to begin or expedite cleanup projects.
“In April, EPA Region 7 representatives traveled to Wichita to celebrate the second round of funding for Superfund sites from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister. “That funding is now being put to work to clean up contamination in communities across our nation’s heartland.”
The presentation will be held during the city council meeting:
Monday, Nov. 6, 2023
6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Great Bend City Hall
1209 Williams St.
Great Bend, KS 67530
Following the presentation, representatives from EPA and state partner agencies will be available to talk with community members to address their questions and concerns regarding the Plating Inc. Superfund Site.
Background
The Plating Inc. Superfund Site sits within the airport industrial area in Barton County, Kansas, 1½ miles west of Great Bend. An inspection by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment determined that 6,400 gallons of chromic acid was on-site in 2007, along with other acids and hydroxides. The secondary containment was inadequate and chromic acid was found to have discharged into the soil. A two-mile-long groundwater plume of hexavalent chromium has impacted domestic water wells and is moving toward Great Bend’s public water supply wells.
EPA has selected remedial designs for addressing the soil and groundwater contamination. The agency anticipates that remedial actions – the construction or implementation phase of site cleanup – will begin in fall 2023.
Learn more about the Plating Inc. Superfund Site.
Learn more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for Superfund sites.