The Graveyard Auto Site is located at 1320 Emery Crossing in Clarksville, Clark County, Indiana. The site is on the east bank of Silver Creek, a tributary of the Ohio River. The property consists of two parcels of the land totaling approximately 10.54 acres. The property is improved with a modular office building, a concrete block building, several lean-to structures, and several mobile homes.
The site operated as an automobile salvage yard from 1983 to 2016. Building debris, numerous drums, and an aboveground storage tank have been abandoned onsite. Junk cars, mobile homes, and piles of scrap metal are located throughout the site.
In December 2018, EPA took emergency actions to stabilize and secure abandoned and leaking drums. EPA disposed of those drums in March 2019.
On April 11, 2019, EPA signed an action memorandum documenting the need for emergency and time-critical removal actions. Emergency and time-critical removal actions are to segregate, stage, and secure drums, batteries, and other containers; remove contaminated surface soil; backfill excavated areas; restore vegetative cover; consolidate and package hazardous substances, pollutants and contaminants for transportation and off-site disposal in accordance with the EPA Off-Site Rule; implement post-removal site control measures; and take any other response actions to address any release or threatened release of a hazardous substance, pollutant or contaminant that the EPA On-Scene Coordinator determines may pose an imminent and substantial endangerment to the public health or the environment.
