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History The property that holds New Beginnings - The Woodlawn Wildlife Area has an interesting and varied history. Read through the timeline below to see how the site went from a county landfill to the wildlife area it is today. Woodlawn Dates | History | | | pre -1960 | The site was a privately-owned sand and gravel quarry. | | | 1960 | The site was purchased by Cecil County. | | | 1960 -1978 | Cecil County operated a municipal landfill at the site. Agricultural, municipal, and industrial wastes were disposed of at the site. The industrial waste included sludge containing residual vinyl chloride from the nearby Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (now known as Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc.). | | | 1978-1981 | Though it was no longer operated as a county landfill, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company continued to dispose of industrial wastes in designated areas on the site. | | | 1981 | The State of Maryland identified contaminants, including vinyl chloride and other organic compounds, in the groundwater beneath the site. | | | 1987 | The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) places the site on the National Priorities List (NPL), designating it as a "Superfund" site. | | | 1988 | Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and Cecil County agreed to perform a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study. | | | 1992 | The Remedial Investigation, now complete, showed that groundwater beneath the site was contaminated with a number of organic and inorganic contaminants (such as vinyl chloride and manganese, respectively) at levels that exceeded Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for public drinking water supplies or risk- and health-based concentrations. | | | 1993 | The Feasibility Study, now complete, evaluated alternatives to reduce the potential risks presented by hazardous substances found at the site. EPA held a public meeting to discuss the Feasibility Study. EPA then issued the Record of Decision (RoD) for the site, which detailed how the clean-up activities should take place. These clean-up activities included capping the landfill with a low permeability cap and the extraction and on-site treatment of contaminated groundwater. | | | 1995-1998 | Further studies at the site demonstrated that naturally-occuring processes (i.e., biodegradation and chemical oxidation) were effectively degrading organic compounds (such as vinyl chloride) to harmless substances and stabilizing inorganic contaminants (such as manganese) to forms that do not dissolve in water. | | | 1997 | Once it was documented that the site did not pose a threat to human health or the environment, Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc. partnered with the Wildlife Habitat Council to develop a sustainable wildlife conservation area at the site. | | | 1999 | A new plan to clean up the site was put forth. This new plan incorporated natural clean-up technologies that would clean up the site while also providing benefits to wildlife and the surrounding community. EPA again held a public meeting to discuss the revised plan. The new plan was approved and included such clean-up measures as constructing a permeable, vegetated soil cover over the landfill and the natural attenuation of contaminants in groundwater. | | | 2001 | A contest was held with local schools to determine a new name for the site. The contest was won by a seventh-grader at Perryville Middle School and the site was renamed New Beginnings - The Woodlawn Wildlife Area. |
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