At 1615 hours on 10/29/08 EPA received a notification from the NRC that a chemical release was occurring at Abrachem Chemical, a bulk chemical packaging facility that leased a building in Clifton, Passaic County, NJ. The NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection was on-scene and requested EPA's presence.
At 1730 hours OSC Ellen Banner and OSC Paul Kahn responded to the scene. The company was found to be storing drums and bulk containers of known and unknown chemicals in 17 56-foot long intermodal shipping carriers (ISCs), stacked 3 tiers high (approx. 35 feet). Only 5 of the ISCs could be opened, and inside those it was observed that drums and bulk containers were staged behind tiers of empty poly drums, giving the impression that the ISCs were used for new drum storage. EPA observed that in the one ISC where the release originated at least one drum was leaking its contents onto a wooden pallet; strong chemical odors emanated from the open door of the ISC and were also pervasive in the general area.
The Operator of Abrachem retained the services of a remediation company, and contractor personnel were advised to lay poly sheeting and begin removing and overpacking the leaking and unknown drums that were readily accessible. Work commenced almost immediately, but at 2100 hours was halted due to lack of adequate lighting and inability to phyusically access the majority of the drums through the narrow doorway.
The Operator of Abrachem and the Owner of the property was issued a Field Expedient Notice, and in response the Operator stated he would initiate a removal action. When his efforts to respond to the release, and threats of a release, proved to be inadequate EPA sought voluntary access to initiate a response action. This access was denied on two occasions. On 12/4/2008 EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order (UAO) for access. The Operator refused to comply with the UAO and EPA referred the matter to the Department of Justice for a legal remedy. On 1/8/2009 a federal Magistrate issued an access warrant to EPA to initiate a response action at the Site.
Removal activities continue. OSC continues to work with chemical suppliers to retrieve their chemicals for reuse or disposal. An additional drum of Exxon-Mobil chemicals has been located, bringing the total to 13.
ERRS has begun bulking compatible chemicals for which no original supplier can be identified. They will be disposed of by ERRS as part of the removal action. Empty poly and steel drums are being processed and bulked for recycling.
The Action Memo documenting the need for additional funds to complete the removal action has been drafted and circulated for comments.
On 6/16 ERRS shipped 11 drums of Bayer polymers and benzene compounds for T & D at no cost to the government.
On 6/19 a rep for Givaudan visited the Site to view their drums and to take samples for disposal profiling.
ERRS received the analytical results of the last 'round of samples from the sumps, soil and
composite drums. A copy of the data was e-mailed to the consultant for the property owner. ERRS T & D Coordinator is now preparing the T & D bid package.
The owner of 11 drums of sodium permanganate solution has been identified. Shaw E & I bought the drums from CBW-Chemie (Germany) in 2002 and the drums were to have been bulked and shipped to an EPA Superfund site in MA. Some drums had been shipped, but 11 of them remained at the Site. Shaw has been contacted and indicated they will be willing to retrieve the material because is has a commercial value in excess of $10,000.
Continue bulking compatible chemicals for T & D, and continue working with chemical companies to retrieve their chemicals.
See above.
See above.
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