The American Street Tannery Site is located in the Northern Liberties Section of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The site is within the city block comprised of George, Bodine, American and Widley Streets. The area being investigated includes the site of the former tannery and the residential properties and surrounding homes on Widley Street. The former tannery comprised of a complex of five building that housed different tanneries until 1986. The site was abandoned until 1987 when it was subject to a removal action to stabilize facility of a variety of chemicals including acids, base/neutral, corrosives, toxic, and others. Later in 1990, a fire damaged the buildings. The City of Philadelphia decided to demolish the buildings, but not before vandals broke in and spilled PCB at the site and in the neighborhood. A second removal action took place to cleanup the spilled PCBs. The site was later acquired by Tower Development and redeveloped under PA Act 2 Program. The site is currently owned by Liberty Homes Philadelphia Inc. Residents in proximity of the site have expressed concerns about handling of contaminated soils and chemicals left behind in groundwater.
During the month of July, EPA and START prepared the draft Sampling and Analysis Plan to conduct indoor air and soil vapor sampling. On August 29, 2007, the OSC contacted the property owners of the residences targeted for sampling. Copies of the sampling plan along with a factsheet on indoor air sampling were sent to each resident. Access agreements for two of the three properties were in place. Access was granted verbally by the owner of the third property, the OSC requested a signed copy of the agreement as a follow-up.
On September 14, 2007, the OSC notified the stakeholders for the site (NLNA, the petitioner, the City of Philadelphia, PADEP) of the upcoming sampling event. On Friday, September 21, 2007, the EPA OSC, CIC and START conducted screening of three homes for possible household chemicals that may interfere with indoor air testing.
On Monday, September 24, 2007, the OSC and START personnel installed temporary soil vapor implants in the basements of the three properties. Summa canisters were placed in two of the three properties to collect samples of soil vapor as well as indoor air. Each property received one canister for soil vapor, one canister for basement air, and one canister for first floor air sample. An ambient air sample was collected from one property.
On Tuesday, September 25, 2007, the OSC and START returned to the two properties and retrieved the canisters. On Wednesday, September 26, 2007, the OSC and START placed Summa canisters at the third property to collect soil vapor and indoor air samples from the basement and first floors. On Thursday, September 27, 2007, the OSC and START returned to the last property and retrieved the canisters. The canisters were in the custody of START to be packaged and shipped to the laboratory for analysis.
The results of laboratory analysis are due in November 2007. The OSC and START will transmit the result to the residents and request ATSDR to conduct a review of the data and recommend what actions are next. The evaluation and findings will be shared with homeowners, NLNA, PADEP and City of Philadelphia. The OSC will continue to coordinate with the Petitioner, NLNA, PADEP, and the City of Philadelphia as necessary.
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