IJCiOfFileJune 9, 1989465-2671Jeff Ingalls, EcologistHazardous Waste Mgmt.White Alice Site-AnvilMountain NomeNon-NotifierRCRA inspectors Jeff Ingalls of the Juneau Central Office andRich Cormack of the Northern Regional Office conducted a visualsite inspection of the Anvil Mountain White Alice communicationsite in Nome, Alaska on June 8, 1989. This inspection wasconducted at the request of Irene Alexakos of the EnvironmentalProtection Agency, Alaska Operations Office. Ms. Alexakos wasinterested in determining if any hazardous waste activities,(primarily relating to CERCLA) have occurred or were currentlyoccurring on this site.The site notified EPA of their hazardous waste managementactivities in May 1981. Under "dates of waste handling" theyhave 1957 through 1980. Their EPA identification number isAK7570028616. The facility under waste types checked"sanitary/refuse" and "mixed municipal." Known, suspected orlikely releases to the environment is listed as "none". The siteno longer appears on the EPA RCRA handlers list for the State ofAlaska.We met with the site watchman George Motschman at 2:00 p.m. Mr.Motschman explained that he had been the watchman for the AnvilMountain White Alice site and five other sites for about 10years. Mr. Motschman stated that he worked at the Anvil Mountainsite prior to becoming the watchman for the six White Alicesites.Mr. Motschman explained that the Anvil Mountain site was obtainedby the U.S. Air Force by means of a military withdrawal from theBLM in 1954. He further stated that the U.S. Air Force stillholds the withdrawal. According to Mr. Motschman the site wasused strictly for communications, no radar. Four repeaters arestill standing on this site. Refer to the attached photos.Mr. Motschman explained, with regard to generation of hazardouswaste, that about 4 years ago the U.S. Army in conjunction withthe State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) cleanedup the Anvil Mountain site. He explained that the wastes werePCB oils and waste oil. He had no records of the clean up andcould not recall by name who was involved. The site did have sixUSEPASF1477076JUN 1 9 1989Sunerfunri Branchold 55 gallon drums that were empty and were now filled withrocks to help support one of the stations during high winds.Mr. Motschman stated that he also looked after 5 other WhiteAlice sites in the region. The sites were:(1)Northeast Cape; a radar and communication sitecurrently owned by the Native Corporation;(2)Kotzebue; a radar and communication site currentlyowned by the FAA. The radar equipment at this site isstill in use;(3)Granite Mountain; a communication site currently ownedby the U.S. Air Force;(4)Tin City; a communication site currently owned by theNavy ;(5)Unakalet; a communication site that has beendismantled.These sites according to Mr. Motschman have all been cleaned upof PCB waste and waste oil. Again these wastes were the onlywastes Mr. Motschman was aware of on any of these sites. Mr.Motschman stated that he had physically been at each of thesesites in the past year. He also stated that this Anvil Mountainsite was scheduled to be dismantled soon.Wlile on site Mr. Motschman opened up the maintenance workshopbuilding to demonstrate that all waste had been removed. He alsoexplained that the University was doing some seismographicresearch on the site. We concluded the visual site inspection ofthe Anvil Mountain site at 3:05 p.m.cc:David DiTraglia, DEC/COIrene Alexakos, EPA/AOORich Cormack, DEC/NROSimon Mawson, DEC/Nome, DO