Charles City Press • www.CharlesCityPress.Com friday, june 7, 2019 9

 

             The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 has completed a Five‐Year Review Addendum for the LaBounty Superfund Site. Five‐Year Reviews are required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) when hazardous substances remain on site above levels that permit unrestricted use and unlimited exposure. Five‐Year Reviews provide an opportunity to evaluate the site remedy to determine whether it remains protective of human health and the environment. A Five‐Year Review Addendum is completed when the protectiveness statement is deferred until further information is obtained.   Based on new information and/or actions taken since the 2015 Five‐Year Review completion date, the site‐wide remedy is protective of human health and the environment. This Five‐Year Review Report was signed March 6, 2019.  EPA has assessed the ability of the public to access the Five‐Year Review through an internet‐based repository and has determined that the local community has this ability. As a result, the Five‐Year Review Addendum, 2015 Five‐Year Review, and Administrative Records for this site are available through this website: www.epa.gov/superfund/labounty.  Questions or requests for site information and/or the Five‐Year Review process can be submitted to: 

Pamela Houston U.S. EPA Community Engagement Specialist 

Email:  houston.pamela@epa.gov 

PUBLIC NOTICE COMPLETION OF FIVE‐YEAR REVIEW ADDENDUM   

LaBounty Superfund Site Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa 

March 2019 EPA Region 7: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 11201 Renner Boulevard, Lenexa, KS 66219 

Toll‐free:  1‐800‐223‐0425 

 

             The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 has completed a Five‐Year Review Addendum for the LaBounty Superfund Site. Five‐Year Reviews are required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) when hazardous substances remain on site above levels that permit unrestricted use and unlimited exposure. Five‐Year Reviews provide an opportunity to evaluate the site remedy to determine whether it remains protective of human health and the environment. A Five‐Year Review Addendum is completed when the protectiveness statement is deferred until further information is obtained.   Based on new information and/or actions taken since the 2015 Five‐Year Review completion date, the site‐wide remedy is protective of human health and the environment. This Five‐Year Review Report was signed March 6, 2019.  EPA has assessed the ability of the public to access the Five‐Year Review through an internet‐based repository and has determined that the local community has this ability. As a result, the Five‐Year Review Addendum, 2015 Five‐Year Review, and Administrative Records for this site are available through this website: www.epa.gov/superfund/labounty.  Questions or requests for site information and/or the Five‐Year Review process can be submitted to: 

Pamela Houston U.S. EPA Community Engagement Specialist 

Email:  houston.pamela@epa.gov 

PUBLIC NOTICE COMPLETION OF FIVE‐YEAR REVIEW ADDENDUM   

LaBounty Superfund Site Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa 

March 2019 EPA Region 7: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 11201 Renner Boulevard, Lenexa, KS 66219 

Toll‐free:  1‐800‐223‐0425 

 

             The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 has completed a Five‐Year Review Addendum for the LaBounty Superfund Site. Five‐Year Reviews are required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) when hazardous substances remain on site above levels that permit unrestricted use and unlimited exposure. Five‐Year Reviews provide an opportunity to evaluate the site remedy to determine whether it remains protective of human health and the environment. A Five‐Year Review Addendum is completed when the protectiveness statement is deferred until further information is obtained.   Based on new information and/or actions taken since the 2015 Five‐Year Review completion date, the site‐wide remedy is protective of human health and the environment. This Five‐Year Review Report was signed March 6, 2019.  EPA has assessed the ability of the public to access the Five‐Year Review through an internet‐based repository and has determined that the local community has this ability. As a result, the Five‐Year Review Addendum, 2015 Five‐Year Review, and Administrative Records for this site are available through this website: www.epa.gov/superfund/labounty.  Questions or requests for site information and/or the Five‐Year Review process can be submitted to: 

Pamela Houston U.S. EPA Community Engagement Specialist 

Email:  houston.pamela@epa.gov 

PUBLIC NOTICE COMPLETION OF FIVE‐YEAR REVIEW ADDENDUM   

LaBounty Superfund Site Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa 

March 2019 EPA Region 7: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 11201 Renner Boulevard, Lenexa, KS 66219 

