Source: http://www.shreveporttimes.com, September 14, 2017
By: Lex Talamo

It’s unclear whether the City of Shreveport will continue to buy land at the Cross Bayou project site now that the city council has killed Mayor Ollie Tyler’s bond funding proposal.

Shreveport Chief Administrative Officer Brian Crawford at a public meeting hosted Aug. 30 by the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce that the city would proceed with negotiating for the land along Cross Bayou regardless of whether the Pelicans chose Shreveport as home for a minor league affiliate.

If that remains true, the city’s continuing interest in Cross Bayou property raises another question: who would pay for the remediation of a 10-acre tract that currently has soil and groundwater contamination problems for which state regulators are demanding a clean-up plan.

Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch cited in her recent resolution urging Mayor Ollie Tyler to decline a New Orleans Pelicans team for Shreveport that concerns about environmental issues at part of the development site had been largely left out of public discussion.

Concerns about soil and groundwater contamination at the site are real — and probably time-consuming to address.

Soil at the private scrap yard at the site of the proposed sports complex and mixed-use development in Shreveport contains more than 25 times the petroleum hydrocarbons and 31 times the lead that Louisiana regulators generally deem safe.

The scrap yard also has concerning levels of arsenic and lead in the ground water, according to site investigations.

The metal recycling facility, operated under the name General Scrap Material, faces an order from state regulators to prepare a plan by the end of this month for addressing the environmental concerns.

Environmental concerns at the scrap yard must be brought into compliance before the city could consider building on that land, Jean Kelly, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said this week.

“The land would have to be remediated,” Kelly said. “They have to bring it up to a certain level, and that standard is higher for apartments than it would be for a parking lot.”

The City of Shreveport did not respond requests for comment following the council’s surprise Tuesday council vote nixing funding for the sports arena.

Problems, remediation

City government would have needed to acquire the 10-acre General Scrap tract to proceed with the Cross Bayou project, which was to consist of a mixed-use development and sports complex, and perhaps other any other development in the area.

General Scrap, at 200 North McNeil St. in Shreveport, has been a scrap metal recycling facility south of the Shreveport Water Works pumping station since 1928.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality on May 22 sent a “notice of deficiencies” to General Scrap. The notice stemmed from an October 2014 site investigation report from Industrial Environmental Consultants, a Nashville-based company.

Among the consultant’s findings:

• Lead levels in the soil exceeded 1,400 parts per million — the Louisiana Industrial Cleanup Level — in 30 of 72 samples, with a maximum concentration at 44,100 parts per million. Lead contamination extended 10 feet below the surface in some areas.
• Total PCB’s in the soil exceeded the LDEQ soil standard of 0.9 parts per million in 26 of 49 samples, with a maximum level of 50 parts per million and an average of 11 parts per million.
• Petroleum hydrocarbons in the soil exceeded the allowed level of 1,000 parts per million in 10 of 36 samples, with a maximum concentration of 25,100 parts per million.
• Lead concentrations in groundwater samples exceeded the allowed level of .015 parts per million, with concentrations ranging from 0.0091 to 0.0175 parts per million.
• Arsenic levels slightly exceeded the allowed level of 0.01 parts per million at one area of the site, with a concentration of 0.0105 parts per million.

The Missouri Pacific Rail Company first collected soil samples along the scrap yard property line in the 1980s and reported “possible” contamination, but General Scrap “never received any follow up,” according to a site investigation work plan.

The business underwent a restructuring in 2011 that included an environmental assessment. That same year, soil and groundwater sampling by the Tennessee-based company W.Z. Baumgartner and Associates and ECO Systems found lead contamination at the site, specifically in the northeast part of the property, according to the work plan.

The report called for “eventual remediation of the site,” adding that “no emergency or interim remedial action was warranted” at the time, according to the 2014 site investigation report.

Areas that since have been “cleaned up” — meaning they are now inactive or modified — include the former car crusher area in the northeast corner, the North Side miscellaneous scrap and abandoned equipment storage area along the north boundary, and a former iron turning area on the far northwest corner of the site.

The 2014 site investigation report identified two specific areas of concern at General Scrap, noting that a  “black, granular material” — also mentioned in the 2017 “notice of deficiencies” letter— probably was due to a buried battery casing pit and likely was the source of the lead contamination.

The report noted that the lead, arsenic and PCB contamination “could be a combination of prior practices or processes conducted at the site.”

On-site waste piles and burial pits for battery casings were common treatment and storage techniques before establishment and enforcement of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, according to the report. The act gave the Environmental Protection Agency increased authority to control hazardous waste.

According to that report, the leaching of lead from soil to groundwater “appears to be minimal” and impacted only those who worked on site.

Remediation

The 2014 site investigation noted that the site would be backfilled to standard using “clean fill materials” following removal of all contaminated soil.

