EPA Invites Citizens to Talk About Plating Inc. Cleanup in Great Bend

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7 office will hold a public availability session Thursday, Oct. 11, to discuss a Superfund cleanup action at the Plating Inc. site at the Great Bend, Kan., airport.

The outdoor session will be from 10 to 11 a.m. at 8801 Sixth St., adjacent to the site in the airport industrial area. It will be conducted by Katy Miley, on-scene coordinator for the project.

The cleanup began this week. Several thousand gallons of plating solutions will be removed from the facility. Past operations at the site included metal plating with zinc and chromium. During these operations, hazardous wastes were generated.

The site is in an industrial area surrounded by agricultural land. Domestic water supply wells for two businesses have been affected by the contamination, and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is providing bottled water to the businesses.

The facility contains drums and tanks with corrosive and toxic plating solutions. They will be removed because they will continue to deteriorate and pose a risk of potential release of the hazardous plating solutions. This cleanup removal action will quickly address the potential threat to human health and the environment. The objectives of the removal are to:

* Identify all waste found on site
* Dispose of all plating solutions on site, and
* Dispose of any hazardous materials created by contamination from the plating solutions