Garvey Elevator

Overview

The Garvey Elevator site is a former grain storage facility in Hastings, Nebraska. Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), used as a fumigant from 1960 until the mid-1980s, leaked from storage tanks and underground piping into soil and groundwater. The EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) added the site to the National Priorities List (NPL) in September 2005. The NPL is the federal list of the most serious hazardous waste sites in the country. Ag Processing, Inc. purchased the facility in 2005 and still operates it today, employing about 28 people on the 22-acre property.

Three contaminants are the focus of cleanup: carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, and tetrachloroethene. They have been found in soil, soil gas, and groundwater. The contaminated groundwater plume stretches more than four miles long and about one mile wide, moving east-southeast from the facility. The plume is not stable and continues to spread slowly eastward at one to two feet per year. The soil beneath the facility reaches 110 feet down before hitting groundwater and will continue leaching carbon tetrachloride into that groundwater for years to come.

The site is divided into two operable units (OUs), which are distinct cleanup areas. OU1 covers the source area soils and groundwater at the facility itself. Work there has included excavating about 68 cubic yards of contaminated soil and treating it through soil vapor extraction (SVE). The EPA also runs a groundwater extraction and treatment system at OU1. A final remedy for OU1 is estimated to be in place between August and October 2027. OU2 covers the larger groundwater plume beyond the facility. Remedial design for a pump-and-treat system finished in August 2024, and construction is planned to begin in 2026 once federal funding is secured. The final remedial action for OU2 is estimated to start between April and June 2027.

The EPA has connected all residences with private wells in the affected area to municipal water lines. A Hastings city ordinance also bans new private well installations in the contamination zone. These steps have prevented exposure through drinking water. If the groundwater were used as a drinking water source, contaminant levels would exceed Safe Drinking Water Act standards and pose an increased cancer risk. The most recent five-year review was completed in August 2024. Construction of cleanup activities is not yet complete, and the site has not been removed from the NPL.

Community members can contact the EPA's Community Involvement Coordinator for public outreach, or the Remedial Project Managers for technical questions about the cleanup.