Due to extensive flood damage, FEMA tasked EPA to collect and manage household hazardous wastes (HHW), white goods, e-goods, orphaned haz-mat containers and asbestos on curbsides.  In addition EPA provided air monitoring/sampling support throughout the operational theater.  During the week of July 25th, it was determined that vermiculite insulation (aka "Zonolite" or "Zonolite Attic Insulation" or "ZAI") is present in some of the older homes and neighborhoods.  Consequently, this asbestos bearing material has been appearing in the curbside debris piles as home owners return and gut their houses.

Returning property owners continue to bring out HHW and e-wastes for collection.  Orphaned containers continue to be present in a few areas but most of the operational area has been cleared (see Operations Section).  The number of properties with asbestos and the amount of asbestos bearing materials are decreasing steadily throughout the Minot area.

Recon Teams continue to use the established grid system of Ward and McHenry counties to systematically track and manage the presence of hazardous materials.  Summaries of these assessments can be found on the EPA Field Assessment Viewer (http://react.nvs-inc.com/epasilver/).   

At the beginning of this operational period The Operation Section is organized into three branches:

    I.      Processing Pad Branch 
                Container Group (Waste Sorting/Bulking)
                White Goods Team (Cleaning/Freon Removal/Mercury Removal)
                START Team (Monitoring/Hazard Categorization/Counting and Reporting)

    II.     Container Collection Branch 
                Curbside HHW Collection Group
                Orphaned Container Collection (Land) Group (open access collection)
                Orphaned Container Collection (Remote) Group (river and difficult access collection)
                Recon Team

    III.    Asbestos Collection Branch 
                Bag Collection Group (collected bagged asbestos material)
                Excavation Group (excavate debris piles)
                Vac Group (vacuum loose piles of ZAI)
                Recon Team

However, by September 20 the orphan container collection was completed and the curbside operation activities were significantly reduced.  Hence, all three branches were consolidated into a single operational branch directed by OSC Tien Nguyen.

2.1.2 Response Actions to Date

See POLREP 1 to 12 for previous Response Actions. 

From 9/19 to 9/30/2011:

HHW collection crews complete the final sweep of curbside HHW in the Minot flood area (the 7^th sweep since the beginning of operation).  Only a small number of HHW containers were collected during this final sweep.  As of September 24, 2011,  all HHW and OC collection efforts are complete.

To date, over 110,000 containers have been collected and processed at the Collection Pad.  This includes: small containers, drums, tanks, propane tanks, cylinders, batteries, fire extinguishers, fluorescent bulbs, ammunition, small engines and other.   In addition, approximately 600 cubic yards of e-waste (electronic goods) have been collected.  The START team has completed the task of identifying incoming unknown materials.  The ERRS Pad crew has completed (as of September 24, 2011) the task of sorting and bulking materials for disposal/recycling.  The final shipment of waste material from the Minot flood operation left the Process Pad on September 27, 2011.  The Process Pad group also completed the processing of white goods.  Over 2,250 refrigerators and 220 ACs were processed for the recovery of freon, oils and mercury.  These units, along with over 3,500 inert white goods were turned over to the city of Minot for scrap metal recycling.

During this period, an additional 318 cy of vermiculite insulation (ZAI) were removed  from six household properties, totaling  nearly 3,500 cy ZAI containing material from properties in the affected area.  This has resulted from a total of over 390 cleanups at 284 properties. It is likely that there is a substantial number of homes in the flood zone that still contain ZAI that have not been touched by their owners.  This may result in ZAI containing debris being generated in the future.  This concern has been forwarded on to FEMA and the city of Minot through meetings at the EOC, as well as back to FEMA at the JFO.

A summary of the collection efforts to date, as well as a graphical representation of collection trends can be found at the following link:   http://www.epaosc.org/sites/7093/files/Total%20Count%20as%20of%20091711.pdf

A tally of the running total of material shipped off-site for disposal can be found at the following link:   http://www.epaosc.org/sites/7093/files/Disposal%20Recycle%20Quantities%20Summary%20Report%20as%20of%20091711.pdf. 
 

A link to a website http://react.nvs-inc.com/EPASilver/ contains a visual summary of all recon, collection, and other information through the area of operation.

Beginning on September 22, 2001, and finishing on September 27, 2011 the ERRS crew cleaned and dismantled the  trailer camp for EPA response personnel at the Old Settlers Park location in Burlington, ND.  Likewise, ERRS personnel decontaminated removal equipment and decommissioned the staging/operation pad area at the Minot landfill.  All EPA, START and ERRS crews and equipment were demobilized from Minot by September 27, 2011.