Field Office Compliance - Field Activity - 49377

Environmental Reclamation & Recycling, Llc - 311528228
1422 E SCOTT AVENUE Des Moines, IA 50317
Polk County

FO 5

Activity Report
Document Name Type File Date Note
ERR DMR storm sewer outlet.pdf
Inspection Report (public)
08/30/2013 photos of DMR STWW outlet after fire
File Name File Type File Date Note
Comments
9/5/2013 Email sent to management 9/5/13: JANET GASTINEAU
9/5/2013 I talked with Cody Christensen, Deputy Building Official with the city of Des Moines, yesterday about the clean up. The site has proved to be a security issue (people wanting to scavenge) so there should be a fence around the perimeter of the property by the end of the week. Using the City’s public nuisance laws they plan to declare it a public nuisance, which will lead to a court action requiring the owner to clean it up and tear down the building. Fully expecting this won’t be done, the City plans to and will assess the cost to the property. They are hoping to expedite the process and have this all done by the end of the year. In the meantime it will remain as it is today. From what I have seen, the solid waste outside the building is mostly the processed wood product, C&D wood, styrofoam, plastic, brick, and metal. Please let me know if you want to see pictures from a visit I made to the site Tuesday, 9/3/13. There are a couple of detention ponds to the northeast on the north side of the railroad embankment that are associated with the SE connector project. Apparently some of the fire water must have gone through a culvert(s) under the RR ROW into at least one pond. These ponds are visible from the SE 14th viaduct. The city engineer for the SE connector project has been in touch with the FO about what to test for to determine the quality of this water. From the sample collected from the storm sewer outlet at the Des Moines River 8/30/13, we have only received results for BOD5 (9 mg/L), Chloride (110 mg/L), Oil & Grease/Hexane Extractable Material [HEM (<5.0 ppm), and pH (6.8 std. units). Several analytes are pending. JANET GASTINEAU
9/3/2013 Owner per Polk County Assessor is REGENCY CAPITAL FUND I LLC. No water entering the storm sewers today and Scott Street cleaned up and storm inlets back open. Sandbags remain at 2 storm sewers along SE 14th Ct. Des Moines Public works on site trying to establish a 16' perimeter around the entire property to erect a fence. Small amount of standing water on northeast corner, inside the building from the small overhead door entered from the east, and in the recent tire ruts on the south side where they are trying to grade the ground 3' from the curb for the fence, which will be 6' high. The west alley and east lot where waste was creeping toward the driveway/access fence has also been scraped clean. North side of the building was accessible. No standing water, but you could see where it was. Path cleared/concrete scraped clean on north side for the most part. Water at the storm outlet at the river is mostly clear with a little bit of sediment being stirred up around the perimter of the small delta that has formed. Water clear of sediment ~15' downstream. No odor. See photos at J:\Pictures\Solid Waste\Environmental Reclamation & Recycling\9-3-13. Awaiting a return call from Cody Christianson (283-4989), deputy building official. JANET GASTINEAU
9/3/2013 From: Gastineau, Janet [DNR] Sent: Sunday, September 01, 2013 5:00 PM To: Petersen, Ted [DNR] Subject: RE: ERR fire observations 9-1-13 As of today they have sandbagged two of them. There was a lot of debris at the trash guard covering the storm sewer outlet at the river but it was more like garbage than anything coming from the fire site. No water was being put on the fire this afternoon but there was still some standing water in the streets where an inlet is blocked and clear runoff from the west end of the site. We had some rain last night which appeared to raise the river level and volume through the storm sewer outlet. There was no sediment plume at the sewer outlet at the river today, but the smoky odor was present. Flow just looked like storm water and very nearly matched the color of the river. Large equipment could be heard moving inside the building and fire fighters could be seen coming and going from the southwest end. Solid waste was still being moved out from the east end over to a stockpile at the east end of the property. JANET GASTINEAU
9/3/2013 More observations from visit 8/31/13 There was still no water running off the site from the “lake” on the east side, but much more water at the storm sewers along Scott; in fact, the one around the corner along SE 14th Court that was not taking on water yesterday, had flows today, but I think this was in large part because the two storm sewers along Scott are now partially blocked by debris. The City was trying to keep the street clean; I could tell this in just the short time I was there. There seemed to be slightly more flow at the storm sewer outlet at the river today and it’s characteristics were quite different. It was laden with sediment and created a good sized plume at the end of the pipe. For example, you could no longer see the grit and rock at the end of the pipe like we could yesterday. The river is fairly quiescent at the end of the outlet so sediment was initially visible and settling downstream; the river appeared normal in color about 50’ downstream and 25’ from the shoreline. No odor today like there was yesterday. JANET GASTINEAU
