Federal Register Notice: July 22, 1987
Conditions at proposal (January 22, 1987): Spickler Landfill covered 80 acres in Spencer, a rural agricultural region of Marathon County, Wisconsin. In July 1970, the privately owned landfill began operations under the name Spickler Landfill, disposing of both municipal and industrial wastes. A second owner operated the facility from April 1972 to November 1973, when it was sold to Mid-State Disposal, Inc. In July 1975, Mid-State Disposal sold the site back to the original owner, who then sold the property in February 1976 to still another person, who now operates the site as a tree nursery. The landfill was closed in the fall of 1976. Mid-State Disposal was involved in the closure.
The landfill was operated in three phases. In the first two phases, municipal wastes and asbestos dust were accepted. The landfill had no liner or leachate controls. When these phases ended, the area was capped with native clay soils. In early 1971, with the approval of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 1,281 cubic yards of mercury brine sludge from BASF Wyandotte Chemical Co.'s Nekoosa Plant were deposited at the site in a clay-lined pit measuring 100 by 100 feet and 10 feet deep. Later in the year, it was capped with clay. During a June 1984 inspection, EPA saw that this pit had subsided, and water had ponded on top. Leachate was seeping into a ditch adjacent to the site, thus threatening local surface water.
In late 1984, EPA installed monitoring wells around the site. In March 1985, both the upper aquifer and lower sandstone aquifer were found to be contaminated with a number of organic and inorganic substances, including mercury, barium, toluene, and ethylbenzene, according to EPA analyses. Within 3 miles of the site, the sandstone aquifer provides drinking water to 2,000 people via private wells. The site owner's well is on the site.
The site is not fenced, making it possible for people and animals to come into direct contact with hazardous substances.
| SPICKLER LANDFILL | EPA REGION 5 Marathon County Spencer |
| EPA ID# WID980902969 | 7th Congressional District |
| Last Update: June 2005 |
Site DescriptionThe Spickler Landfill site is a former municipal and industrial dump site, comprised of two fill areas, totaling 10 acres on an 80-acre parcel of land that is located in the sparsely populated, rural area of Spencer, Wisconsin. The site was operated as a municipal open dump. In December 1970, BASF Wyandotte received approval from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) to construct an approximately 10,000-square foot clay-lined sludge disposal area at the landfill for mercury brine muds. Other industrial wastes, known to have been disposed of in the Spickler Landfill include kalo dust that contained asbestos and was disposed of by Weyerhauser Company and toluene, xylenes, methyl-ethyl ketone, and methylene chloride, disposed of by Weinbrenner Shoe Company. Private property owners live next to the landfill, including two homes directly west of the landfill and additional homes to the south and southwest of the landfill. The population of Spencer in 1991 was approximately 1,095 people. All residents are using private well water. |
| Site Responsibility: | This site is being addressed through federal, state, and potentially responsible parties' actions. |
| NPL Listing History: | Proposed Date: 01/22/87 Final Date: 07/22/87 |
Threats and ContaminantsSome landfill gas was detected onsite, and asbestos was confirmed to be present in a landfill cover soil sample. Leachate samples from the mercury brine pit contained elevated levels of calcium (3,340,000 ppb), magnesium (2,180,000 ppb), mercury (666 ppb), and nine organic compounds. Groundwater samples from monitoring wells showed exceedances of maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) for the following chemicals: benzene (8 ppb), vinyl chloride (39 ppb), barium (4,690 ppb), copper (2,250 ppb), iron (4,280 ppb), and manganese (54 ppb). Groundwater contamination has not moved off the property. Mercury was not detected in the groundwater samples, collected for round one in July 1990; it was detected in monitoring well 15S at 0.2 ppb and monitoring well S1A at 0.31 ppb during round two sampling in January 1991. Eight private wells near the site were sampled. One well exceeded the Wisconsin Drinking Water Standard for manganese, one well exceeded for lead, one well exceeded for iron, and one well exceeded for copper. |
Cleanup ProgressOn June 3, 1992, BASF, Weyerhauser, and Weinbrenner Shoe Company, the potentially responsible parties (PRPs) involved, completed the investigation and study under an administrative order on consent (AOC). A record of decision (ROD) was signed on June 30, 1992, that required upgrade of the existing landfill cap and installation of leachate collection and landfill gas flare systems. The PRPs completed the design on December 20, 1993, under another AOC and completed remedial action construction under a unilateral administrative order (UAO) on September 29, 1995. Long-term (30 year) monitoring continues, and a five-year review was signed on September 28, 2000. A final ROD was signed on September 29, 1998, to establish requirements for site close-out. The five-year review recommended modification of long-term monitoring to collect additional data and make sure contamination does not migrate offsite. |