Sampling Activities Underway at Dover Municipal Landfill Superfund Site

Release date: 11/07/2005

Contact Information:

Contact: David Deegan (deegan.dave@epa.gov), EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1017

For Immediate Release: November 7, 2005; Release # dd051107

(Boston) - Field activities will be underway later this week at the Dover Municipal Landfill Superfund site in Dover, NH.

Surface water samples will be collected from five locations and sediment sampling will occur at five locations. EPA contractors will oversee the sampling and collect split samples of both the surface water and sediment samples collected by GeoInsight.

Contractors for parties conducting the cleanup will be working over the next week to collect sediment and surface water samples from the Cocheco River. The samples will be used to help determine the impacts of contaminated sediments on the aquatic organisms which reside in the sediments of the river. The surface water and sediment investigation is one of several pre-design investigations that are being used to further characterize the nature and extent of contamination at the site. Other pre-investigations at the site include an investigation of the northwest corner of the landfill as well as the eastern plume and subsurface investigation to support design of the air sparging trench. Last fall EPA issued a $19.3 million comprehensive plan for completing the cleanup of the landfill. The decision, called an Amended Record of Decision, addresses soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water contamination at the site and includes the following major components:

• The landfill will be left in its present, uncapped, state, by maintaining the existing natural soil cover to prevent contact.
• A treatment trench installed at the edge of the landfill will be used to immobilize, capture, or destroy ground water contaminants flowing from the landfill into the ground water.
• Contaminated ground water flowing to the Cocheco River will be cleaned up through natural attenuation. EPA and NHDES will monitor these processes.
• Contaminated ground water flowing toward the Bellamy Reservoir will be intercepted, extracted and treated to restore the aquifer to drinking water standards.
• A groundwater management zone will be established to ensure no one uses contaminated groundwater until the cleanup is complete.

More information is available at: http://www.epa.gov/ne/superfund/sites/dover.

Related Information:
Dover Landfill
Cleanup Process
Superfund in New England