LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality says it will accept public comments until Aug. 13 on a proposed cleanup of a contaminated site near Pine Bluff.
ADEQ plans to remove contaminated soil, concrete and equipment from the former Utility Services Inc. facility on U.S. 79 about nine miles southwest of Pine Bluff. The facility is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB, materials.
The USI facility operated during the 1970s and 1980s and was contracted by a number of electric transformer manufacturers to filter transformer fluid containing PCBs, ADEQ said in a news release. PCBs were commonly used as insulation fluid in electric transformers until they were banned in the U.S. 1979 because they are a suspected cancer-causing material.
The agency said the materials will be taken to a permitted disposal facility.
A document describing the proposed cleanup is available for public inspection during normal business hours at the ADEQ headquarters in North Little Rock and at the Watson Chapel Public Library in Pine Bluff.
Comments on the plan can be mailed to J. Ryan Benefield, P.E., Acting Chief, Hazardous Waste Division, Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, 5301 Northshore Drive, North Little Rock, AR 72118. People can also request a public hearing on the plan.