United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region V
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

The Harvard Industries Site (Site) is located at 601 North Albion Street in Albion, Calhoun County, Michigan.  The majority of the Site is located on a 66-acre parcel additional properties formerly owned by Harvard Industries include two parking areas, a building, and an area with a concrete foundation.  These properties are located east of the 66-acre parcel across Albion Street.  

Several companies have conducted foundry and manufacturing operations on Site since the early 1900s.  Operations ceased at the Site in 2002.  The majority of the Site operations were conducted on the southeast portion of the Site in the main building.  This structure is a large concrete block and steel building that previously contained a laboratory, radiation room, offices, and manufacturing and machining facilities.  Several other buildings also exist on Site, including a Quonset® building (north of the main building) that contains numerous containers filled with waste products, and a garage on the northwest portion of the Site, where indications of a potential diesel underground storage tank system off the southwest corner of the building are present.  The Kalamazoo River is approximately 450 feet south of the Site.  A small city park (McAuliffe Park) that includes a baseball field, playground, and picnic area is located on the northeast portion of the Site and occupies approximately 10 of the 66 acres.

U.S. EPA is currently conducting a Fund-Lead Removal Action at the site.  For additional site information see previous Polreps.  

On Monday, October 15, 2007, cleanup activities continued.  Decontamination of the former Quench Oil Pit continued.  The crew began cleaning up the lead contaminated soil/debris covering the floor in the former Maintenance & Machine Shop.

On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, cleanup activities continued.  Decontamination of the former Quench Oil Pit continued.  The crew completed the clean up of the lead contaminated soil/debris covering the floor in the former Maintenance & Machine Shop.  An X-Ray Florence Meter (XRF) was used to screen the area to confirm the cleanup.  The crew began placing leaking capacitors into over-packs (empty 55-gallon drums) and staging them for later transportation and disposal.    

On Wednesday, October 17, 2007, cleanup activities continued.  Decontamination of the former Quench Oil Pit continued.  Once the crew completed the moving and staging of wastes into their disposal categories they began the process of bulking like wastes for disposal.  Empty waste containers from the bulking activities were staged for later disposal.

On Thursday, October 18, 2007, cleanup activities continued.  Decontamination of the former Quench Oil Pit continued.  The crew continued the process of bulking like wastes and staging them for disposal.

On Friday, October 19, 2007, cleanup activities continued.  Decontamination of the former Quench Oil Pit continued and the crew also continued the process of bulking like wastes and staging them for disposal.  42 chemical fire extinguishers were transported off-site for disposal.

On Saturday, October 20, 2007, cleanup activities continued.  Decontamination of the PCB-contaminated former Quench Oil Pit was put on hold until the remaining sludge in the bottom of the pit can be solidified.  Once the sludge is solidified it will be excavated and placed into roll-off boxes for transportation and disposal.  The crew continued the process of bulking like wastes and staging them for disposal.  Over-packing of leaking capacitors and staging them for later transportation and disposal continued.

On Sunday, October 21, 2007, no Site work occurred.

•    Complete the decontamination of the former Quench Oil Pit.  
•    Complete the bulking of compatible wastes.  
•    Lab-Pack chemicals from On-Site Laboratory.

•    Finish setting up waste streams and securing disposal facilities.  
•    Begin transporting known wastes to approved disposal facilities.

Security is on-Site during non-working hours.

Total costs to date include approximate disposal costs.

42 chemical fire extinguishers