The Alfred Heller Heat Treating Site is located at 5 Wellington Street, Clifton, Passaic County, New Jersey. The Alfred Heller Heat Treating Company (the Company) was founded in 1933, and originally operated in Manhattan, NY, to provide heat treating services to the metalworking industry in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. The Company was relocated in 1962 to its present location in Clifton, NJ. The facility is approximately 4 acres in size and contains six contiguous buildings. The facility is located in a densely populated, mixed residential and light industrial area of Clifton. There are four schools located within less than a 0.5 mile radius of the site. The Passaic River is less than ¾ miles to the east of the site.
The Company performed heat treating and metal finishing services to various industrial customers including the aircraft and ordinance business sectors. Initially, the Company specialized in heat treating operations that included potassium chloride salt pot work and oil quench production work. Austempering using sodium nitrite/nitrate quenching was initiated in 1968. Zinc plating operations began in the 1970s.
The Company entered into Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January 2009. Representatives from the Clifton Fire Department ("CFD") requested the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to accompany them on an inspection of facility in early March, 2009, because of their suspicion that hazardous materials were stored inside the premises. That inspection included representatives of the CFD, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the EPA.
The following chemicals and hazardous materials were estimated to be present at the Site at the time of the initial inspection:
• Approximately 30,000 gals of used quench oil stored in totes in various buildings.
• Additional oil contained in below-grade reservoirs for heat treating furnaces at various locations around the Site.
• One 30-cubic yard roll-off of zinc oxide sludge staged in a parking lot;
• Approximately 60 drums of zinc oxide sludge;
• Approximately 60 new product drums of sodium nitrite/nitrate oxidizer, and 40 drums of sodium nitrite/nitrate sludge;
• Approximately 400 drums of various chemicals, including solvents, acids, caustics, paint, oxidizers and unknown chemicals;
• Two zinc electroplating lines that contain plating chemical residue and sumps that contain hundreds of gallons of unknown chemicals;
• Approximately 50 fiber drums of elemental zinc balls
• Partially full ammonia and natural gas tanks;
• Two below-grade process tanks that contain a total of 170 tons of molten sodium nitrite/nitrate mixture;
• Open-top metal treatment tanks containing liquid and solidified sodium hydroxide.
The Asst. Director of the NJDEP Site Remediation Program referred the Site to EPA for a Superfund removal action on March 16, 2009. The Region 2 Emergency Response and Remedial Division Director verbally authorized the use of CERCLA funds to initiate a time critical removal action on April 22, 2009.
Companies that have made purchases during the auction are still in the process of claiming/removing plant equipment and scrap metal. The auctioneer/Trustee are controlling access to the site and maintaining control of that process. EPA continues to clear chemical containers from areas as needed to reduce the potential for accidental release while equipment is being removed. Additionally, EPA is continuing the process of restaging drums as needed for safe storage and to facilitate sampling and T&D related activities. Third parties conducting auction-related activities are restricted from access to areas where EPA is conducting intrusive work. EPA/ERRS continue to open available exits as needed to enhance ventilation of the buildings and provide emergency egress points for all parties on-site.
EPA/ERRS cleaned an existing on-site laboratory and prepared it for use in EPA sample management and hazardous categorization (haz-cat) activities. The laboratory has been established and secured as a work area for the on-site chemist. Drum/container sampling and haz-cat activities were initiated during the week of 6/1/09. A total of 39 tanks, 10 equipment reservoirs and 300 drums have been sampled and haz-catted to date.
On June 8, 2009, Gerdau Ameristeel of Sayreville, NJ notified the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Radioactive Materials Section (NJDEP RMS) that a radiation source was discovered while loading scrap metal into a railcar. The source was traced to an equipment panel for an Alnor Dewpointer that had been shipped to Heller Heat Treating Company in 1956. The source in the device contains 7 micro curies of Radium-226; the maximum reading on contact was 4 mR/hr as reported by the NJDEP RMS investigator. The device is currently being securely stored in isolation at the Gerdau Ameristeel facility in Sayreville. The NJDEP RMS has requested EPA assistance in returning the source to the equipment distributor (currently DICKEY-John Corporation of Auburn, Illinois.
Upon further investigation, a second Alnor Dewpointer was discovered on-site. EPA is currently investigating transportation and disposal requirements/options. Both devices will be appropriately managed as part of this removal action.
Currently EPA plans to remove all chemical waste drums, containers and laboratory chemicals. Additionally, EPA will remove and dispose of wastes from all vats, tanks and equipment reservoirs. EPA will continue to work closely with the Bankrutpcy Trustee to identify chemicals that may have value and can be sold or reclaimed.
EPA will continue intrusive activities as removal of equipment sold at auction can be confined to areas that can be sealed off from EPA activities. Sampling and haz-cat operations will continue in efforts to identify waste streams for T&D.
Two Alnor Dewpointer units containing Radium-226 were identified and will require disposal.
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