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Ashland/Northern States Power Lakefront Site

Background

The Ashland/Northern States Power Lakefront site sits on the shore of Chequamegon Bay, Lake Superior, in northern Wisconsin. The site actually is made up of several properties including those owned by Northern States Power Company of Wisconsin (d/b/a Xcel Energy), Canadian National Railroad and City of Ashland. Ten acres of contaminated lake sediment just off-shore is also part of the Superfund site. Ground water underlying the site and an adjacent residential area is contaminated, as is soil at the site. (more...)

You will need the free Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

Remedial Investigation / Feasibility Study (RI/FS)

• Approval of Final Feasibility Study, December 04, 2008 (PDF) (2pp., 90K)
• Final Draft Report: Feasibility Study - Ashland/Northern State Power Lakefront Superfund Site (PDF) (299pp., 1.0MB)
  • Proposed Final Site Plan View and Cross Section (PDF) (11 x 17 in.) (1pg. 221 K)
  • Proposed Construction Elements and Cross Section (PDF) (11 x 17 in) (1 pg., 217K)
  • Figures for Section 1 - 7 (PDF) (35pp, 12.8MB)
  • Figures for Section 8 (PDF) (19pp, 3.6MB)
• EPA and DNR hosted a Feasibility Workshop to give area residents an opportunity to identify criteria to be used in evaluating site cleanup options. If you were unable to attend the workshop, please forward your thoughts to Patti Krause or John Robinson (see box at right).
  • Community Acceptance Criteria Workshop summary (PDF) (5pp, 32K)
  • Community Acceptance Criteria Workshop slide presentations (PDF) (52pp, 1.63MB)
• Presentation Oct 17, 2007, Public Meeting
  • Remedial Investigation Summary Presentation (PDF) (62pp, 2.5MB)
  • Waterfront Development Plan Presentation (PDF) (12pp, 1.4MB)

• Ashland/NSP Lakefront Site RI Report & Supporting Documents
  • Remedial Investigation Report (PDF) (264pp, 2.8MB) August 31, 2007
  • Figures (PDF) (299pp, 27.2MB)
  • Tables (PDF) (54pp, 378K)
  • Appendix A (PDF) (36pp, 537K)
  • Appendicies B to B2 (PDF) (643pp, 17.9MB)
  • Appendicies C and D (PDF) (155pp, 16.8MB)
  • Appendix E1 (PDF) (539pp, 4.0MB)
  • Appendix E2 (PDF) (976pp, 6.2MB)
  • Appendix E3 (PDF) (1395pp, 14.9MB)
  • Appendix E4 (PDF) (1317pp, 14.7MB)
  • Appendix E5 (PDF) (865pp, 13.3MB)
  • Appendix F (PDF) (42pp, 184K)
  • To view Appendices G through J please consult the Report at one of the repositories listed at right.
• Cleanup Investigation Complete; Identifying Options is Next Step (PDF) (8pp, 528K) Fact sheet, October 2007
• RI/FS Workplan (PDF) (234pp, 1.4MB) February 2005. This document describes how NSP-Wisconsin will conduct field work, data analyses, risk assessment, and cleanup option evaluation.
  • Appendix A (PDF) (6 pp, 1.0MB)Contaminant Distribution Maps for Chequamegon Bay Inlet
  • Appendix B (PDF) (25pp, 16.2MB) Site Geographic Information System (GIS) Database Platform - Examples
  • Appendices C-E (PDF) (28pp, 403K)
  • Appendices F-G (PDF) (18pp, 225K)
  • Appendix H (PDF) (PDF, 11pp, 71K)
  • Figures (PDF) (18pp, 2.4MB)
  • Table of Contents (PDF) (5pp, 81K)
• RI/FS Field Sampling Plan (PDF) (264pp, 2.8MB) February 2005
  This document provides more detail about how field work is going to be conducted.
• RI/FS Project Management Plan (PDF) (68pp, 726K) February 2005
  This document describes in more detail the roles and responsibilities of the various personnel as well as a schedule.

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Site Updates

May 2011

On April 27, 2011 EPA sent a special notice letter to the organizations, known as potentially responsible parties (PRPs), who may be responsible for contributing to contamination at the Ashland Superfund site . In summary a special notice letter requests reimbursement of costs already incurred and future costs; notifies the PRPs of a 60-day period of formal negotiation with EPA to negotiate reimbursement and cleanup action; and shares general and site specific information to assist the PRPs in negotiations.

EPA selected a cleanup for sediment in Chequamegon Bay, soil and shallow ground water under Kreher Park and the Upper Bluff/Filled Ravine and deep ground water in the Copper Falls Aquifer. The selected cleanup is described in a document called the Record of Decision and summarized in a fact sheet (EPA Picks Cleanup Plan for Soil, Sediment and Ground Water (PDF) (4pp, 440K) October 2010 )

This cleanup will serve as the final action for soil, ground water and sediment contamination at the site and will require the following actions:

• Remove and treat or dispose off-site contaminated soil, ground water and sediment.
  