The report also noted: “The anticipated future use of the (General Scrap Metal) property will continue to be a scrap and metal recycling facility including processes, operations and land use which currently exists.”

What does the history of environmental issues and current contamination mean for those who eventually would move into apartments or retail space on the site following remediation?

In the May 22 “notice of deficiencies” letter, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality directed the company to develop a plan for bringing the property up to environmental standards, subject to LDEQ approval.

General Scrap’s operation manager, Brandon Yarnell, asked on Aug. 1 for a 60-day extension for completing the plan, which LDEQ granted.

The company must meet a Sept. 28 deadline or face “possible enforcement procedures,” according to a later LDEQ letter, dated Aug. 18.

Ivey said his organization needed to collect more field and lab data about contaminants and ground water samples, as well as conduct an aquifer test. He estimated the time needed to create the plan would be at least three weeks.

The state agency is relying for now on the site studies completed by the private consultants.

“We take everything seriously, but at this point we haven’t had much access to the site so we don’t know how much of each contaminant is there,” Greg Langley, LDEQ press secretary, said Tuesday.

Langley said the department had no reason to believe General Scrap would miss the Sept. 28 deadline. He estimated the agency then would need three to four months decide whether to approve the plan.

It’s not yet certain who would pay for remediation if the city acquires the General Scrap property before the facility brings the land into compliance.

City Attorney William Bradford said at Monday’s council work session that responsibility lies with General Scrap.

“The city would not take any kind of liability, that headache or that burden,” Bradford told council at its Monday work session.

Brian Wolfe, the CEO for the city’s likely private partner in the Cross Bayou development, Corporate Realty, said his company was aware of the environmental challenges at the site.

“There are no challenges on this site that we haven’t encountered on other sites,” Wolfe said at the Monday council work session. “Nothing has been identified that we have not successfully overcome before.”

“We would assume prior to the purchase of property, any remediation plans would be approved by (the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality) with remediation costs funded by the responsible parties,” Wolfe wrote in his statement.

Site’s future

Bradford, the city attorney, said in an emailed statement that any clean-up costs were expected to factor into negotiations with General Scrap.

He did not clarify what “factor into negotiations” means, although it could mean that the city might agree to pay more for a site that has been cleaned up. Liability for future, unforeseen cleanup needs not anticipated in current site investigations also might be subject to negotiation.

“The City will continue to seek guidance from LDEQ during this process,”  Bradford wrote. “The City is not in a position to speculate at this time regarding action after the September 28, 2017 deadline, but it will continue to negotiate with the property owner and the LDEQ regarding this matter.”

Bradford said the city anticipated remediation would occur before construction. He added that the city expected both remediation and construction to adhere to worker safety considerations.

A complication: the standard to which the property must be cleaned would depend on its future use.

“Residential standards are more stringent than industrial standards,” Langley said.

The proposed mixed-use development, which Shreveport Mayor Ollie Tyler announced Aug. 22, was to have included residential and retail space and a hotel along Cross Bayou near the Shreveport Water Works Museum on the north side of downtown. The development would encompass the General Scrap facility and the Shreveport Police Department’s mounted patrol barn.

Also part of the proposed development: a sports complex with a 3,200-seat arena, intended as a home for a minor league affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans professional basketball team.

Tyler and Bradford said at the city council work session Monday that the city had taken moving the scrap yard to the Martin Luther King neighborhood “off the table” following a meeting with members of the Caddo Parish Commission. Commissioner Steven Jackson said in an op-ed essay The Times published last week that he was opposed to moving the scrapyard to the MLK neighborhood.

“The City intends to protect its citizens and will assist the scrap yard owners in identifying an appropriate location that does not jeopardize the safety of our residents,” Bradford said.

General Scrap timeline

1928    General Scrap opens as a scrap metal recycling facility.

2011    General Scrap undergoes a restructuring, which includes an environmental assessment of the site.

February, April 2011   W.Z. Baumgartner & Associates Inc. (Franklin, Tennessee) and EcoSystems Inc. conduct preliminary soil and groundwater sampling that reveals lead contamination at General Scrap

November 2011    The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality is notified about contamination at the General Scrap site.

October 2012    WZB prepares a Site Investigation Work plan for General Scrap Material

January 2014    Industrial Environmental Consultants LLC (Nashville, Tennessee) conducts a site investigation report and remedial action plan of General Scrap.

October 2014    IEC reports findings from its January investigation.

March 18, 2017    The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, Remediation Division, receives the 2014 site investigation report and remedial action plan.

May 22    The LDEQ sends a “Notice of Deficiencies” to General Scrap.

Aug. 1    General Scrap requests a 60-day extension to submit a work plan.

Aug. 18    LDEQ grants 60-day extension.

Sept. 28    LDEQ grants this new deadline to General Scrap to submit its work plan.

Source: October 2014 Site Investigation Report and Remedial Action Plan, prepared by Industrial Environmental Consultants LLC.