Toll‐free:  1‐800‐223‐0425 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 announces the partial deletion ofOperable Unit 1 – Chemical Fill and Contaminated Soil (OU1) of the Shaw Avenue DumpSuperfund Site from the National Priorities List (NPL) and invites the public to comment on thesite. Written comments will be accepted during the 30‐day public comment period for the site,which will begin June 4, 2019, and end July 5, 2019. The public may submit their comments to theEPA contact person listed, below prior to the close of the comment period.EPA and the state of Iowa, through the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, determined thatall appropriate response actions under the Comprehensive Environmental Response,Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) at OU1 have been completed.EPA has assessed the ability of the public to access the Administrative Record through aninternet‐based repository and has determined that the local community has this ability. As aresult, the Administrative Record file for this site, including the NPL deletion and a link to theFederal Register notice for the partial deletion of OU1 at the site, are available through thiswebsite: www.epa.gov/superfund/shawavenuedump.Questions or requests for site information and/or the Five‐Year Review process can be submitted to:

Public Notice30‐DAY PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD AND

PARTIAL DELETION FROM NATIONAL PRIORITIES LISTOperable Unit 1 of Shaw Avenue Dump Superfund Site

Charles City, Floyd County, IowaJune 2019

identified said they had no idea the plant would be closing.

Other employees who were arriving at the plant to work Thursday afternoon had not yet heard the news.

One employee, Rolando To-rio, a thigh deboner, said it was surprising because the plant always seemed busy, including working Saturday shifts.

When asked if he had any idea why the plant was closing, he just smiled and said, “May-be not enough money?”

Asked what he would do now, Rolando simply said, “Look for other work.”

Tim Fox, executive director of the Charles City Area Devel-opment Corp., said he had been made aware the plant would be closing, but it was too early to talk about reactions or what the ADC or other community groups might do help employ-ees or market the property.

Neither Mayor Dean An-drews nor Charles City City Administrator Steve Diers re-turned calls for comment.

The leTTer To employees in-dicated that efforts were being made to sell the property to a company that could continue its operation, but “at this point it does not appear that a buyer will be found prior who can take over operations before Au-gust 5, 2019, or if an agreement is reached, the buyer may not hire a significant percentage of the workforce.”

The federal Worker Adjust-ment and Retraining Notifi-cation (WARN) Act requires employers with more than 100 employees to provide 60 days notification of plant closings or significant layoffs.

The letter to employees is-sued Thursday complies with that requirement.

The letter notes that Iowa Workforce Development of-fers services through its Iowa WORKS Centers that includes assistance finding new em-ployment, resume workshops, career counseling, training in a new career and assistance filing for unemployment benefits.

“All Simply Essentials employees will be eligible to apply for unemployment and Simply Essentials intends to work with its employees and the state of Iowa to provide job placement assistance for the employees being laid off/termi-nated as a result of the closing of the business,” the Simply Essentials letter said.

Kansas CiTy-based Simply Essentials LLC had announced on June 2, 2016, that it would purchase the closed Cedar Riv-er Poultry chicken processing plant in Charles City, invest more than $30 million in state-of-the-art processing equip-ment and reopen in the fall. It

had been working on a finan-cial package that would allow it to refit and open the Charles City plant since July 2015.

One feature of the plant was its use of air-chilling to individ-ually chill the chickens through the process, rather than using water baths with chlorine as is more common in the industry.

“simply essenTials is build-ing a facility with unparalleled levels of technology, efficiency, sustainability, safety and animal welfare,” said Dennis Krause, CEO of Simply Essentials, at the time of the announcement.

“This will result in a better tasting, healthier end product for sure, but the plant is being designed to be safer for plant workers and will require far fewer natural resources to run the plant because of its unique processing design,” he said.

The plant was also heralded as good news for area farmers. Besides the farms that would supply chickens to the opera-tion, more than 200,000 tons of grain would be required each year to raise the chickens.

In November 2017, Simply Essentials was sold to Pitman Family Farms of California. Simply Essentials had been majority-owned by a private equity firm, Tillridge Global Agribusiness Partners, which is an affiliate of NGP Energy Capital Management of Dallas.

At the time, Simply Essen-tials CEO Krause called the sale good news, saying that Pitman Family Farms had been in the chicken and other poultry business for three generations.

“This is very positive for Charles City,” Krause said at the time. “We’re able to partner with an experienced chicken producer with deep experience in food marketing. This is really a positive thing for the plant.”

Krause was no longer affili-ated with Simply Essentials as of earlier this year.

The siTe of simply Essentials has seen numerous businesses over the years, including All States Quality Food, Custom Poultry Processing and Cedar River Poultry.

