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POCATELLO — Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 10 hosted a meeting Thursday at Pocatello City Hall to discuss the past, present and future of the contaminated Eastern Michaud Flats, including the abandoned FMC site.
The flats, where the Simplot Don Plant and former FMC sites are located, cover 2,530 acres near Pocatello and has been listed on the National Priorities List since August 30, 1990.
A community involvement coordinator for the EPA, Sue Skinner, said the meeting was to inform the public of the condition and progress being made at the Eastern Michaud Flats Superfund Site which contains toxic waste.
She said with many of the Region 10 officials in town for EPA technical meetings, it was an ideal opportunity to conduct public meetings. EPA representatives in Region 10 came from all parts of the Northwest.
“Everyone was already here,” Skinner said. “So we thought, ‘well, if we just keep them here two more nights we can have a public information meeting.’”
A major focus of the meeting was to discuss the current state of FMC Pond 16 S. When the Pocatello FMC plant closed in 2001, Pond 16 S, where toxic waste was stored, was capped and sealed. In September 2006, intermittent emissions of vapor were observed from the pond’s temperature-monitoring ports, said Greg Weigel, an EPA onscene coordinator from Boise.
Weigel said those emissions contained high levels of gas, and the EPA issued an order that held FMC responsible for characterizing the gases in Pond 16 S, conducting air monitoring and providing a solution to reduce the gas concentrations.
“This was a problem we had to deal with quickly,” Weigel said. “FMC has already submitted a potential design (for reducing gas concentrations) for EPA approval.”
The meeting also offered an educational poster session, which provided one-on-one opportunities to the public to discuss different areas of the Eastern Michaud Flats with the EPA official in charge.
Four EPA experts made presentations to the nearly 50 people in attendance, which included representatives from the Department of Environmental Quality, FMC, Simplot and the Shoshone-Bannock tribes.
The presentations mainly addressed the background of the Eastern Michaud Flats, current Superfund work, FMC Pond 16 S work, long-term care and monitoring plans for Pond 16 S and community involvement.
While the meeting provided the public with knowledge of current projects at the Eastern Michaud Flats, Region 10 Design Team Coordinator Mark Masarik told those in attendance it wasn’t a formal meeting in which announcements or EPA decisions would be open for public debate.
“We’re not here to discuss important decisions or conduct formal discussions,” Masarik said. “It’s just a time to let the public know what’s going on.”