THE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a public information meeting on Wednesday regarding the Talofofo hospital dump site.
The site, which was formerly used as a U.S. Navy hospital from the end of World War II until the 1960s, was determined to be eligible under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense Sites, or DERP-FUDS.
In 1996, Kingfisher Golf Links developed a golf course which now surrounds the project site.
The former hospital dump site is currently a heavily vegetated area, roughly 0.6 acre, surrounded by a trimmed fairway and paved golf cart path.
Based on the results of investigations, there are no identified threats to human health or the environment.
Thus, the proposed plan for the site is to take no further action.
In October of last year, a remedial investigation or RI was completed for the site to determine whether chemicals of potential concern or COPCs are present in the site soil at concentrations that pose unacceptable risks to humans or wildlife and therefore initiate a response action.
The RI concluded that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act or RCRA-8 metals in the site soil did not exceed the Tropical Pacific Environmental Screening Levels except for arsenic, for which the 955 upper confidence limits or 95UCL were less than the site-specific background value.
Examples of these metals include arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, selenium, and silver.
It was determined that the RCRA-8 metals in the soil do not pose an unacceptable risk to human health.
In addition, the total petroleum hydrocarbon concentrations remaining in the soil following removal of petroleum-impacted soil and associated fragments of a 55-gallon drum resulted in values less than the Tropical Pacific Environmental Screening Levels.
Screening-level risk assessments were performed as part of the RI to quantify the potential exposure of human health and the environment.
Based on the risk assessment results, the project site does not pose a risk to human health or the environment under analogous current and potential future land use conditions.
Currently, the surface soil does not pose a risk to human health or the environment.
There is a bit of debris concentrated along the base of the cliff, such as glass jars, ceramic shards, IV fluid bottles, and a cafeteria tray.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study determined that the site is not a risk to human health or the environment and no further assessment or cleanup action is required.
From World War II until the 1960s, a U.S. Navy hospital was located at a Talofofo site shown in this photo.
