Mid-Atlantic Superfund

EPA Region 3 (Mid-Atlantic)

Pennsylvania
Clinton County
Lock Haven

EPA ID# PAD003058047

5th Congressional District

Last Update: December 2009

Other Names

None

Current Site Status

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has overseen the cleanup of the Drake Chemical site, where construction activities have been completed. The contaminated run off stream, buildings and contaminated soils have been removed and treated. A groundwater treatment system started operating in the fall of 2000. A Second Five-Year Review was completed in 2008 which recommended a new assessment of the pump and treatment system to determine if any improvements can be made and if the treatment will achieve the long term clean up goals.

Site Description

When the site was first placed on the NPL the eight-acre Drake Chemical site Lock Haven, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, operated as a chemical plant from the 1960s to 1981, manufacturing chemical ingredients for pesticides and other compounds. Six major buildings, including former offices, production facilities, and a wastewater treatment building were located there. There were approximately 60 process tanks and reactors inside and surrounding the process buildings. Outside the buildings were approximately 10 large tanks that were used for bulk storage of acids, bases, and fuel oils. Also located on-site were two lined wastewater treatment lagoons, and two unlined lagoons. Chemical sludge and contaminated soils had been filled in all of the open area on the site.

The site is adjacent to the American Color and Chemical Company. An apartment complex, a shopping center, and Castanea Township Park are located within a 1/4-mile of the site. There are approximately 10,300 people living within a mile of the site. Bald Eagle Creek is located less than a ½-mile south of the site, and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River is located approximately 3/4-mile north of the site.

Site Responsibility

This site is being addressed through federal, state and potentially responsible parties' (PRPs) actions.

NPL Listing History

Our country's most serious, uncontrolled, or abandoned hazardous waste sites can be cleaned using federal money. To be eligible for federal cleanup money, a site must be put on the National Priorities List (NPL). This site was proposed to the NPL on December 30, 1982 and formally added to the list on September 8, 1983.

Threats and Contaminants

At the time the site was added to the NPL, a contaminated stream of runoff originating at the site flowed through Castanea Township Park to Bald Eagle Creek. The on-site buildings were contaminated with a wide variety of organic compounds. The soils were contaminated with many compounds, including a carcinogen named beta-napathylamine which causes bladder cancer. The groundwater is also contaminated with these compounds. Health threats included direct contact with the leachate stream the buildings and the soil. Ingestion of contaminated groundwater also poses a substantial health threat.

Contaminant descriptions and risk factors are available from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the CDC.

Cleanup Progress

In 1982, EPA removed 1,700 exposed drums and drained and neutralized tanks. The site was secured by an 8-foot fence, and warning signs were posted. The agency excavated the soil in the leachate run off area and directed the run off into a sewer line in 1986. The lagoon where the leachate drained from was excavated and the soil was treated on site. The buildings and other structures were demolished and removed to an off-site hazardous waste facility in 1988. The contaminated soil was excavated and treated in an on-site incinerator. Over 295,000 tons of soil was processed through the incinerator with an average of 27.5 tons per hour. Processed soil has been backfilled on site. Compost was mixed into the upper layer of processed soil and grass was planted. Following completion in the spring of 1999, the incinerator was removed. The groundwater remediation began in the summer of 1999 and the entire treatment system was constructed and began operating in the fall of 2000. The treatment system continues to operate. The second Five Year Review was issued in in September 2008.

Contacts

Site Contacts

Administrative Record Locations