WEST HANOVER TOWNSHIP BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

7171 ALLENTOWN BOULEVARD, HARRISBURG, PA  17112

MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2003

 

 

CALL TO ORDER – 7:00 p.m.

Chairman Jones called the March 10, 2003, workshop meeting of the West Hanover Township Board of Supervisors to order at 7:00 PM.  Chairman Jones welcomed the new Township Zoning Officer, Bob Leonard.

 

ROLL CALL

Robert Jones, Chairman                              Gloria Zimmerman, Supervisor

Robert Ziltz, Vice Chairman                        Earl Hoffman, Supervisor, absent

Stephen Millard, Secretary/Treasurer         

 

PUBLIC COMMENT.  None

 

PRESENTATIONS/STAFF REPORTS

     

DEP Enforcement, Exit 77 Area Businesses.  Ms. Kimberly Morewood, Local Government Liaison with the Southcentral Region of the DEP, introduced members of the DEP making presentations tonight: Greg Bowman, Underground Storage Tank Manager; Bill Noll, DEP Project Manager; and Janice Vollero, Field Representative from the Water Quality Division. 

 

Bill Noll, Travel Centers of America Project Manager.  Mr. Noll gave a detailed overview of activities at TA.  There are a total of 39 monitoring wells on the site with 22 showing free product manifestations.  10,604 gallons of product have been removed.  The amount of product removed has been sharply declining.  In the last 6 months 521 gallons has been recovered compared with 4,943 gallons in the previous 6 months.  The total remedial action territory is approximately 4.5 acres.  Integrated Science and Technology from York is the firm working on behalf of the DEP.  The remedial action plan, submitted and approved in October, 2002, calls for 14 recovery wells, 12 of which are already in place.  The long-term remediation plan calls for free product pumping and total fluids pumping combined with vacuum-enhanced recovery.  Mr. Noll utilized overhead slides to illustrate the overall site, the proposed test well configuration, the plume configuration of the monitoring wells, and the zone of effectiveness or area of influence of the pilot tests last June and July.  He also showed a cross section, which illustrated how product can get trapped with the fluctuation of groundwater levels.  Due to the fluctuations in these groundwater levels the product recovery time may take several years to go through several groundwater level cycles in order to capture trapped product.

 

There was some discussion of residual product from past site use.  The anticipated start date of the recovery system is between July 11 and August 11, 2003.  Approximately 1 to 1 1/2 million gallons flow through TA each month.  The surface spills on the parking lot are a small percentage of the total volume.  There have been two different fingerprinting analysis completed on the soil with two different results.  The DEP is confident the source of contamination is gone.  The current fuel tanks are not double-walled, they are generally single walled fiberglass or single-walled steel tanks with cathotic protection.  Current leak detection systems include automatic tank gauges and an excavation liner.

 

There was discussion about the storage of recovered product.  This will be stored on site, not in 55-gallon drums but in storage tank entities.  The complete removal from these tanks will be done either on a volume basis or on a time schedule.

 

Janice Vollero, Field Rep, Water Quality Division.  Ms. Vollero discussed activities at the Pilot Travel Center.  Her position is a job-sharing one with the another individual, Laurie Mitzel.  Pilot does not have an NPDES permit, only a general permit for ground water remediation.  The main problem at the Pilot site is with the sedimentation pond.  Upon an inspection of the site on September 24, 2002, Ms. Vollero noticed product in the sed pond.  Since that time there have been 10 inspections of the site with 5 incidents of oil in the pond and violations issued.  Pilot is currently vacuuming the pond.  The last meeting with Pilot was on February 14 to address the issue of where the oil appearing in the sed pond is originating.  Ms. Vollero’s main emphasis is to prevent oil from getting to the sed pond and also control the water in the pond.  The oil/water separator appears to be functioning appropriately.  Pilot has been asked to monitor the sed pond on a daily basis and notify DEP by phone of any problem.  An incident occurred Friday night, the telephone report was made, and Pilot had a vacuum truck in Saturday morning to take care of the spill.  Apparently the incident Friday night was not reported to the Township.  Ms. Vollero reviewed a site map of the Pilot site including the storm drains and oil/water separator.  Pilot believes a big portion of the problem is specific dumps into the storm drains.  They will be installing signs at the drains notifying of the PA Clean Streams law and the penalties of violation.

 

There was a great deal of discussion regarding the current configuration of the piping in the sedimentation pond.  Jason McCain, Environmental Manager for Pilot Travel Centers, reviewed the preliminary plans for a concrete siphon dam, which is a pond within a pond to act as a further method to retain the fuels before it gets to the soils.  Mr. McCain said as soon as the plans are finalized, hopefully by mid April, he will make sure a copy of the drawings are given to the Township for review by the Township Engineer.

 

Ms. Vollero finalized the discussion by outlining the current testing and reporting requirements.  She said she would send the Township copies of written reports of the inspections.  The oil/water separator is checked for fuel once a week with written reports once a month. 

 

There was a brief discussion of the conditions at Gables.  There are a number of monitoring wells showing marginal levels of groundwater contamination.  There is no active remedial action currently taking place.

 

Discuss DCED Program.  Mr. Rimer contacted Dean Fernsler to arrange a program on April 3, 2003. 

 

ADJOURNMENT.  8:55 PM