By DEAN SHALHOUP

Senior Staff Writer

MERRIMACK – The Environmental Protection Agency is inviting residents to submit comments over the next two weeks regarding the agency’s proposed update to the ongoing cleanup and treatment plan at the N.H. Plating Company Superfund site.

Beginning today through Sept. 16, comments can be submitted to the EPA’s regional office in Boston, the agency said in a statement issued Monday.

The proposed update includes measures to minimize and mitigate vapor intrusion risks at properties near the site, and restricts new wells on properties above a plume of contaminated groundwater, EPA spokesman John Senn said.

He said written comments should be submitted to Valerie Jurgens, U.S. EPA Region 1, mail code 07-1, 5 Post Office Square, Suite 100, Boston, 02109-3912, or to Jurgens.Valerie@epa.gov. Comments can also be faxed to 617-918-0346.

The update to the plan “will make the cleanup more comprehensive and protective of human health,” according to the statement.

“Specifically, the proposed update calls for the continued operation and maintenance of an existing treatment system” aimed at mitigating the health impacts from the contaminated vapor from the site’s so-called Acme building, Senn said.

That building, on a roughly 4-acre site at 12 Wright Ave., is adjacent to the N.H. Plating Company and curently occupied by Acme Pressure Washing company and a towing and recovery firm.

The proposed update, Senn said in the statement, “will not fundamentally change the terms, scope, performance or cost” of the cleanup plan, which was established in 1998 and updated in 2007.

He said state officials have reviewed and commented on the proposed update and “concur with its issuance.”

Initially, the plan “sought to prevent or minimize the continued release of hazardous substances to the groundwater, and provide for the management of migration of groundwater,” he wrote.

Historically, N.H. Plating Company operated an electroplating facility on the 13.6-acre site from 1962 to 1985. Over time, wastewater containing metals, solvents and cyanide used in electroplating operations was discharged into drainage channels “in the former building floor, and flowed into unlined lagoons north of the building,” according to Senn.

Eventually, contaminants from the unlined lagoons affected on-site wetlands, contaminated surface and subsurface soils, and reached the groundwater.

Senn said the documents and related materials can be found at epa.gov/superfund/nhplating. They are also available for public inspection at Merrimack Public Library, but residents must call the library in advance at 424-5021, because restrictions due to COVID-19 are still in effect.

For more overall information, contact ZaNetta Purnell, EPA community involvement coordinator, at purnell.zanetta@epa.gov or 617-918-1306, or toll-free at 888-372-7341, ext. 8-1306.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.