This photo represents initial site conditions.
Operations at the Site from 1953 to 1999 included the manufacture of pins, nameplates, emblems, class rings, and other metal items. The manufacturing process included soldering, degreasing, and electroplating items with various metals, including silver. Pre-treatment of wastewater began in 1968, and included the use of cyanide. An underground pipe transported the effluent to the surface impoundment where suspended solids settled before discharging to the River. The site was referred to the EPA Removal Program from EPA's RCRA program. The RCRA program has no funds of its own to address site conditions, and the site owner/operator is bankrupt.
A preliminary assessment/site investigation by the Superfund removal program revealed the following hazardous substances were present.
1) Ignitable and corrosive chemicals in drums.
2) Metals [silver]in soil, water, sediment, and a plating vat.
3) Asbestos in pipe insulation on floor
4) VOCs [tetrachloroethylene]in soil, water, sediment, drums, and groundwater.
EPA issued notice letters to potentially responsible parties, but this did not bring about a PRP-funded cleanup. However, just prior to initiating a fund-lead response action, the mortgage holder for the property volunteered to do work at the site. Work was performed on a voluntary basis, with no enforcement instrument.
EPA was successful in getting the mortgage holder to address the more immediate threats. Although some residual chemical in and under a plating bath was overlooked, and inspection of tanks in the basement was not documented with a report or photographs, the building has been secured from tresspass, and drums of chemical waste were shipped off site. The mortgage holder, however, was steadfast in his desire that hazardous waste buried in the surface impoundment be addressed under state authority.
Because of the work the mortgage holder completed, current conditions do no warrant assigning the limited funds available to EPA's removal progarm to address remaining conditions. Based the position taken by the mortgage holder regarding the work remaining, site conditions, the site's low priority with DEP, and the absence of a request for assistance from DEP, the Removal Program is no longer maintaining an active case file on this site. This was conveyed to DEP via certified letter dated 7 April 2006, effectively transferring the role of lead agency responsible for this site to DEP.
