Hardage/Criner Superfund Site

• Location: Criner, McClain County, Oklahoma
• Township and Range: Section 24, Township 6N, Range 4W
• Latitude/Longitude: 34.97175433, -97.57858150
• Site Type: Industrial Landfill
• Area: 0.25 square miles/160 acres
• National Priorities List: Final Listing Date - September 8, 1983
• Current Status: Cleanup complete

• Cleanup Oversight Agencies: United States District Court of Western Oklahoma, Hardage Site Remediation Corporation (HSRC), Hardage Steering Committee (HSC), DEQ, and EPA
• Lead Agency: EPA
• Office: DEQ, Land Protection Division, (405) 702-5100
• DEQ Site Project Manager: Lynn Nguyen, (405) 702-5102
• DEQ Press Contact: Skylar McElhaney, (405) 702-7167

In September 1972, Royal N. Hardage opened and began operating an industrial hazardous waste land disposal facility.  Initially, the facility was permitted by the Oklahoma State Department of Health, but the permit was later revoked when it failed to meet newly established Environmental Protection Agency standards.  EPA investigations and inspections indicated poor waste management practices that posed a potential threat to human health and the environment.  On behalf of the EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, which sought closure and recovery of the site.  Royal Hardage was then forced to file for bankruptcy and close the site in September 1980.  During site operations, approximately 21 million gallons of acidic, caustic, and corrosive wastes were disposed on the site.  Initially, liquid and sludge waste from drums or tank trucks were discharged into unlined pits.  As the disposal pits filled, drums were piled into a sludge mound in the center of the property.  Eventually, the site contained waste impoundments, including a large unlined main pit, a series of smaller pits, a sludge mound, and a barrel mound.

The cleanup for the Hardage/Criner Site included:

• Composite cap placed over former disposal area to prevent direct contact with waste, control surface water flow, limit erosion of affected soils, and to reduce infliltration
• Permanent Mounds Liquid Recovery System functions to extract non-aqueous phase liquids, which are sent off-site for destruction
• Three groups of groundwater wells monitor natural attenuation of the alluvial aquifer
• Passive Aeration System treats contaminated groundwater collected by the V-Trench and discharges into an on-site polishing basin (Green Remediation Technique)
• Control of air emissions from source areas

All immediate threats at the site have been addressed, and the selected remedies are expected to remain protective of human health and the environment.  The Hardage/Criner Site Remedy is currently in the Operation & Maintenance phase.

The Hardage Site is under the continuing jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma and operates under a Court ordered remedy, not an EPA CERCLA Record of Decision.

Historical land use surrounding the site is primarily agricultural.  Institutional controls in the form of a deed notice restrict use of the site, its groundwater, and some neighboring properties.  On going cleanup activities and remaining waste complicates any reuse.  There is currently a security fence along the perimeter of the site.  Recent modifications to the institutional control boundaries now allow livestock grazing south of the site.

• Sources of Contamination: 278,000 cubic yards of sludges, waste drums, tank trucks, highly contaminated soils, and waste liquids contained in three waste disposal areas near the center of the property
• Contaminants of Concern: Acids, alcohols, caustics, metals, pesticides, solvents
• Surface Water Impacted: North Criner Creek
• Groundwater Impacted: North Criner Creek Alluvial Aquifer