Mid-Atlantic Superfund

EPA Region 3 (Mid-Atlantic)

Delaware
Wilmington

EPA ID# DESFN0305397

1st Congressional District

Last Update: May 2000
No future updates

Other Names

Wilmington Drum Site

Current Site Status

In September 1998, EPA responded to a request from DNREC to remove hazardous substances associated with drums and bulk containers located on site. This included contaminated soil with a few feet of the surface. EPA found that the subsurface contains household waste and debris which has elevated levels of lead and semi-volatile compounds and seemed to placed on site during the late 1960s. This area has been disturbed by EPA’s action to remove the drums and contaminated soil. All bulk containers associated with hazardous substances have been removed from the site. The OSC believes that all of the contaminated soil associated with the drums and bulk containers has also been removed. ATSDR, DNREC, and the City of Wilmington have agreed to covering the drum and tank removal areas with a barrier, soil, and vegetation to preclude any further direct health threat. EPA, ATSDR, and DNREC will continue to check on the cover through Summer 2000 to ensure its integrity. EPA will then turn the site back to the DNREC, City of Wilminton, and the property owner to determine its future use.

Site Description

The site is located in the City of Wilmington, Delaware on the 7th Street Peninsula. The site is an inactive municipal waste landfill, which reportedly operated from approximately 1940 through the 1960s. The site has become a wooded area, bordered by the Brandywine Creek and the Christina River in an area generally used by industrial/commercial businesses.

Site Responsibility

This site has been addressed through a CERCLA-funded Removal action.

NPL Listing History

Not an NPL Site, being evaluated for Prospective Purchaser.

Threats and Contaminants

In 1998, drums were discovered on site that led DNREC to request assistance from EPA. Contaminants included the following:

• Acids, halogens, flammable solids, PCBs and dieldrin in drums
• Hexachlorobenezene in soils adjacent to a large tank
• Lead in soils in various locations and depths
• Arsenic, iron, manganese, and mercury in surface ponded water.

Contaminant descriptions and associated risk factors are available on the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC, web site at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hazdat.html

Cleanup Progress

During 1999, EPA’s Removal Program secured the site with fencing, lighting, signs, and other appropriate security measures found necessary to prevent the potential of direct exposure of the public to the hazardous substances present. EPA removed all of the bulk containers and surficial hot spots of contaminated soils associated with hazardous substances. These areas were recovered with a barrier, clean fill soil, and revegetated with grass to preclude the possibility of any further direct contact health threats. The deeper contents of this former municiple landfill remain. This course of action was taken after concurrence from ATSDR, DNREC, and the City of Wilmington.

Contacts

Site Contacts