Salzburg Cleaners is a former dry cleaner located at 1906 South Erie Street in Bay City, MI that has been vacant since 2014. The site is located in an area of Bay City that is characterized by residential and commercial development. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) referred the site to the EPA after identifying several abandoned drums and numerous small containers of unknown materials during a site inspection in August 2015.
EPA completed a site assessment in September 2015 and documented 12 55-gallon drums labeled “corrosive” and approximately 75 small containers of various chemicals, cleaners, and motor oil were documented inside the building. The building contained numerous open and closed drums, buckets, laundry tubs, and other containers with no secondary containment. Some containers showed signs of leaks, corrosion, and deterioration and staining and pooled liquid on floors in various areas of the building were observed. Elevated levels of tetrachloroethylene (PCE), also known as tetrachloroethene, and trichloroethylene (TCE), also known as trichloroethene, were documented at the site; both of these chemicals are hazardous substances as defined by Section 101(14) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. § 9601(14).
EPA is initiating a time critical removal action at the site in June of 2016 to secure, contain, characterize, consolidate, treat, package, stage, remove, transport and dispose of all drums, containers, spilled waste materials, associated contaminated materials and debris, hazardous debris, hazardous substances, pollutants and contaminants located at the site. In addition, EPA, with the assistance of MDEQ, will conduct an assessment of potential subsurface contamination at the site utilizing groundwater, soil, soil gas, sub-slab, and indoor air sampling techniques as appropriate.
