2.1.1 Narrative
In a letter dated November 11, 2011, the St. Joseph County Health Department (SJCHD) requested assistance from the U.S. EPA to secure hazardous wastes left on-site. SJCHD was concerned that the Site posed a significant threat to the health and safety of companies within the industrial park as well as the residential area located less than a 1,000 feet from the facility. On February 23, 2012, the Director of U.S. EPA's Superfund Division approved an Action Memorandum for a time-critical removal action at the Baycote Metal Finishing Site.
On April 6, 2012, U.S. EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order to the potentially responsible parties to conduct a removal action at the Site. The potentially responsible parties presented and inability to pay argument and indicated that they did not intend to conduct a removal action at the Site. EPA began time-critical removal actions at the Baycote Site on May 29, 2012.
This is a large Site, with 11 plating lines in 6 areas and several waste water treatment systems. The OSC and its contractors have adopted a work plan to prioritize the high hazard areas / plating lines.
2.1.2 Response Actions
September 14
Ten containers of waste were placed into the cubic yard container for consolidation / disposal (approximately 1,000 pounds total). Laboratory data from the composite sample contained 49,000 milligrams per kilogram of total cyanide. Hazard Categorization data from the waste placed into the composite container did not document reactive substances. However, there were four 35-gallon containers that contained bagged labeled as Sodium hydrosulfite (reactive material).
At approximately 1900 a fire/chemical reaction occurred in the shipping container located in the storage area of the facility. The local Fire Department reported the incident to the U.S. EPA. The local Fire Dept. extinguished the fire, but a vapor cloud was observed around the container. Initial readings by the Fire Dept. were 6.5 ppm of HCN inside the building but, HCN was not detected outside the building. The incident was confined to the container and the building structure was not involved. Fire Dept. waited for EPA before further site entries. Roads were closed between Byrkit Avenue west to Merrifield, and 12th Street north to Lincoln Way East. Approximately 200-300 residents were advised to shelter-in-place, and 34 residents in a nearby senior center were evacuated to a shelter and assisted by the Red Cross. No injuries have been reported at this time.
2200hrs
OSC Mendoza arrived on scene and is coordinated response activities with the Fire Chief. AreaRAEs will were deployed in the evacuation zone. Mark Johnson (ATSDR) arrived to assist the OSC with health related questions and concerns, and advise on evacuation decisions. ERRS crew arrived and will initiated cleanup actions to address the released waste material and repackage the contents.
September 15, 2012
0100 - OSC, ERRS and Fire chief worked out a plan to send in ERRS in level B to break up the burning pile into several pieces and secure the pieces in steel drums to let the reaction take its course in a controlled environment with monitoring.
0451- ATSDR and OSC sent Incident Command (Fire Chief) an email recommending the lifting of the evacuation order based on non-detects for the contaminants of concern.
0500 - Air monitoring onsite and in the community is ongoing non-detects continue for hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen cyanide, and sulfur dioxide.
0730 OSC Atkociunas arrived onsite. OSCs Atkociunas, Mendoza and ATSDR Representative Mark Johnson conducted news interviews with WSBT (CBS Affiliate),WNDU (NBC Affiliate) and Fox 28 News regarding the incident. The reaction has stabilized. EPA, START and ERRS will continue to monitor the drums. No temperature changes in the drums have been detected. Air monitoring results of the ambient air near the drums is at background. The evacuation order was lifted by Incident Command.
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