Site Restoration Unit

Bankruptcies & Settlements

The Site Restoration Unit's efforts to restore the State's natural resources include sites with bankrupt responsible parties. In these cases, the focus is on collaborating with strategic project stakeholders to reduce or eliminate environmental threats while also seeking to lessen impediments to the redevelopment of contaminated properties. When a responsible party enters bankruptcy, BER must move quickly to take the appropriate actions necessary within the time frame specified by the bankruptcy process to acquire adequate funding to initiate/continue investigation and remediation. Future costs for necessary investigation and remediation are projected using the Remedial Action Cost Engineering and Requirements (RACER) system, a cost-estimating software system developed specifically under the direction of the U.S. Air Force.

Through the State Cooperative Program, the Restoration Unit works hand in hand with stakeholders coordinating investigation and cleanup activities with the funding. These critical partnerships help to streamline cleanup and redevelopment activities ultimately resulting in job creation, economic growth, and environmental restoration. Here are some examples of some sites within the bankruptcy program:

• General Motors: KDHE works with the RACER Trust, an entity created by U.S. Bankruptcy Court to address environmental contamination at properties formerly owned by General Motors Corporation, address contamination at a former auto assembly plant in Kansas City Fairfax Industrial Park. Recently RACER Trust announced they reached a purchase agreement with NorthPoint Development to facilitate reutilization of the 80-acre property. Actions are underway as KDHE, RACER Trust, and NorthPoint collectively parallel redevelopment with clean-up in order to promote redevelopment and job creation while protecting human health and the environment. NorthPoint projects that the new Central Industrial Park will create over 2,000 new jobs and over $40 million in capital investment.
• Farmland Industries: The Farmland Industries Nitrogen Plant in Lawrence, a producer of nitrogen-based fertilizer products from 1953 to 2001, filed for bankruptcy in 2002. KDHE provided oversight for investigation and interim remedial measures with funding from the bankruptcy Trust, and then partnered with the City of Lawrence to parallel redevelopment initiatives with remediation on this 467-acre site. As a result of these collaborative efforts, contaminated property with crumbling infrastructure is being transformed into a sustainable commercial redevelopment that incorporates renewable energy generation and creates jobs while expanding the tax base. These cooperative efforts are evidence of success in achieving KDHE's mission to protect and improve the health and environment of all Kansans.
• Frankfort PWS Number 4 Site: Through a final settlement with the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the City of Frankfort and KDHE have worked cooperatively to achieve success in remediating groundwater that feeds the City's drinking water supply. Public Water Supply Well Number 4 was once the City of Frankfort's most productive public water supply well until carbon tetrachloride, a grain fumigant banned from use in the 1980s, was detected in the water in 1986. Investigations conducted by KDHE identified a former Commodity Credit Corporation/United States Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) grain storage facility, which operated during the 1950s and 1960s, as the potentially responsible party for the carbon tetrachloride and chloroform contamination in soil and groundwater. A cascade aeration system and a pump-and-treat groundwater remediation system are currently operating with success.

RCRA Corrective Action Sites

Areas of concern at a facility where solid or hazardous waste was placed either deliberately or by accidental release/spill enter the corrective action process under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). KDHE and EPA Region VII entered into a Superfund Memorandum of Agreement that defines the roles and responsibilities of each agency with respect to the cleanup of contaminated sites to ensure successful implementation of efforts in a complementary and non-duplicative manner. The Site Restoration Unit works in close coordination with the KDHE Bureau of Waste Management and EPA Region VII to oversee cleanup activities.