US EPA Region 4 received a report from the NRC reporting a oil spill (heating oil) at approximately 09:14 am on July 16, 2007 from an above ground storage tank (approximatley 15,000 gallon) that supplied a boiler room at the Fieldcrest Cannon Plant #7 facility located in Salisbury, Rowan County, NC. The spill is believed to have consisted of over 8,000 gallons of #6 heating oil which occurred on Thursday July 12,2007. The release is believed to have been caused by thieves accessing the property to steal copper wiring from the electrical and operational equipment. The thieves accessed the boiler room to steal copper and allegedly turned a valve or broke a valve causing the oil in the AST to be released.
On Thursday July 12, 2007 the Salisbury Wast Water Treatment Plant (WWTP)observed petroleum impacting the plant. The Salisbury WWTP reported the impact to the Salisbury Fire Department, after several hours of investigation it was determined that the source was the Fieldcrest Cannon Plant #7 facility, a abandoned cotton textile plant. The spill originated in the boiler room, approximately 2" of product was observed on the floor of the boiler room. The boiler room has a drain that leads to a oil-water separator. The oil-water separator was also observed as being full of heating oil, the oil-water separator is designed to separate the oil and water and to discharge the water to the WWTP containing the oil in the catch basin. The oil-water separator malfunctioned, was not designed to function with a catastrophic release. The location of the oil-water separator is adjacent to Tar Branch Creek, a tributary to Town Creek which is a tributary to the Yadkin River.
On Friday July 13, the WWTP plugged the line that discharged from the oil-water separator to the WWTP and hired Shamrock Environmental to clean some oil impacted areas within the WWTP. The Salisbury Fire Dept. continued to monitor the site to insure that the oil would remain contained to the boiler room and the oil-water separator.
On Sunday July 15, the Salisbury Fire Dept. observed oil leaching from the soil around the oil-water separator to Tar Branch Creek and notified DENR. The Fire Dept. constructed two underflow dams and deployed absorbant boom in the creek for containment. The property manager of the Fieldcrest Cannon Plant 7 facility, Joel Smithgall was contacted by the Fire Dept. and DENR and was advised of the situation. Mr. Smithgall stated that he had the authority to make decisions on behalf of the owner FCS Urban Ministries but wanted some time to get some estimates from local contractors. DENR authorized the hiring of Shamrock Environmental to respond and to contain the oil at the Fieldcrest Cannon Plant 7 facility. Shamrock Env. recovered over 8,000 gallons of oil from the boiler room and oil-water separator.
On Monday July 16th, oil was still observed leaching from impacted soils along the bank of Tar Branch Creek in the vacinity of the oil-water separator, US EPA was notified by DENR at this time.
On July 18th, US EPA arrived onsite to collect analytical samples from the oil in the creek, soil from the side banks of the creek, the onsite OWS, and the concrete basin. Samples were sent out for PCB analysis. The PRP’s environmental consultant Mike Francis with Triad Environmental also collected samples from the creek for PCB analysis.
On July 19th, a conference call took place between the EPA, Doug Thomas (PRP Representative), and the Salisbury Fire Department. The conference call discussed future activities for the emergency response cleanup. The items agreed upon consisted of the following:
-Security of facility will be addressed by a legitimate commercial security company.
-A health and safety plan will be written and provided to EPA and to the Salisbury Fire Dept.
-A sign in board will be placed at the entrance gate with names of contractors entering and exiting the site for accountability.
-Holes in the floors of the building will be properly flagged with caution tape by a properly licensed/certified/qualified contractor.
-A Certified/Qualified Env. Contractor will screen oil to determine PCB presence.
-Doug Thomas will excavate/contain contaminated petroleum oil only from entering Tar Branch Creek.
-A work schedule will be provided to the EPA and the Salisbury Fire Dept. weekly.
-PCB Oils, drums, asbestos and any other identified hazardous substance/waste will be addressed with properly licensed/certified/qualified contractors.
-Any demolition work will be done only after notifying the Salisbury Fire Dept and receiving appropriate permits.
On July 20th, US EPA arrived onsite to document progress of the oil spill clean up. Once onsite, EPA was told that onsite contractors would not start oil recovery in the creek until sample results from the oil were reported. Doug Thomas preferred to clean up the spill with his own personnel if the analytical results came back negative for PCB’s. Sample results collected by Triad Environmental were reported at 6pm were non detect for PCB’s. Doug Thomas began the cleanup. Approximately 7:30 pm after several attempts were made to recover oil from the creek, Doug Thomas contacted Shamrock Environmental to aid in the cleanup. Shamrock Environmental arrived onsite approximately 9:30 pm and began skimming the creek and pipe line with a high volume vac truck. Shamrock brought the recovered oil to the existing frac tank at the waste water treatment plant where the previous oil was brought for temporary holding.
On July 21st, Shamrock again skimmed the creek and placed absorbent pads near the pipeline to clean up any residual product.
On July 23rd, US EPA representative T N & Associates Inc. (TN&A) arrived onsite to document progress. PRP has begun excavating around pipelines leading up to the boiler room (suspected release location) looking for breaks in the pipes. Minor amounts of visually stained impacted soil were encountered surrounding various portions of the pipe. Mike Francis with Triad Environmental continues with asbestos survey of buildings.
On July 25th, US EPA arrived onsite to document clean up progress. PRP Doug Thomas exposed the pipelines up to the water tower, and suggested that a sump trench be dug under the pipeline, lined with visqueen, and the pipeline cut to capture remaining product in line. EPA agreed to this approach. Mike Francis with Triad Environmental informed EPA that he had collected a composite sample of the PCB contaminated soil stockpile for disposal earlier that week. Mike Francis also at that time collected a composite sample of the stained soil within the PCB excavation footprint. Triad Environmental continues asbestos abatement evaluation, it is agreed that asbestos abatement needs to occur prior to moving/addressing any drums located within the building. Shamrock Environmental arrived onsite approximately 2:40 pm but was unable to pump out the remaining product in the AST because of the type of connectors. Shamrock re-scheduled AST draining for July 26th.
On July 26th, US EPA and TN&A representative onsite. PRP representatives excavated sump trench as discussed on the 25th to capture any remaining product within the pipe. Once the trench was constructed and lined with visqueen the line was cut open and minor product was released to the trench. The objective is to leave the pipeline open for several days to let gravity drain the remaining product. Shamrock will be brought in to pump the trench prior to abandoning the pipe line. Shamrock due to schedule conflict was not able to bring equipment out to the site to pump remaining product from AST on July 26th as stated to the EPA on the 25th.
On July 27th, US EPA held a conference call with Mike Francis of Triad Environmental to discuss preliminary data received from analytical samples collected from EPA’s representative TN&A. A product sample collected from the creek had a slight detect of PCB’s. US EPA then held a conference call with Pete Hall of Shamrock Environmental to also discuss the PCB detect in the water. Shamrock will request additional samples from the frac tank where the product has been stored prior to disposal. Shamrock pumped out the remaining product from the AST.
On August 1st, US EPA and TN&A representative onsite. Shamrock Environmental was delivering roll off boxes to contain the PCB contaminated soil that has been stockpiled since the attempted robbery of two transformers.
On August 2nd, Shamrock began excavation of the stockpile to transfer the stockpile to the covered roll off boxes. Once Shamrock transferred the entire stockpile into roll off boxes, composite waste characterization samples were collected for disposal. US EPA will review the disposal sample results once received.
PCB Contaminated Soil was transported off-site for disposal.
No further action at this time.
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