Plating, Inc. is a former chromium and zinc plating facility located near Great Bend, Kansas. The facility discharged chromic acid onto soil, creating a groundwater plume roughly two miles long that affected domestic wells and threatened the public water supply. EPA placed the site on the National Priorities List in March 2008. The two contaminants of concern are chromium in groundwater and chromium(VI) in soil, both within the single Groundwater and Soil operable unit.
Cleanup efforts started in the late 1990s when the responsible party installed remedial wells to control the contaminated plume. After the company filed for bankruptcy in 2006, EPA removed hazardous waste and partnered with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to investigate the site through field sampling completed between 2010 and 2018. EPA issued a Record of Decision in September 2020 selecting removal of the former manufacturing building and contaminated soil beneath it as the remedy. That work involved placing a chemical reductant into the excavated pit to reduce leftover hexavalent chromium, stabilizing and disposing of excavated soil, backfilling the pit with clean soil, and restoring the land. The project received funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Remedial action began in September 2023. A final remedial action phase started in May 2025 and is expected to finish between September and November 2028. Groundwater monitoring is set to begin in 2025. Physical construction is not yet complete, and the site has not yet achieved cleanup goals across its entirety.
EPA has determined that human exposure is currently under control, meaning there are no unacceptable human exposure pathways across the entire facility. Groundwater migration is also under control, with no unacceptable discharge to surface water detected. Institutional controls are part of the remedy to limit land use and reduce exposure, though no activity and use limitations are currently in place.
Community members can learn more or ask questions by contacting EPA's Community Involvement Coordinator or the Remedial Project Manager. A virtual public meeting was held on May 19, 2020 to discuss the proposed cleanup plan, and comments from that meeting were included in the Record of Decision signed on September 30, 2020.
