Hi. I’m Scott Surovchak, site manager with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management.
The Pinellas County Florida site is located in Largo, Florida, about 10 miles northwest of St. Petersburg, Florida.
General Electric built the original Pinellas Plant in 1956.
The purpose of the facility was to develop and manufacture components for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.
The Pinellas Plant ceased operations in 1994, and ownership of the facility, now called the Young - Rainey Science, Technology, and Research (or STAR) Center, changed to the Pinellas County government in 1995.
As a result of historical waste disposal practices during DOE ownership and operations,
portions of the subsurface and the shallow surficial aquifer were contaminated with organic solvents and certain metals.
A total of 17 contaminated areas were identified and investigated in the 1980s.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection approved DOE’s recommendation for no further action at 15 of those 17 areas.
The remaining two areas were combined into one and is now known as the Building 100 Area.
It has contamination in the surficial aquifer at levels that exceed Florida state standards.
A groundwater extraction and treatment system operated in the Building 100 Area from 1997 until 2005.
During additional assessment beginning in 2008, DOE discovered that the onsite contaminant plume extended offsite in two directions, to the east and to the south onto adjacent properties.
In 2014, DOE conducted the first of four enhanced biodegradation treatments to remediate the groundwater in the onsite and offsite plumes.
The fifth treatment is currently going on as we speak.
Monitoring indicates that these actions are successfully degrading contaminants and reducing contaminant levels, both in the source area and out in the groundwater plume.
Another area of the original Pinellas Plant that underwent groundwater remediation is the 4.5 Acre Site.
This site was part of the original plant until it was sold to a privat owner in 1972.
From 1990 to 2016, DOE implemented a series of treatment remedies at this site, beginning with groundwater extraction.
In 2008 and 2009, approximately 2,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil were excavated and disposed of off-site, removing the source of the contamination.
To treat the contaminants remaining at low concentrations in groundwater after the source removal, enhanced biodegradation treatments, or injections, were conducted in 2010, 2013, and finally in 2016.
Contaminant concentrations have declined to below the state standards for clean closure,
and DOE recommended a no further action proposal to Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which was accepted and the site regulatorily closed in September of 2019.