United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region II
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

At 1615 hours on 10/29/08 EPA received a notification from the NRC that a chemical release was occurring at Abrachem Chemical, a bulk chemical packaging facility that leased a building in Clifton, Passaic County, NJ.  The NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection was on-scene and requested EPA's presence.

At 1730 hours OSC Ellen Banner and OSC Paul Kahn responded to the scene.  The company was found to be storing drums and bulk containers of known and unknown chemicals in 17 56-foot long intermodal shipping carriers (ISCs), stacked 3 tiers high (approx. 35 feet).  Only 5 of the ISCs could be opened, and inside those it was observed that drums and bulk containers were staged behind tiers of empty poly drums, giving  the impression that the ISCs were used for new drum storage.  EPA observed that in the one ISC where the release originated at least one drum was leaking its contents onto a wooden pallet; strong chemical odors emanated from the open door of the ISC and were also pervasive in the general area.  

The Operator of Abrachem retained the services of a remediation company, and contractor personnel were advised to lay poly sheeting and begin removing and overpacking the leaking and unknown drums that were readily accessible.  Work commenced almost immediately, but at 2100 hours was halted due to lack of adequate lighting and inability to phyusically access the majority of the drums through the narrow doorway.  

The Operator of Abrachem and the Owner of the property was issued a Field Expedient Notice, and in response the Operator stated he would initiate a removal action.  When his efforts to respond to the release, and threats of a release, proved to be inadequate EPA sought voluntary access to initiate a response action.  This access was denied on two occasions.  On 12/4/2008 EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order (UAO) for access.  The Operator refused to comply with the UAO and EPA referred the matter to the Department of Justice for a legal remedy.  On 1/8/2009 a federal Magistrate issued an access warrant to EPA to initiate a response action at the Site.

Removal activities continue.  On 5/11 reps from Monson Industries visited the Site to view their 13 drums of toluenediisocyanate.  Monson sold 12 of the drums to a plastics manufacturer in Newark,and the 12 drums were shipped to the user on 5/15 at no cost to the government. The 13th drum has polymerized and as such is useless.  It will be shipped for T & D next week.

On 5/12 42 cubic-yard boxes and two 55-gallon drums of Decor Inc. paint and paint-related chemicals were shipped off-Site for T & D at no cost to the government.

On 5/15 one drum of Aceto Corp's dimethylaniline (missed the truck last week) was shipped to Ohio for disposal at no cost to the government.

On 5/15 reps from BASF revisited the Site to discuss T & D of their 52 drums of waste chemicals.

OSC has contacted Givadan Corp. and Bayer Material Science regarding their drums found at the Site.  Both companies readily agreed to accept responsibility for the drums and plans are already underway to retrieve them.

ERRS excavated 2 cubic yards of contaminated soil from an area in the side yard where the ISCs had been staged.  One of the ISCs leaked a black, oil-like substance onto the ground and it spread over approximately 400 square feet of soil.  When the soil was removed a concrete pad was discovered about 6 inches below the surface.  The soil was sampled for eventual T & D and the open area was back-filled with dirt from the Site.

The last empty ISC was removed from the Site by it's owner.

A representative from Sun Bank visited the Site to try to find specific pieces of equipment left by Abrachem.  The bank has a lien on this equipment and a judgement to seize it if found.  The only items on the list still at the Site are the metal drum racks, new fire-water pumps and control panel, the yard 'mule', and an aged chemical reactor.

Continue contacting companies to retrieve their drums and other containers.  Over the next 2 weeks it is anticipated that an additional 250 drums will be shipped for disposal at no cost to the government.

ERRS will begin bulking activities for those containers for which EPA will be taking responsibility for T & D.

A dye test will be initiated to try to trace the floor drains in the building.  This is an attempt to determine if there is a need to do additional environmental investigations outside of the premises.

See above.

See above.