On June 16, 2022, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency received a National Response Center
notification pertaining to a chemical release at a former electroplating facility
at 7700 NE Industrial Boulevard in Macon, Georgia. This facility had ceased
operation about two years previously, and the company was reportedly insolvent
at the time of the notification. The owner reported that trespassers removed
metal from the facility and compromised an above ground, storage tank
associated with the cadmium plating process line, which caused a release of the
product.
Before this reported
trespassing incident, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GAEPD) inspected
the facility on May 17, 2022, and discovered strong bases and acids inside
electroplating vats and other electroplating-related chemicals abandoned within
a production building. The GAEPD was in the process of referring this Site to the
EPA Region 4 when the incident occurred.
On June 16, 2022, GAEPD
mobilized a State On-Scene Coordinator (SOSC) to assess the release. The EPA
Region 4 Phone Duty Officer spoke with the Potentially Responsible Party (PRP)
on June 16, who indicated that the company did not have the funds to address
the release. A Federal OSC (FOSC) was deployed to the Site, along with
Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START) contractor support, to
assess and mitigate the release. The FOSC, SOSC, and START performed a site
inspection upon arrival. The FOSC was able to secure written access
authorization to the Site on the night of June 16. On June 17, an Emergency and
Rapid Response Services (ERRS) contractor mobilized equipment and personnel to
stabilize the Site.
During
the assessment, air monitoring detected hydrogen cyanide at 3.0 ppm above a
cyanide solution sink and sulfuric acid gas at 0.088 ppm in an oven room
connected to the anodizing building. Additionally, GAEPD discovered an outside
drain line and requested that it be sealed to prevent potential contaminant
migration.
The
facility contains deteriorating equipment and structures. Evidence of considerable
vandalism and scavenging/looting was observed. Most of the plating operations
took place within the main building. Site operations consisted of aluminum anodizing,
silver and zinc electroplating, electroless nickel plating, and passivation of
stainless steel in nitric acid. Cadmium plating occurred in the Quonset hut
building. Eight cadmium plating vats making up the main plating line were
present.
The
property contains several hundred containers of acids such as hydrofluoric acid (HF), solvents, heavy metal solutions, cyanide compounds, caustics and other process chemicals. The containers are of various sizes, mostly
5-gallon containers to 55-gallon drums. All containers appeared full or partially
full of material. Additionally, approximately 20 totes of various plating
chemicals observed on-site. Process vats holding varying amounts of low pH
solution were observed. Eight of the largest vats were used in the anodizing line.
The
facility contains an on-site wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) that is not
connected to a city or county publicly owned treatment works (POTW). The
on-site WWTP has eleven 20,000-gallon aboveground storage tanks (ASTs) and
several other ASTs of various sizes. The ASTs are within a secondary
containment area filled with contaminated sand material. Most ASTs contain
varying levels of wastewater, plating solutions, and/or sludges from the
plating operations.
Most
of the chemicals were inorganic acids and bases with fewer organic solvents.
Safety data sheets (SDSs) were present for the chemicals used in the anodizing
process. In addition, there is a CONEX box containing documentation related to
business operations.
