United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region III
POLLUTION REPORT



Date:
Thursday, September 3, 2009
From:
Eugene Dennis, On Scene Coordinator

To:
Ana Pomales, ATSDR

Subject: 

Final POLREP
American Street Tannery Site
American & Bodine Streets, Philadelphia, PA
Latitude: 39.9653880
Longitude: -75.1412770


POLREP No.:
6
Site #:
031B
Reporting Period:
D.O. #:
Start Date:
 
Response Authority:
CERCLA
Mob Date:
 
Response Type:
Demob Date:
 
NPL Status:
Non NPL
Completion Date:
 
Incident Category:
Removal Assessment
CERCLIS ID #:
Contract #
RCRIS ID #:
 

Site Description

The American Street Tannery Site is located in the Northern Liberties Section of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.   The site is within the city block comprised of George, Bodine, American and Widley Streets. The area being investigated includes the site of the former tannery and the residential properties and surrounding homes on Widley Street. The former tannery comprised of a complex of five building that housed different tanneries until 1986. The site was abandoned until 1987 when it was subject to a removal action to stabilize facility of a variety of chemicals including acids, base/neutral, corrosives, toxic, and others. Later in 1990, a fire damaged the buildings. The City of Philadelphia decided to demolish the buildings, but not before vandals broke in and spilled PCB at the site and in the neighborhood. A second removal action took place to cleanup the spilled PCBs. The site was later acquired by Tower Development and redeveloped under PA Act 2 Program. The site is currently owned by Liberty Homes Philadelphia Inc. Residents in proximity of the site have expressed concerns about handling of contaminated soils and chemicals left behind in groundwater.


Current Activities

The results of the indoor air samples collected in September 2007 were provided to the PADOH and ATSDR and were evaluated for a Letter Health Consultation (LCH).  The LCH concluded that the VOCs found in the homes sampled at the American Street Tannery site represent no apparent health hazard at this time. The residents of the homes where the samples were collected were notified of the results by letter sent January 14, 2008.


Planned Removal Actions

No further activities are planned by EPA at this time


Next Steps

None.


Key Issues

None.


response.epa.gov/americanstreettannery