• Use barriers to contain contaminated ground water.
  
• Extract and possibly treat in-place contaminated ground water.
  
• Monitor ground water and sediment in the long-term.
  
• Put in place land use controls to limit future site use.

Because of the large amount of wood waste and non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) in the near shore area of the bay EPA selected dry excavation as the recommended alternative. NAPLs are underground pockets of tar and other materials that don't readily mix with water. EPA does allow for a pilot test to determine if wet dredging near shore can achieve the performance standards of excavation. If wet dredging achieves performance standards then EPA in consultation with Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources will issue a document called an Explanation of Significant Difference selecting wet dredging for the bay sediment.

March 2011

Northern States Power of Wisconsin and its contractors will start survey and sediment sampling work at the Ashland NSP Lakefront Superfund site on February 28. The work will take place in Chequamegon Bay in the area between the boat landing and the marina and will go on for three weeks, ending about March 18. Survey and sampling results will be used to help with the design of cleanup activities at the site. Work will be performed under the supervision of EPA and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

October 2010

Public Information Session about Cleanup Plan

EPA approved the Record of Decision that outlines EPA's plan for cleaning up contaminated soil, sediment and ground water at the Ashland/NSP Superfund site. EPA's final cleanup plan includes:

• Removing soil from the most contaminated areas of Kreher Park and the Upper Bluff/Filled Ravine that overlooks the park area, treating the soil on-site and reusing it after treatment.
• Using barriers to contain and stop the movement of contaminants in ground water, treating the ground water in-place, and adding wells to extract and treat ground water.
• Digging up wood waste and contaminated sediment near and along the shore of Chequamegon Bay and dredging contaminated sediment in the bay, covering excavated and dredged sections nearshore and offshore with six inches of clean material, and treating contaminated sediment after removal.

The estimated cost for this cleanup plan is between $84 million and $98 million.
Copies of the record of decision and other documents are on this web site and at information repositories listed on the right.

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News Releases

• EPA to Hold Public Meeting to Discuss Cleanup Plan for Ashland (October 2010)
• EPA proposes cleanup plan for Ashland, Wis., Superfund Site; hearing June 29, 7 p.m. - June 15, 2009
• EPA - WDNR Meeting on cleanup options for Ashland, Wis., Superfund site, Dec. 10, 6:30 p.m. - December 2, 2008
• Lakefront superfund site topic of an information workshop - October 23, 2007
• Lakefront superfund site topic of two information sessions - October 9, 2007
• Investigation of Ashland/Northern States Power Lakefront site to begin February 22, 2005

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Fact Sheets

• EPA Picks Cleanup Plan for Soil, Sediment and Ground Water (PDF) (4pp, 440K) October 2010
• EPA Proposes Cleanup Plan (PDF) (12pp, 435K) June 2009
• Review of Cleanup Options Done; Selection of Plan is Next Step - Ashland/Northern States Power Lakefront Site (PDF) (4pp, 214K) November 2008
• Community Involvement Plan fact sheet (PDF) (2pp, 116K) November 2004

Monthly/Quarterly Progress Reports

• Ground Water Treatment Monitoring Report - April 2012 (PDF) (133pp, 1MB)
• Quarterly Progress Report #69 -September 2010 (PDF) (58pp, 501K)
• Quarterly Progress Report #68 - April 2010 (PDF) (65pp, 740K)
• Quarterly Progress Report #67 - October-December 2009 (PDF) (57pp, 940K)
• Quarterly Progress Report #66 - July-September 2009 (PDF)(65pp, 940K)
• Quarterly Progress Report #65 - April-June 2009 (PDF) (153pp, 804K)
• Monthly Update #64 - April 2009 (PFD) (45pp, 527K)
• Monthly update #63 - February 2009 (PDF) (29pp, 264K)
• Monthly update #62 - January 2009 (PDF) (29pp, 267K)
• View all progress reports 2003 to present

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Legal Agreements

• Site-Specific Memorandum of Agreement between EPA and WDNR (PDF) (7pp, 48K) June 30, 2004
• Administrative order on consent (PDF) (34pp, 152K) November 2003
• Statement of Work (SOW) for Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (PDF) (34pp, 182K)attachment to AOC, November 2003

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Community Involvement Plan

• Community Involvement Plan (PDF) (49pp, 1.5MB) January 2005

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Technical documents

• Record of Decision (PDF) (433pp, 27MB) September 2010
• Aerial photos of Ashland Lakefront site (PDF) (2pp, 200K) May 2009
• Quality Assurance Project Plan (PDF) (114pp, 1.3MB)

Public Meetings

• EPA held a public hearing June 29 to formally present the proposed plan and accept public comments.
  • See the fact sheet EPA Proposes Cleanup Plan (PDF) (12pp, 435K) for more details,
  • or the transcript from the Public Meeting (PDF) (57pp, 87K)
• EPA held an information session June 17 about the proposed cleanup plan for the Ashland/NSP Lakefront site.
• Cleanup Options Information Meeting (PDF) (57pp, 2.9MB) December 10, 2008

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