River City Metal Finishing was a metal plating shop in San Antonio, Texas that operated from 1994 until around 2002. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) found hexavalent chromium in groundwater and referred the site to the EPA in 2017. The EPA added the site to the National Priorities List (NPL), the federal roster of the country's most contaminated sites, in May 2018. The NPL listing triggered a formal cleanup process under the federal Superfund program.
The main contamination concern was hexavalent chromium in groundwater beneath the former plating building, sitting in the Austin Chalk geological formation. While chromium levels posed a potential cancer risk above EPA's 1-in-10,000 threshold, total chromium still measured below the federal drinking water standard of 100 parts per billion. Risk assessments found that surface and subsurface soils did not present unacceptable cancer or non-cancer risks. No contaminants of concern were identified that would require active remedial action.
TCEQ took early cleanup steps between April 2013 and May 2014, removing waste drums, demolishing the building and other structures, and disposing of hazardous materials off site. The EPA then ran a remedial investigation from March 2019 to July 2020. After completing a feasibility study, the EPA issued a Record of Decision in September 2021 selecting "no action" as the cleanup approach. That decision reflected a finding that no hazardous substances remain above levels that would restrict unlimited use or unrestricted exposure. Physical cleanup construction was completed in June 2022.
The EPA deleted River City Metal Finishing from the NPL on February 22, 2023, confirming that all cleanup goals were met. Groundwater migration is stabilized with no unacceptable discharge to surface water, and the EPA will conduct ongoing monitoring to make sure contaminated groundwater stays in its original area. The deletion does not remove the EPA's ability to take future enforcement actions, and the site remains eligible for additional response actions if conditions change. The entire site is considered ready for anticipated use, including residential, commercial, and industrial land use.
Community members can find past updates through the Coolcrest Property Owners Association website. Site documentation, including the 2021 Proposed Plan and Record of Decision, is kept in public Information Repositories. The EPA also maintains a public database of all deleted NPL sites with Federal Register deletion notices and site closeout records. Questions can be directed to the EPA staff assigned to the site or TCEQ.
