The Site is a former asphalt manufacturing and petroleum refining facility. It appears that construction of the facility was completed in approximately 1960 and asphalt manufacturing was initiated in approximately 1962. The asphalt manufacturing and petroleum refining operations were ceased in approximately 1990 with the bankruptcy of Lacostex Corporation. In approximately March 1993, the taxing authorities foreclosed on the property and subsequently sold the property to Western Environmental of Oklahoma, LLC, the current owner, in September 1997. Western Environmental purchased the property for the intent of conducting salvage operations. The salvage operations began in September 1997 and continued until early November 1997 when a tank fire occurred. Subsequent investigations by the Texas Department of Health noted that the company failed to notify of demolition activities and had disposed of asbestos containing material to the ground surface. Western Environmental abandoned the facility on approximately November 10, 1997 and have conducted no additional cleanup activities even after being ordered by the Texas Department of Health (TDH) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Site is located on approximately 38.4 acres of which only approximately 10 acres were used for the facility operations. According to information received from a former employee, the petroleum refining operations were insignificant. The Site consists of 18 Aboveground Storage Tanks (ASTs), 6 concrete lined sumps, oil/water separator, 59 drums,77 small containers of laboratory chemicals, main office, laboratory building, loading/unloading rack, and processing/storage building. The approximate volume and general classification of the wastes located on site include 400,000 gallons of oil wastes, 30,000 gallons of hazardous substances, and 12,221 square feet of asbestos containing material.
The EPA has entered into an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) with Kewanee Industries, Inc., a former owner/operator of the Site. Kewanee operated on the facility from approximately March 1966 to August 1975. The AOC was signed and became effective on June 4, 2002. Kewanee Industries, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron U.S.A., Inc.. Chevron Environmental Management Company (CEMC), an affiliate of these companies, has assumed responsibility to perform the work under the AOC.
On July 18, 2002, CEMC has submitted workplans which were reviewed and approved by EPA. CEMC went out for bids to conduct the associated work. The bids were significantly different since they did not have a good handle on the characterization (haz or non-haz) of the materials and CEMC elected to bid the work out in 2 Phases.
Phase I would include the asbestos abatement and characterization of the materials in vessels, containers, and sumps; and, Phase II would involve the removal and disposal of materials and the demolition of the facility.
Phase I began on January 6, 2003 and was completed on January 23, 2003. Asbestos abatement was conducted in the following areas: Office and Laboratory Buildings, Upflo Heater Unit, Roof of ASTs T14 & T15, valve on the side of T12, affected soils in the main refinery area & surrounding grassy areas, tank pad area to the south of the south shed & surrounding grassy area. Third party air quality clearance sampling was conducted during abatement activities. Background air quality samples were also collected. A total of 160 cubic yards of asbestos containing material was disposed at the Waste Management Covel Gardens Landfill in San Antonio.
On May 13, 2003, EPA approved the Phase II workplan.
On June 30, 2003, CEMC Contractors mobilized to the site to begin the removal and disposal of the chemicals and the demolition of the structures on the facility. On September 26, 2003, CEMC completed Phase II. CEMC has removed 30,168 gallons of oil contaminated wastewater, 31,278 gallons of recyclable hydrocarbons, 25,439 gallons of a listed hazardous waste, 80 cubic yards of a listed hazardous waste, 27,248 pounds of a listed hazardous waste, 800 cubic yards of non-hazardous tank bottoms, 400 cubic yards of stained concrete, 3753 cubic yards of concrete and construction debris, and 393 tons of recyclable ferrous metal.
CEMC is currently in the process of preparing to conduct an extent of contamination survey of the surface and subsurface soils, as well as the groundwater. On December 8, 2003 the EPA gave the CEMC approval to go forward with a limited assessment to do a gross characterization of the property with the understanding that they would do a more thorough statistically based investigation upon analyzing the data. This intial investigation was completed in January 2004. CEMC submitted an approvable revised workplan for the continuing investigation of the property on July 1, 2004 and EPA approved that workplan on July 6, 2004.
On August 17 - 19, 2004 and December 13 - 14, 2004, CEMC and its contractors conducted additional sampling activites to supplement the previous sampling activities.
In July 2005, CEMC submitted an approved final report to EPA documenting its investigation and QA/QC evaluation of the data. This report is titled "Extent of Contamination Survey & Chemical Data Report".
The Extent of Contamiantion Survey was conducted following the completion of the removal to determine if any additional reponse actions were warranted.
It has been determined that no additional response actions are necessary and the site is suitible for commercial/industrial uses.
The cleanup has been completed and EPA plans no future actions on the site.
The EPA has provided copies of the reports to both the TCEQ and the city of LaCoste.
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