At 1615 hours on 10/29/08 EPA received a phone notification from the NRC that a chemical release was occurring at Abrachem Chemical, a bulk chemical packaging facility that leases property in Clifton, Passaic County, NJ. The NJ Dept. of Environmental Protection requested EPA presence at the scene.
At 1730 hours OSC Ellen Banner and OSC Paul Kahn responded to the scene. The company was found to be storing drums and bulk storage containers of known and unknown chemicals in 17 56-foot long intermodal shipping carriers, stacked 3 tiers high (approx. 35 feet). Only 5 of the intermodals could be opened, and inside those it was observed that drums and bulk containers were staged behind tiers of new, blue poly drums which gave the impression that the intermodals were used only for new drum storage.
The owner of Abrachem retained the services of a remediation company which was on the scene, but waiting for EPA to arrived prior to starting work. Contractor personnel were advised to lay poly sheeting and begin removing/overpacking the leaking and unknown drums that were readily accessible. Work commenced almost immediately, but at 2100 hours work was halted due to lack of adequate lighting and the physical inability to access the majority of the drums. Work will resume on 10/30/08 when additional personnel and equipment arrive on-Site.
A meeting was held with the owner, EPA, state, and local authorities at 1000 hours on 10/30/08.
At that time a Field Expedient Notice was issued to Mr. Ted Frey, the owner/operator of Abrachem Chemical.
Abrachem has been able to retrieve two Sealand containers and has emptied one of them. Approx. 100 drums, mostly unknowns, were removed and staged in an alcove off the main floor inside the Abrachem facility. The overall condition of the drums is poor or worse, and some are on the verge of bursting open (see photographs taken on 11/14/2008).
The motorized container handler, used to unstack the large ISCs, is still broken, and no additional ISCs can be unstacked until the necessary repairs are made. The RP could not state when the repairs would be made.
The RP stated that arrangements were made to have Clean Venture on site on Monday 11/17/2008 to begin opening drums and haz-cating them for identification purposes. The general contractor, GTI, confirmed that a proposal was sent to Abrachem for two men to haz-cat for five days, but as of 1735 hours on 11/14 GTI stated that Abrachem has not yet agreed to the proposal, so any plans to begin identifying the chemicals are tentative at this time.
As of this date Abrachem has barely made even minimal progress in removing and identifying all containers of chemicals stored in the ICS containers. EPA has sent access agreements to both the owner of the property and the operator of Abrachem. Unconditional access has not yet been received from either the owner or operator.
EPA will continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis. Concurrent with this activity the Office of Regional Counsel is aggressively seeking voluntary, unconditional access from the owner and operator of the site.
Continue monitoring RP activities with respect to addressing the continuing threat of a release.
Continue negotiations with the RPs to gain unconditional access to the site.
Continue planning for possible implementing federal jurisdiction over the response action at the site.
Progress towards abating the release and continued threats of a release from the site.
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