Merrilee Palcic

Remediation of Historic Creosote Wood Treating Facility through Implementation of Corrective Measures at JEA’s Kennedy Generating Facility South Parcel

Merrilee Palcic, P.E., JEA

JEA’s Kennedy Generating Station south parcel, located in Jacksonville, Florida, was historically used as a creosote wood treating site. From 1909 to 1962, previous owners of the site treated wood used for telephone poles and railroad ties with creosote. Creosote treatment ended in 1962, but the site continued to be used as a wood treatment chemical facility until 1966. In 1966, the storage tanks and distribution activities were moved from the site to a separate land parcel across the street. Distribution of creosote from a dock and pipeline on adjacent property continued through the 1980s. In 1977, JEA acquired the historic creosote site property to operate an electrical substation and wastewater facilities associated with the generating station.    The wood treatment facilities and creosote distribution facilities (operational from 1966 to 1992) caused releases of wood treating preservatives and petroleum-based compounds that affected soil, groundwater, and river sediments. Contaminants of Concern included arsenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).     The objective of this presentation is to describe JEA’s corrective measures implemented to clean up the soil, groundwater, and sediments. Remedies included capping, source removal, dredging, construction of a RCRA Corrective Action Management Unit (CAMU), and continued operation of a groundwater recovery system. Monitored Natural Attenuation will be implemented for the sediments to determine if the remedial action was successful for this media.    

Merrilee is a professional environmental engineer at JEA. Prior to joining JEA, she spent 5 years in the City of Jacksonville’s Petroleum Cleanup program. Prior to that, she  spent 18 years if FDEP Northeast District’s Waste Cleanup Section. She has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Georgia Tech, and a master’s degree in chemical engineering from USF.