The site was reported as a former oil refinery that was converted into an asphalt plant. According to several locals present during the site assessment the plant closed down in the early 1950s. It was reported the plant left tar pits with residual asphalt in them. However, U.S. EPA’s Civil Investigator (CI) was unable to verify any of these reports. Based on the County Recorder of Deeds records, he found that the City of Vincennes acquired the property in February 1934. As a result of his conversations with people in town, several of them mentioned an asphalt company as a suspect. However, this asphalt company shows up in the city directory in 1962 at a location away from the tar pit. A review of residents in the area of the tar pit found a gentleman living about a block from the ball field. He has been living in that house since his birth in 1932 and stated that the tar pit was there when he was a child. He stated there was never a company at that location and believed the tar was brought in from somewhere else. He believed it was coal tar from a coke operation. A 1940 aerial photo shows ball fields existed and were called Lawson Field after Mayor Lawson.
In 1995 a little league association constructed a baseball field (Veterans Field) over the top of the pits. Over the years, tars have been observed seeping from below ground surface in several locations. Parents have complained that their children have come home with tar stains on their clothes and hands after using the field. It was reported that the tar has caused skin irritation. At the beginning of each season the ball field association would remove the surface tar from the playing field. During the summer months the tars are more viscous and flowed more easily thereby causing continual seepage around the area.
In February 2000 there was a fire within a storm sewer which parallels the tar pits and ball field. The Vincennes Fire Chief indicated that children had entered the 6 foot diameter storm sewer and started a tar like substance on fire. It is now suspected that tars may have seeped through joints into the storm sewer.
In February 2001, at the request of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), the U.S. EPA conducted a removal site assessment. The Site Assessment Report was produced in April 2001 and in February 2002, IDEM formally requested a removal action for the site.
The first removal action was completed at the site in July of 2003. The source tar was considered removed and the affected fields were put back in to use. During the summer of 2004 the tar began to reappear in the previously excavated parking lot area as well as the outfield of Veteran's Field. The problem continued to expand until IDEM and U.S. EPA agreed that the problem needed to be readdressed. IDEM referred the site again in March of 2008.
