Tri-State Plating is a 1.5-acre former electroplating facility in Columbus, Indiana. It stopped operating in 1984, and EPA added it to the National Priorities List (NPL), the federal government's roster of the most serious hazardous waste sites, in 1986. The site has since been fully cleaned up and deleted from the NPL in July 1997.
The main contaminants are chromium and chromium(VI), found in groundwater across the site. Electroplating operations also left cyanide and other heavy metals in the soil and groundwater. EPA's cleanup plan targeted these substances through Operable Unit 01, which covered the whole site.
Cleanup happened in stages. Emergency response work in 1987 and 1989 secured the site by installing fencing, removing waste drums and contaminated soil, and removing asbestos-containing materials. Excavated areas were filled with clean soil, regraded, and replanted. A final cleanup remedy was selected in March 1990. That plan used extraction wells to pull contaminated groundwater out of the ground and treat it on site. Treated water was discharged under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Groundwater met cleanup goals by 1995, and all cleanup activities finished in spring 1997. Operation and maintenance oversight began in June 1998.
Human exposure is currently under control. There are no unacceptable exposure pathways, and contaminated groundwater migration has been stabilized with no unacceptable discharge to surface water. All cleanup goals have been met, and the site is available for unlimited use and unlimited access. EPA will continue monitoring to confirm the contaminated groundwater stays within its original area. The site reached sitewide ready-for-anticipated-reuse status in June 2006, and all required land-use controls are in place.
Community members or others with questions about the site can contact EPA Remedial Project Manager Caitlin Shanahan directly by email or phone. The site's administrative records include 49 documents, with one key document available through EPA's Superfund database. The EPA Superfund Redevelopment Program also works with communities to support returning sites like this one to productive use.
