Queen City Farms WASHINGTON EPA ID# WAD980511745

EPA Region 10 King County Maple Valley 8th Congressional District Other Names: Queen City Disposal Site, Four-Tek

Last Update: December, 2010

Site Description

The Queen City Farms site is 324 acres in area and located on Cedar Grove Road, 2½ miles north of Maple Valley, Washington. The site includes a wooded area, the containment area, a composting facility, a gravel pit, and Queen City Lake. The site formerly contained both buried drums as well as three ponds that were used for the disposal of industrial/hazardous wastes from 1955 to 1964. In 1980, the ponds were sampled by EPA, and heavy metals and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were found in the water, sludge, and sediment. The area surrounding the site is semi-rural. As of the 2000 census, 2,191 people lived within one mile of the site and 17,316 people lived within three miles of the site. Twelve public water system (PWS) wells and ninety-three private wells are located within ½ mile of Queen City Farms. The King County Cedar Hills Landfill is located immediately to the north of the site.


Site Responsibility: This site is being addressed through federal and potentially responsible parties' actions.

NPL Listing History	Dates
Proposed Date:	09/08/1983
Removed Date:
Withdrawal Date:
Final Date:	09/21/1984
Deleted Date:

Threats and Contaminants

Media Affected: Groundwater, Soil & Sludges, Surface Water
On-site groundwater monitoring wells contain VOCs such as trichloroethene (TCE) and 1,2-dichloroethene (DCE). Arsenic was detected in residential wells. Soil is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and metals. Sludge and surface water contained TCE. There was an exposure risk through ingestion of or direct contact with contaminated soil, sludge, or surface water. An exposure risk remains for contaminated groundwater, but the contaminated groundwater is currently contained within the borders of the site and the adjacent landfill and is regularly monitored.


Cleanup Progress


Early Actions:

Between 1985 and 1986, one of the Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs), Queen City Farms, Inc. (QCF, Inc.) excavated, solidified, contained, and safely removed approximately one-million gallons of liquid waste and more than 16,000 cubic yards of solidified waste material from three waste ponds on the site. In addition, QCF, Inc. installed an upgradient water diversion system; and capped, graded, and revegetated the site. In 1988, soil and drum fragments were taken to a permitted hazardous waste disposal facility. In 1990, approximately 200 cubic yards of contaminated soil were removed from an area of the site known as 4-Tek Industries. Shallow groundwater is being monitored as part of the 1990 early action to determine if further actions are necessary.


Long-Term Actions:

EPA completed the site investigation in the summer of 1992 and selected the final site remedy in late 1992. Both areas of the site were required to have deed restrictions and institutional controls on land and groundwater use, and the installation of groundwater monitoring wells, and long-term groundwater monitoring. In the area of the site formerly used by 4-Tek Industries, the remedy also called for excavating approximately 10,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and debris. In the main area of the site, which included the area of buried drums and waste ponds, the remedy called for removing floating oil product from the top of the shallow groundwater; consolidation of contaminated soils that remained on site; constructing a vertical barrier wall around the consolidated contaminated soils; and long-term monitoring of offsite groundwater and onsite surface water. A contingency plan was required for extracting and treating contaminated groundwater from within the contained area if cleanup was not occurring as quickly as anticipated.

Groundwater monitoring events in the 4-Tek area of the site were originally conducted once every three months. Groundwater monitoring events were reduced to once every six months in 1996, once a year in 2000, and once every five years in 2003. Groundwater monitoring events in the main area of the site occur are still conducted once every three months. In the 2008 sampling event for the 4-Tek area, samples from only one of the groundwater monitoring wells had contaminant concentrations in excess of Safe Drinking Water Act standards. The 2008 Five Year Review determined that the remedy continues to be successful in the 4-Tek area and is functioning as intended by the decision documents.

The Boeing Company (Boeing) was one of the potentially responsible parties for the main are of the site. Under a Consent Decree with EPA, Boeing performed and continues to perform the design and cleanup. In 1996, Boeing completed construction on the containment cell, which is a vertical barrier wall and cap over and around the consolidated soils and the former waste pond area. Changes in groundwater inside and outside the containment cell immediately indicated that the containment cell was performing as planned, and consistently shown this up to and including the most recent (Sept. 2009) verified sampling results. As a result the site is meeting the remedial action objective of preventing of exposure to contaminated surface and subsurface soil, as well as the remedial action objective of preventing contaminated soils from causing further groundwater contamination.

Although the soils were consolidated and contained within the containment cell, extensive groundwater contamination existed in the area. The decision documents required regular groundwater monitoring to prevent exposure to contaminated groundwater and to prevent migration of the contaminant plume. In 2008, EPA determined that although the remedy was successful in preventing exposure to contaminated groundwater and that contaminant concentrations were decreasing in most of the groundwater contaminant plume, the current remedy was not successful at preventing migration of that plume.

After negotiations with Boeing, Boeing began conducting additional groundwater investigation in August 2009, to better characterize the groundwater contaminant plume. As a result of that study, additional field work was conducted in 2010; further investigations are scheduled for 2011.


Recent Documents

2008 Documents
August: Queen City Farms issued the 4-Tek Industries Groundwater Monitoring Results.
Sept.: EPA issued the Third Five-Year Review for the Queen City Farms site.

Five Year Reviews are conducted to ensure that the selected remedies continue to protect human health and the environment. A link to download the review can be found at http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/cleanup.nsf/sites/Queen%20City.

2010 Documents
April: The Boeing Company issued the 2008 Annual Data Monitoring Report.
Oct.: The Boeing Company issued the 2009 Annual Data Monitoring Report.
Dec.: The Boeing Company issued the 2010 Expanded Hydrogeology Assessment.

The 2010 Expanded Hydrogeology Assessment includes results from the additional groundwater investigation and includes recommendations for bringing the site back on track for meeting all of the remedial action objectives.

Scheduled Documents for 2011:
* The 2010 Annual Data Monitoring Report.



Regional Contacts

SITE MANAGER(S):	Chris Bellovary
E-MAIL ADDRESS:	bellovary.chris@epa.gov
PHONE NUMBER:	206-553-2723
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT COORDINATOR:	Suzanne Skadowski
E-MAIL ADDRESS	skadowski.suzanne@epa.gov
PHONE NUMBER:	206-553-6689

Information pertaining to this site is housed at the following location(s):

EPA Queen City Farm web site: http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/cleanup.nsf/sites/Queen%20City

Maple Valley Public Library (Selected Documents)
21844 SE 248th St.
Maple Valley, WA 98038
(call ahead for hours: 425-432-4620)

EPA Region 10 Superfund Records Center (Administrative Records)
1200 6th Ave, Ste 900
Seattle, WA 98101
(call for an appointment: 206-553-4494)