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APS was named in 2003 as a Potential Responsible Party in the Motorola 52nd Street Operable Unit 3 Superfund Site located in Phoenix, Arizona. In July 2004, APS completed negotiations with the EPA and signed a formal agreement, an Administrative Order of Consent. The agreement obligates APS to determine the extent, if any, of its contribution to the regional groundwater impacts, and if so, to identify options for addressing the company’s contribution to those impacts under the EPA’s oversight and guidelines.
APS is currently implementing the scope of work specified in the Administrative Order on Consent to evaluate potential groundwater impacts at our facility. The results of the groundwater investigation to date, indicate that volatile organic compounds have been detected in both the up and down gradient monitor wells at the APS facility at concentrations below the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level for drinking water with the exception of one downgradient well which has had concentrations of one volatile organic compound just above the Maximum Contaminant Level. Additional characterization of the soil and groundwater will continue as APS continues to implement the Administrative Order on Consent.
APS continues to provide funding for the clean-up of the Hassayampa Landfill superfund site. APS sent industrial solid waste to this municipal landfill until it closed in the late 1970s. The facility was later designated as a Federal superfund site and APS named as one of a number of PRPs. APS’ contribution to this clean-up effort is small, representing approximately 1.5 percent of the total annual assessment.
Manufactured Gas Plants (MGPs) operated from the late 1800s to about 1950, making synthetic gas for domestic heating and lighting purposes. Several predecessors of APS operated plants in Arizona communities including Phoenix, Globe, Miami, Prescott, Douglas and Yuma. The manufactured gas process created by-products including lampblack, tar and oils, some of which remained at the sites after operations ceased.
APS has voluntarily investigated and characterized our historical MGP sites. We have entered the MPG sites into the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Voluntary Remediation Program, which is a program specificallly addressing the voluntary investigation and remediation of environmentally impacted sites in Arizona. The company began evaluating each site in 1993 to address any remaining material that may have been generated by MGP activities. We began remediating the sites in 1996. Below is the current status of our MGP remediation sites:
Other Remediation Projects
The following table describes the current status of APS’ non-MGP remediation projects.
Our company is required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to report applicable releases of chemicals listed by the EPA through its Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) program. Our reportable releases under the TRI program are primarily contained in our air emissions from power plant smokestacks, or are contained within coal ash. While the TRI quantities reported by our company are fairly large (as is the case with all utility companies), the majority of these releases are captured by pollution control equipment, or are contained with our waste coal ash (much of which is recycled for beneficial use). The below chart lists our 2006 TRI summary (2007 TRI report is due in July 2008 and was not available at the publication of this report)
In 2007, we had a reportable release of 1,700 pounds of sulfuric acid to soil at our Cholla Power Plant due to an equipment failure. This release was reported to the NRC, AZSERC and LEPC and was remediated.
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