The facility is located at 30 Kellogg Road, City of Cortland, Cortland County, New York. The property is approximately 50 acres in size and contained a large main production building, interconnected with several smaller production buildings, an office building and several support buildings, including a flammable storage building and a hazardous waste storage garage (buildings one through five). The total size of the facility buildings was estimated at 367,000 ft before buildings one and two were razed in 2008.
The Buckbee-Mears facility was purchased by International Electron Devices (IED) on October 26, 2004. IED operated the facility until May, 2005, when they closed due to a lack of funding. A large number of the bulk chemicals used in production and the chemical wastes from past operations were abandoned on Site. These materials included: strong acids and caustics in large tanks, drums, process piping and numerous small containers throughout the facility. Approximately seven cylinders of chlorine gas were also abandoned on Site.
During the summer of 2006, the Cortland Police Department responded to a report of vandalism and became concerned when they discovered the large amount of chemicals which had been abandoned at the Site. The Cortland Police subsequently notified the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) of their findings. On July 27, 2006, representatives from the NYSDEC, the Cortland Police and Fire Departments and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a Site visit. The visit confirmed the presence of numerous hazardous substances in drums, tanks and cylinders throughout the facility. The potential for a chemical release was deemed serious because the facility was idle with no security and all utilities had been terminated. On August 1, 2006, the NYSDEC formally requested the EPA to conduct a removal action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) at this Site.
Negotiations with the PRP to perform the required clean up actions resulted in EPA issuing an Administrative Order on September 29, 2006. The PRP initially complied with the Order, but ceased correspondence with EPA in early November, 2006. Following several acts of vandalism at the facility, EPA initiated a Removal Action on January 10, 2007.
During the reporting period, the ERRS contractor continued removing contaminated equipment from the etching line as well as draining/cutting/removal of chemical piping from Building 5. During the reporting period, 19,615 liner feet of piping was removed bringing the total to 221,940 feet. Two 40-cubic yard roll-off of C & D debris was shipped off-site for landfilling.
During the week of December 1, 2008, the EPA Pre-remedial Section and their contractor was on site to collect groundwater, stream/river/retention basin sediments; and surface water samples.
The AST continues to monitor work zone safety and provide air monitoring.
Site operations, except for site security, were closed down from December 19, 2008 to January 5, 2009.
Building conditions continue to deteriorate due to extensive roof leaks, burst water and chemical feed pipes and significant mold growth. Leaking acid feed pipes accelerate the deterioration process. These worsening conditions significantly have required the EPA to increase the scope of their removal action. In addition, the information offered by a former maintenance person at the facility proved inaccurate; that resulted in far more contamination remaining in the process piping than originally thought.
Site security will continue security during all non-working hours. ERRS will continue draining/cutting/removal of chemical process piping and decontamination of the etching line area in building 5 . The AST will continue to provide air monitoring and oversight of work zone health and safety and compliance to the HASP.
A ceiling increase action memorandum was drafted and submitted for Edison review. The increase is necessary to fund T&D of stockpiled construction and demolition debris and to encapsulate and fence chromium contaminated concrete slabs. As of January 31, 2009, the action memorandum was in the Regional office for concurrence.
Since the condition of the buildings has worsened, EPA has increased its scope of work to include removal and disposal of process piping, cleaning and dismantling of tanks, decontamination of building interiors, salvaging equipment, scrapping of metal components and, demolition of buildings 1 & 2
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