Custom Poultry Processing, which promised to sell organ-ically raised, antibiotic-free chicken, lasted less than two months in 2011 before filing for bankruptcy.

Cedar River Poultry pur-chased the property out of bankruptcy court that summer and was expected to open later that year, selling mostly whole “head-on, feet-on” chickens to Asian markets, but by 2013 the plant was still not operational, with owners saying they were awaiting U.S. Department of Agriculture permits to trade with Asia. The company even-tually filed for bankruptcy.

In 2016, a U.S. bankruptcy court opened the sale of the Ce-dar River Poultry facility, and it was purchased by Simply Essentials.

CLOSINGContinued from page 1

It’s been a busy month for engineers across the state to de-termine damage that has been caused by a bevy of twisters that ravaged Iowa during much of May.

That includes Charles City.The tornado touched down

shortly after noon and bar-relled into buildings on the fairgrounds and left several homes in heaping piles in its 7-mile path of destruction along a northwest corridor on the out-skirts of Charles City.

Turned To rubble by the tor-nado was the brick building, of-ten referred to as Heritage Hall. Ironically, the building was used as a storm shelter for many years to take cover from inclem-ent or dangerous weather.

The other three buildings that were totaled and have since been demolished are the white building that housed the “Lit-tle Hands on the Farm” exhibit during the fair; the dairy barn, which housed calves and goats, among other animals; and the hoop building right next to it.

The good news is that an insurance adjuster that came out to the fairgrounds to assess damage a few days after the

tornado wreaked havoc on the property said all the buildings will be covered. Anderson did say that some personal items, like tables and chairs that were located in the brick building, won’t be covered.

Even better news is the fair is still scheduled to be run July 17-21.

“We’re going To do every-thing in our power to have it be as good as we can this year, and then better going forward is what we’re aiming for,” said Anderson.

Amy Staudt, Floyd County Fair Board president, said there may be a big tent set up for acts at the fair that normally would have been inside the brick building.

The issue at hand is wheth-er four other structures on site are going to be deemed sound enough to not have to be torn down.

“Our first priority is obvious-ly the safety of everyone who is going to be out at the fair-grounds. We need to make sure the buildings that are still there can be used,” said Staudt.

Those buildings are the ones that house the 4-H food stand and the fair office, the beef and swine barn, the horse arena crow’s nest and the horticulture building.

The engineer will have the fi-

nal say-so on the future of those dwellings.

Anderson said, “From there we’ll develop kind of a short-term plan as to the steps we’re going to take to have a success-ful fair this year. Then in Au-gust, we’re going to get together and have a meeting and put together our long-range plan. Hopefully by then we’ll have an idea of where we’re at on all the structures.”

Also casualties of the 110 mph winds that struck the fair-grounds were several trees. Anderson said an ash tree that had stood between the brick building and white building for decades had been uprooted.

“At some point you wonder what its future was going to be anyway,” said Anderson.

Three oTher fairly maTure trees by the courtyard and near the beef and swine barn were also wiped out. Many small-er trees on a fence line also suffered extensive damage and will need to be removed and replaced.

Anderson said he has been in discussion with City Admin-istrator Steve Diers about pos-sibly acquiring trees that sit on the wastewater treatment plant’s property. There are approxi-mately 4,500 trees of various species on the site that will need to be removed for construction

of the new wastewater treatment plant.

The city is looking to sell off the trees. Whether they would be purchased by the fair board or donated isn’t clear.

“I’ve been in touch with Steve on that. I think we’ll have

an avenue there,” said Ander-son.

anderson said he has been in contact with numerous people who have called and are willing to help out or donate their time to rebuild and repair what has

been destroyed.“I’ve been in touch with

some people that have called pretty much out of the blue say-ing, ‘Hey, we want to support you, what do you need?’ type of thing,” said Anderson.

TORNADOContinued from page 1

Press photos by James Grob

ABOVE AND BELOW: First and second graders at Washington Elementary play in the park at Lions Field on the last day of school for students in Charles City.

past winter pushed the final day back. The district is obligated to make up the lost hours.

Teachers in the district may have breathed a sigh of relief once the students were gone Thursday, but they still have work to do. The last day for teachers in the district is Tues-day, June 11.

The summer break will be a short one. The first day of school for students in the 2019-20 school year will be Friday, Aug. 23.

SCHOOLContinued from page 1

Lincoln Elementary students leave the building for the last time this school year on the last day of school Thursday.