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 Site Profile.
On Thursday, August 23, 2007, U.S. EPA and its contractors mobilized to the Site to initiate the cleanup and removal activities. General Site set-up activities were performed to prepare the Site for work activity.
From August 24 through 25, 2007, general Site set-up activities continued. Utilities, including telephones and internet, were established. Safety controls were put into place around structurally unstable areas of the Site. Cleanup crew began clearing debris which surrounded future work locations to allow for safer access during sampling and removal activities.
On Monday, August 27, 2007, cleanup activities were initiated. The cleanup crew began clearing debris from around a large electrical bank in order to gain safer access during the removal of the capacitors containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
On Tuesday, August 28, 2007, cleanup up activities continued. Debris was removed from a hallway to allow for easier access to the foundries former laboratory located in the central portion of the main building. All mercury containing thermostats from the buildings walls were collected and stabilized for future disposal.
On Wednesday, August 29, 2007, cleanup activities continued. Debris was removed from within the Quonset® building, where the majority of the Sites waste containers are located, to allow for better access to the drums, totes, tanks and small containers.
August 30 through September 3, 2007, no Site work occurred.
On Tuesday, September 4, 2007, cleanup activities continued. Once enough of the miscellaneous debris was removed from within the Quonset® building, the cleanup crew began stabilizing and staging the drums, totes, tanks and small containers for later waste characterization and sampling.
On Wednesday, September 5, 2007, cleanup activities continued. Sampling of waste containers within the Quonset® building was initiated. The initial sampling was done with the crew members under supplied breathing air in Level B personal protective equipment. The U.S. EPA Region 5 air trailer was used to supply the air to the sampling crew members during work activities within the established hot zone. START provided air monitoring during sampling activities.
On Thursday, September 6, 2007, cleanup activities continued. Level B sampling were was completed. Based on air monitoring conducted during Level B operations and drum investigations, the cleanup crew was able to continue sampling the remainder of the waste containers in Level C personal protective equipment (PPE). START continued to provide air monitoring during sampling activities. Any newly identified containers not already screened will have to be addressed in Level B PPE.
On Friday, September 7, 2007, cleanup activities continued. The cleanup crew continued sampling the waste containers within the Quonset® building. An estimated number of containers within the Quonset® building was calculated as follows: 350-Drums, 24-Totes, 6-Tanks, 400-Bags, and 120-Small containers (≤5 gallons). These are only the containers which were in this building, a sweep of other buildings and the rest of the property needs to be conducted. START continued to provide air monitoring during sampling activities.
- Conduct a sweep of the remaining portions of the property and consolidate all other waste containers to the Quonset® building for sampling.
- Complete all sampling and hazard categorization activities.
- Dispose of all containerized waste and waste identified in pits on site.
- Excavate and dispose of soil/solids from 2 areas of contamination identified on site.
- Lab-Pack chemicals from On-Site Laboratory.
- Begin hazardous waste characterization of collected samples.
- Collect and stage miscellaneous containers from around the site and outlying buildings for sampling and hazcating.
- Begin dismantling and staging capacitors from the main electrical room.
- None at this time.
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