United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region III
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

EPA is continuing emergency removal actions at this site during the repackaging, transportation, and removal of flammable magnesium materials.  Magnesium generators, who previously supplied Remacor with recyclable magnesium and magnesium alloys, are removing their materials from the site.    Winters Performance Products, Inc. is currently making preparations to ship its product off site.  MJ Metals of Bridgeport, CT, is coordinating with the EPA to be on site for drum identification and count.  To date 16 generators have removed, or are in various stages of planning in order to remove, their material off site.  AIM’s subcontractor MHF will be on site to resume shipments the week of 10/29/07.

  EPA’s ERRS contractor Guardian Environmental Services, Inc. (GES) continues to segregate oversized material from the burn pile and rearrange drums of materials in Building 9.  PADEP is providing technical and oversight support at the site.  EPA START contractor TechLaw is providing technical and administrative support to EPA.  EPA and PADEP officials continue to control access to the site in addition to coordinating the activities of the various generators.  

Personnel On-Scene:
10/23/07 EPA-2, PADEP-1, START-2, ERRS-8, Other-1, Security-1 (24 hr)
10/24/07 EPA-1, PADEP-1, START-2, ERRS-8, Security-1 (24 hr)

Weather:
10/23/07 Low of 59° F, high of 66° F.  Light to Heavy Rain, 1.00 inches of precipitation, Wind SW 4-9 mph.
10/24/07 Low of 48° F, high of 56° F.  Scattered Clouds, 0.04 inches of precipitation,  Wind NW 3-11 mph.

10/23/07
EPA’s OSC Jack Downie was on site for oversight of all activities.  EPA’s Bruce Potoka an Environmental Scientist on the Environmental Response Team toured the site and consulted with the OSC on operational concerns.  EPA’s Bruce Patoka demobilized.

PADEP Mariruth Hoffman mobilized to site to change filters on the High Vols and assist in oversight of operations.  

START attended the morning safety meeting held by EPA’s ERRS contractor Guardian Environmental Services.  ERRS removed all reacted substances from the reaction pit and moved its operations inside of Building 9 due to inclement weather.  ERRS rearranged pallets in Building 9 so that START in conjunction with its consultant can have access to them for the purposes of identification and tagging the drums and pallets.  ERRS also cleaned the concrete pad southwest of Building 9 of debris and hazardous material.

Neither the Data Rams nor the Personal Data Ram was used due to inclement weather.
START assisted as needed, conducted written and photographic documentation, and monitored activities conducted on site.  
  

10/24/07
EPA’s OSC Downie was on site to oversee activities and control access to site as needed.

PADEP Mariruth Hoffman mobilized to site to assist the EPA in oversight of operations.  PADEP Hoffman in cooperation with START took samples from the burn pile, containers believed to be misch metal oxide, and unidentified pallets of sacks to assist in identification.  PADEP Hoffman used an IR instrument equipped with a Aldrich Standard Library data base to identify and classify samples.

START attended the morning safety meeting held by EPA’s ERRS contractor Guardian Environmental Services.  ERRS continued to clean and organize Building 9 and the pad southwest of Building 9.  ERRS also began sifting burn pile 1 east on slab #2.  ERRS will be reacting the material before stock piling it to be sent off as bulk at a later date.

The Data Rams and the Personal Data Ram were on line during ERRS operation on slab #2, no significant off site migrations were detected..
START assisted as needed, conducted written and photographic documentation, and monitored activities conducted on site.

EPA’s ERRS contractor Guardian plans to demobilize on 10/26/07 for the weekend, and mobilize on 10/29/07.

American Iron & Metal (AIM) will resume shipping material to Von Roll America on the week of 10/29/07.  Von Roll America has been down for a planned outage replacing bricks in their furnace.  AIM is also looking at resuming shipping material to Magpro, Camden, TN

Intermet is making plans to resume shipping their product off site.

Winter Performance Products, Inc plans to start removing their material the first week of November 2007.

MJ Metals (generator) is making arrangements to start removing their product in November, 2007.  

EPA will continue to coordinate with magnesium waste generators for the safe and appropriate removal of the material from the site.  EPA will continue to coordinate with all local, state, and federal agencies.

There are approximately 15 fire debris piles located on slab #3 that constitute the remains of a 68,000 square foot building that was destroyed during the Remacor fire on August 6, 2005.  The piled fire debris contains construction material intermixed with charred, damaged and deteriorated drums containing reactive magnesium fines and oxides and other process alloys or materials.  The nature of the reactive materials mixed with building debris requires careful handling and segregation while increasing the risk of a fire due to exposing once-buried materials to the elements.  EPA is in the process of slowly segregating the first of these piles.  The magnesium-based oxides and fines that are segregated from oversized building debris are being managed on site in order to make them safer to handle.  The West Pittsburg Fire Chief has been informed that EPA has started handling of these piles.  

There are drums of magnesium fines that are not vented and pose a threat of combustion. One drum has already exploded and caught fire. Efforts are underway to stabilize these drums that are staged on the truck-scale slab at the site.