The Columbia Organic Chemical Company (COCC) site is located at 912 Drake Street in Columbia, Richland County, South Carolina. The site is a three acre property surrounded by a mixture of residential and commercial properties. The site is bounded to the northwest by Drake Street, to the southwest by Bruce Street, to the east by residential properties along True Street, and to the north by the former M.B. Kahn Construction Company property. Several multi-unit residences and one single dwelling home are located within 50 yards of the site across Drake Street.
COCC owned and operated a specialty chemical facility from the 1944 until 1984 as which time the operation was relocated to the Cassatt community in Kershaw County, South Carolina. A wide variety of chemicals were produced at the facility, including insecticide formulations, industrial cleaners, and small quantities of specialty chemicals for use in research. Several hundred chemicals were manufactured at the plant. The primary product lines included bromine, iodine substituted aliphatics, mercaptans, alkyl phosphonates, nitriles, and dimethyl sulfide.
The orginal plant was destroyed by fire in 1958. The plant was subsequently rebuilt on its original location; however, over the years several other fires damaged various parts of the facility. During the course of the facility’s operation, soils on the site were contaminated by waste materials which were spilled, dumped, or buried on-site. During the 1970’s COCC installed a chemical holding tank, or sump, to collect liquid wastes. Records suggest that much of the waste collected in the tank eventually leaked out.