9/3/2013 Visit 8/31/13 There is no longer much left of the building exterior. I talked to the fire chief (John Tekippe) and they are working to relocate the materials from the south side to a staging area so they can better access the north side for further suppression. All efforts at moving the material/contents of the building continue to be for suppression. Public works had backhoes and dump trucks on scene for this purpose and were putting the material at the south side of the office on the east end. The piles on the east side at the overhead doors were similarly being pulled down by a long reach track hoe and then a moved and stockpiled farther east. They are still putting water on these east piles and by the time I left brought a ladder truck to the north and began putting water on the contents within the north side. Some of the piles I saw inside were smoldering and the large plume was non-existent. The fire chief also mentioned one of the advantages of moving the material from the south side of the building was to minimize runoff because there is no point putting water on material that is not burning (or have water run through the material) just so they can suppress that which is burning. From the E. 14th bridge you can see standing water on the north side of the building. JANET GASTINEAU
9/3/2013 From: Gastineau, Janet [DNR] Sent: Friday, August 30, 2013 12:11 PM To: Petersen, Ted [DNR]; Moon, Alex [DNR]; Baskins, Kevin [DNR]; Sheets, Jerah [DNR]; Ehm, William [DNR]; Davidson, Amie [DNR]; Fitzsimmons, Catharine [DNR]; Wuehr, Tom [DNR]; Hutchins, Brian [DNR]; Tack, Jon [DNR]; Stobbe, Chad [DNR]; Gross, Bill [DNR]; Lynch, Barbara [DNR]; Grimes, Karen [DNR] Cc: DNR FO5_Everyone; Bunton, Bryan [DNR] Subject: RE: Round up of last night's ERR fire - local media coverage Dennis Appelhons and I were on site this morning. Our first stop was to the storm sewer outlet to the south and confirmed fire flow water is reaching the Des Moines River. There were no visible impacts immediately downstream of the outlet. There are two storm sewer inlets we saw at the ERR site that were flowing with runoff. A large portion of the runoff was described this morning by the DMFD as staying on site as there is some area to the north and east that serves somewhat as natural containment. We sampled the outlet at the Des Moines River and will be asking SHL to rush the analysis. Ottumwa Water Works (uses Des Moines river) was contacted last night about 11:30 pm after the initial call from DMFD. We have been in touch with Des Moines Water Works to confirm no pressure problems within the distribution system and IC confirmed water has not been a problem. Polk County AQ was also contacted and they have issued their own press release advising sensitive population stay indoors in air conditioning/limit outdoor exposure, but wind conditions are expected to change later this afternoon so they will be doing additional monitoring for particulates only; they cannot field test for toxic parameters. They are working closely with NWS. Please let me know if you have other questions or need information for a DNR press release. I can be reached best at 515-250-4291. JANET GASTINEAU
9/3/2013 From: Petersen, Ted [DNR] Sent: Friday, August 30, 2013 9:44 AM To: Moon, Alex [DNR]; Baskins, Kevin [DNR]; Sheets, Jerah [DNR]; Ehm, William [DNR]; Davidson, Amie [DNR]; Fitzsimmons, Catharine [DNR]; Wuehr, Tom [DNR]; Hutchins, Brian [DNR]; Tack, Jon [DNR]; Stobbe, Chad [DNR]; Gross, Bill [DNR]; Lynch, Barbara [DNR] Cc: DNR FO5_Everyone Subject: RE: Round up of last night's ERR fire - local media coverage DNR Field Response Update – FO5 staff have been in communications with the DM Hazmat team at the site of the fire. Our role at this time is to assess the runoff potential of the water used to suppress the fire. With assistance from the DM public works, FO5 field staff will be assessing the area for possible storm water intakes and other conveyances that may carry “fire water” to the Des Moines River. At this time there has been no indication that “fire water” has reached the DM River. FO5 staff are in route to further survey the area, including several downstream locations of the river. For those not familiar with the location, here is a link to a map http://binged.it/1fobqSV JANET GASTINEAU
Compliance Tracking
Action Type Date Completed Date Comment
State of Iowa DNR Home Site Policy
Leading Iowans in caring for our natural resources
Version: 2.3.1.23706
"
"