The Smalley-Piper site is a 9-acre former farm equipment manufacturing facility in Collierville, Tennessee. From the 1960s to 2007, the facility discharged liquid wastes into retention ponds that were later abandoned and backfilled. That practice left soil and groundwater contaminated with chromium, hexavalent chromium, antimony, and iron. The EPA placed the site on the National Priorities List in April 2005 and selected a cleanup plan in September 2008.
Cleanup has moved in stages. By 2012, crews had excavated and disposed of more than 6,000 tons of contaminated soil off-site. A groundwater treatment system came online in December 2015 and had treated over 80 million gallons of groundwater as of June 2020. The treatment system uses pumping, precipitation, ion exchange, and chemical reduction. Some treated water is reinjected into the aquifer, and some may be reused as drinking water. Institutional controls limit land use to non-residential purposes to keep exposure in line with cleanup levels.
Human exposure at the site is currently under control. Completed remedial work has addressed all exposure pathways that could cause unacceptable risk. However, physical construction is not yet finished for the entire site, and there is not enough data yet to determine whether contaminated groundwater movement has stabilized. Remedial action for Operable Unit 1 is scheduled to wrap up by November 2025, with long-term response action estimated to finish by mid-2026. A Record of Decision amendment and additional investigation work are planned for late 2027 into 2028. The most recent five-year review was completed in September 2022, and the next is estimated between August and October 2027. The site has received cleanup funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The site is not currently in active use, though EPA data counts two on-site businesses employing 13 people with an estimated $2.76 million in annual sales. The EPA and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation continue to oversee ongoing cleanup. Community members can stay involved through public notices, public meetings, and interviews held as part of EPA's community involvement process. Contracting opportunities related to the site are listed at sam.gov/content/opportunities.
