Former Lincoln Grain/Garvey Grain Site

Site Background

The Former Lincoln Grain/Garvey Grain site ("Site"), is an approximately 23-acre commercial facility at the intersection of U.S. Highway 59 West and 258th Road, five miles southwest of downtown Atchison, Atchison County, Kansas. 

 The Atchison Elevator has been in operation since approximately 1959, owned and operated by Garvey Grain. Garvey Grain operated the side until transferring ownership to Lincoln Grain in 1966, followed by transfer of ownership to Elders Grain in 1988, and another ownership transfer to Continental Grain in 1990. Continental Grain sold the elevator and facility to Cargill in 1999, but carbon tetrachloride (CT), chloroform, and carbon disulfide was discovered in the soil during the due diligence investigation prior to the property transaction. 

 Site owners prior to Continental Grain used a 5,000 gallon aboveground storage tank of Carbon Tetrachloride-based fumigant for grain fumigation purposes. Piping from the tank ran underground approximately 70 feet to the elevator silos. The actual dates of use are unknown, but usage is expected to have occurred between 1959 and 1986 when CT was removed from the market. 

 Neither Continental Grain nor Cargill ever used CT at the Atchison Elevator, and as a result of the business transaction sale from Continental Grain to Cargill, Continental Grain and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) signed and implemented a Consent Order (No. 05-E-0062) on October 31, 2005. 

 Interim Remedial Measures included an NPDES permit and the installation of an air stripper tank at the foundation drainage cistern discharge pipe, where impacted effluent water would discharge from the cistern, to protect surface water at the storm water drainage ditch. 

 In November 2005, Continental Grain started a Comprehensive Investigation and Corrective Action Study (CI/CAS) at the site to address contamination. The Comprehensive Investigation Report resulting from the CI/CAS was submitted in May 2009, and identified contamination in the soil and groundwater with chemicals of concern of CT, chloroform, carbon disulfide, ethylene dibromide, tetrachloroethylene (PCE), and trichloroethylene (TCE). 

 An Interim Remedial Measures Design/Remedial Action Work Plan was submitted and then approved in September of 2010. The work plan called for source area removal of CT and chloroform primarily through hydrolysis at elevated temperatures using Electrical Resistance Heating (ERH). The ERH system was installed and operated from May 2011 until March 2012. 

 Following the Interim Remedial Measures, Continental Grain proposed to monitor the groundwater quality as a performance evaluation method of the ERH and to collect data on contaminants of concern in the groundwater. 

 As a result of observably decreasing trends of contaminants in the groundwater, Continental Grain has requested the KDHE to publish a new Corrective Action Decision to determine what next steps in the remedial process need to be taken at the site. The KDHE has written a draft Corrective Action Decision that selects for ERH, environmental use controls, and continued long term monitoring be the selected remedy for the Site. 

 KDHE held a public comment period regarding the Corrective Action Decision and the selected remedies.

Additional Information

For additional information, please contact: 

• Alex Richards,  P. G., 
• 785-296-0268