The Wheeling Brake Band Site was an asbestos brake parts manufacturer from 1968 to 1984.  The company ceased production of asbestos containing brake parts on or about 1984 but continued to produce non-asbestos brake parts up to 2009.  Currently, the Site is inactive with no commercial or manufacturing activities.

The facility is located at the western terminal end of Berkley Avenue.  The facility is open to foot traffic on all sides.  A small stream is located to the south of the facility.  The stream contains several beaver dams which cause routine flooding of the southern portion of the property including the facility’s building.  The site contains approximately 175 55-gallon drums of oil and 2 pits inside the building containing approximately 1,000 gallons of oil/water mixture.

On Wednesday, July 14, 2010, USEPA OSC Jim Augustyn met at the site with the current property owner and representatives from the Ohio EPA’s Air and Solid Waste Divisions to gather information on the current conditions of the site and planned actions by the property owner to address the cleanup on the facility.

The property owner stated that a meeting was held at the site in early July with local government officials and state representatives from the Ohio Redevelopment office.  The meeting was scheduled to discuss the possibility of the local township obtaining grant money to assess and then address the waste on the site so that the property could be redeveloped and provide new jobs for the area.

During the July 14^th site visit OSC Augustyn observed numerous 55-gallon drums stacked on pallets at the rear of the facility and scattered throughout that facility.  Spilled oil was observed on the concrete pad that drained towards a creek less than 50 feet from the back of the building.  The property owner stated that several beaver dams on the creek have caused flooding within the building during high water conditions.  The flooding has caused two pits in the building to fill with water and mix with the oil that was already in the pit.

Additional observations of large quantities of suspect asbestos waste throughout the facility made it clear that a CERCLA assessment may be necessary if the township could not obtain the necessary funds to do the assessment work.

On Friday, July 16, 2010, OSC Augustyn received a call from a Township Trustee and was informed that it was unlikely the Township would apply for the necessary grant to conduct an assessment of the property.  On or about Wednesday, July 21^st the property owner called OSC Augustyn to inform him that he was unable to clean up the property without the State Cleanup Fund.  He informed OSC Augustyn that he would sign an access agreement to permit USEPA to conduct an oil cleanup and a CERCLA assessment on the property.

On Wednesday, July 28, 2010, USEPA, START and ERRS contractors mobilized to the site to begin stabilizing the oil discharge and begin the CERCLA assessment of asbestos waste on the facility.  The CERCLA assessment will be conducted under a CERCLA funded task order.  The ERRS contractor began moving the stacked drums at the rear of the facility to a new staging and sampling area.  Additional drums throughout the facility were gathered and staged for sampling.  The START contractor began collecting samples of suspect asbestos waste from waste piles, trailers, and palletized material around the exterior of the facility.

On Thursday, July 29^th, ERRS completed staging all drums and collected drum samples from each container.  One hundred sixty eight drums and containers were sampled.  The START collected samples from the two pits containing oil/water mixture in the building.  START completed collecting asbestos samples from inside the building.  Five oil samples will be submitted for disposal analysis and approximately 105 asbestos samples will be submitted for analysis.

On Friday, July 30^th, START demobed from the site to deliver samples for analysis.  ERRS secured all drum bungs and gather all site waste and secured the facility.  ERRS and the USEPA OSC demobed from the site.