Keefe Environmental Services

Overview

This 7-acre chemical waste storage facility in Epping, Rockingham County, New Hampshire operated from 1978 to 1981. It stored thousands of drums, large tanks, and a 400,000-gallon lagoon holding solvents, acids, caustics, heavy metals, paint sludges, waste oils, and organic chemicals. After the company filed for bankruptcy, the site was added to the National Priorities List in September 1983.

EPA identified 24 contaminants of concern across two areas of the site. In the barrels and lagoon area, contaminants found in soil, sludge, and liquid waste include arsenic, chromium, copper, cyanide, dichloromethane, tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, and several other metals and solvents. In the final remedy area, contaminants found in groundwater and soil include benzene, 1,1-dichloroethene, 1,2-dichloroethane, tetrachloroethene, and trichloroethene. PFAS has also been recently detected in groundwater at the site.

EPA conducted emergency removal actions in 1983 and 1984, removing over 4,000 drums, eight large tanks, and contaminated soil and lagoon contents. A groundwater extraction and treatment system operated from 1993 through 2011, first using air stripping and carbon adsorption, then switching in 2005 to an advanced oxidation system using ozone and hydrogen peroxide to address 1,4-dioxane contamination. When the system shut down in 2011, contaminant levels had met groundwater cleanup goals. A 2017 Record of Decision Amendment shifted the strategy for the final remedy area to institutional controls and monitored natural attenuation. EPA transferred primary responsibility to the State of New Hampshire in 2005.

The site has achieved ready-for-anticipated-use status. Human exposure is currently under control, and contaminated groundwater migration is stabilized with no unacceptable discharge to surface water. Contaminant concentrations continue to decrease under monitored natural attenuation. Nearby residential bedrock water supply wells show no site impacts based on years of monitoring data. Future ingestion of groundwater remains the only identified risk. Institutional controls, including zoning restrictions, remain in place to prevent residential development and protect cleanup components. The most recent five-year review was completed in September 2023, and the next is estimated between September and November 2028.

Community members with questions can contact the EPA staff assigned to the site. Records about the site are available at the Harvey-Mitchell Memorial Library in Epping and at the EPA Region 1 records center in Boston.