FWS Opens 30-Day Public Comment Period on Draft Restoration Plan for Whitehouse Waste Oil Pits NPL Site, Jacksonville, Florida

McGirts Creek in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, shown here in late summer 2004, has been contaminated by hazardous substances releases from the Whitehouse Waste Oil Pits NPL site. Photo credit: EPA.

On June 11, 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a 30-day public comment period on the “Draft Restoration Plan for McGirts Creek Park for Restoration of Injuries Associated with Whitehouse Waste Oil Pits Superfund Site, Jacksonville, FL.” The Draft Restoration Plan proposes natural resource restoration actions intended to restore natural resources injured by hazardous substances releases at the Whitehouse Waste Oil Pits NPL site in Jacksonville, Florida. The only natural resource trustee participating in this case is the U.S. Department of the Interior represented by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Whitehouse Waste Oil Pits NPL site is a 7-acre, upland area adjacent to a cypress swamp located about 10 miles west of downtown Jacksonville, Duval County, in northeastern Florida. Allied Petro-Products, Inc. disposed of acidic waste oil sludges in seven unlined pits at the site between 1958 and 1968. In 1976, the dike system around two of the pits failed and released more than 200,000 gallons of waste into the wetlands along McGirts Creek. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed the site on the National Priorities List in 1983.

Approximately 14 acres of wetlands were lost or injured by the hazardous substances releases and subsequent remedial actions at the site. In August 2001, a settlement for natural resource damages with certain responsible parties provided $77,000 to be used by FWS for assessment costs, restoration oversight and restoration activities.

This Draft Restoration Plan presents the natural resource restoration alternatives considered by FWS and the proposed restoration action to restore injured natural resources. The proposed action would restore or enhance 50 acres of wetlands along McGirts Creek within McGirts Creek Park in cooperation with the City of Jacksonville. The City of Jacksonville owns, manages and protects McGirts Creek Park as a nature preserve.

Written comments on the Draft Restoration Plan must be received by FWS’s North Florida Ecological Services Office by Tuesday, July 10, 2012.

Further reading:

• Draft Restoration Plan (dated August 12, 2011)
• FWS North Florida Ecological Services (dated June 11, 2012)
• Florida Times-Union Notice of Availability (published June 11, 2012)