Pride Solvents & Chemical Company Incorporated

EPA Identification Number:	NYD057722258
Facility Location:	78-88 Lamar Street, West Babylon, New York
Facility Contact Name:	Arthur Dhom, Jr. (516) 758-0200
EPA Contact Name:	Michael Infurna, (212) 637-4177, infurna.michael@epa.gov
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Case Manager:	Gary Casper, Project Manager - DSHW, (518) 402-8594, gdcasper@gw.dec.state.ny.us Nancy Garry, Project Manager - DER, (518) 402-9621, negarry@gw.dec.state.ny.us
Last Updated:	October 2003
Environmental Indicator Status:	Human Exposures Under Control: No status has been recorded. Groundwater Contamination Under Control: No status has been recorded.

Site Description

Pride Solvents and Chemicals, Inc. is located at 78-88 Lamar Street within the West Babylon Industrial Area, New York. The site consists of two buildings, adjacent parking lots, and a loading dock on a 1.38 acre parcel. It is surrounded by other
businesses such as machine shops, woodworking shops, metal finishers, electronics manufacturers, and plastic molding companies. Approximately 700 feet west of the site is the Babylon Town Landfill.

The current owner has operated a commercial hazardous waste treatment and storage facility at the site since 1973. There have been known releases of commercial solvents and other chemicals into the groundwater beneath the site from
Pride Solvents’ operations. The known releases include those through the facility’s sanitary system, through storm drains (drywells) at the property, possibly through leaking underground storage tanks, and to the ground from various other sources.

During 1979 to 1981, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services (SCDHS) conducted a study of the local groundwater quality and delineated a plume of organic solvents downgradient of the West Babylon Industrial Area and the Pride Solvents site. Residential wells over two miles downgradient were found to have levels of solvent contamination up to and occasionally exceeding 100,000 parts-per-billion (ppb).

For the class of chemicals in question, the groundwater quality and drinking water standards are approximately 5.0 ppb. At that time of this discovery, all existing downgradient residences were hooked up to the public water supply system.
Data from the SCDHS study showed elevated levels of the same solvents in the groundwater immediately downgradient from the Pride Solvents site. Groundwater upgradient from the site was not impacted, indicating that Pride Solvents was a major
contributor to the plume.

The spacial distribution of contaminants in the groundwater beneath the site has been determined to some degree, however the full depth and extent of the contamination has not been studied. The chemicals released at the site would have a tendency to sink within the aquifer if released in sufficient quantities. As a result of Pride Solvents’
failure to perform the needed depth profiling, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) is currently conducting additional both on- and off-site investigations under the State Superfund Program.

Pride’s extensive violations of NYSDEC environmental regulations and of applicable Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Permit conditions have been referred for enforcement. In addition, cost recovery will be sought for State moneys spent on the necessary investigations and remedial actions at the site.

Site Responsibility and Legal Instrument

NYCRR Part 373 Operating Permit dated June 22, 1995. The Operating Permit regulates the hazardous waste management operations at the facility and requires the Permittee to carry out a Corrective Action program to evaluate and remediate
releases from all former waste management units at the Site. The Permit is subject to renewal on a ten year basis. In the event the facility no longer desires to operate as a hazardous waste management facility, the Permit will be continued for post-closure care and Corrective Action until the site is remediated to all applicable environmental
standards.

Pride Solvents’ current permit specifically requires on-site sources and groundwater contamination to be characterized and remediated. The Permit further requires that the extensive off-site volatile organic plume, for which Pride Solvents is one of several potentially responsible parties (PRPs), be investigated and remediated under NYSDEC’s Inactive Hazardous Waste Disposal Site Remedial Program (Part 375).

Permit Status

Treatment, Storage or Disposal Operating Permit for hazardous waste management and for Corrective Action for past releases of hazardous constituents from the site.

Contaminants and Sources

Numerous chlorinated solvents (VOCs) and other hazardous constituents have been identified in the soils and groundwater at the site. Releases from several known and other possible sources at the site include chlorinated commercial solvents, other
hazardous organic constituents, and heavy metals. Groundwater contamination under the site includes several hazardous constituents attributable to the site, which have been identified in excess of New York State groundwater and drinking water
standards.

Documentation of the contamination is limited to the shallow groundwater, since Pride Solvents has refused to undertake deeper investigations to determine the vertical character of the plume. This additional characterization, now being addressed
through the State Superfund Program, is necessary to understand the releases and determine an appropriate cleanup strategy for the site. A draft Remedial Investigation has been completed and is currently under review.

Potential Threats From Contaminated Groundwater

Groundwater in Suffolk County is the sole source of drinking water. Within a three-mile radius of the site, there are public drinking water supply well fields for the Dix Hills, Babylon, and East Farmingdale communities. The Suffolk County Water Authority wellfield on Gordon Avenue is less than 100 feet east of the volatile organic plume, however the wellfield is at a depth of over 650 feet. The groundwater plume was previously thought to most likely be restricted to the upper glacial aquifer, with protection of the lower water supply aquifer provided by an intervening low
permeability clay unit (Gardiners Clay Formation).

Evaluation of more recent USGS data on the location, extent and thickness of the Gardiners Clay member indicates that it may very likely not extend beneath the site. Additional analyses of the clay under the site through the current Superfund
investigations have tentatively determined that there are areas beneath the site where no intervening clay layers are present at the expected depth and that the clay that is observed beneath portions of the site is in fact not the Gardiners Clay unit. This reopens the issue of deeper impact to the underlying aquifers.

All residences within the plume area north of the Southern State Parkway were hooked up to public water in 1980, after the Suffolk County Department of Health Services (SCDHS) identified the organic plume. Public water supply serves the areas
south of Southern State Parkway. If any private wells are still in use within the plume area, the number is expected to be small, since the area is served by the public water mains.

Potential Threats From Contaminated Soil

Residual soil contamination at the site may be a continuing source for the groundwater plume, and it is the subject of additional investigations and possible remediation under the ongoing Superfund studies. Any construction to be performed at the site will require the implementation of an appropriate health and safety plan to protect
construction personnel and facility workers.

Potential Threats From Air Contamination

This route of exposure still needs to be investigated. There may be risk to workers in buildings overlying the groundwater plume, as volatile contaminants coming out of solution can migrate up and into building structures, impacting the indoor air quality. Essentially, no new data on plume concentrations, in areas remotely downgradient of
the Pride site, are available since the 1983 study report by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. The very limited data collected since that study suggest that groundwater conditions may not have improved over the intervening 20
years. The groundwater concentrations (both deep and shallow) observed beneath the residential areas in the early 1980's are sufficient to potentially cause indoor air impacts that could have negative health impacts.

Cleanup Approach and Progress

Pride Solvents has previously removed several underground tanks from service, cleaned out several drywells and sanitary pools, and removed some contaminated soils that resulted from a fire in 1981. However, the site is a continuing source of
groundwater contamination at levels exceeding New York State groundwater and drinking water standards.

Further investigation and remediation of the site and other additional possible contributing sources to the downgradient groundwater plume are currently being handled through the NYSDEC’s Inactive Hazardous Waste Site Program, in
coordination with the other potentially responsible parties.

Site Repository

Copies of supporting technical documents and correspondence cited in this fact sheet are available for public review at:

NYSDEC
Division of Solid and Hazardous Materials
Bureau of Radiation and Hazardous Site Management
8th Floor, and
Division of Environmental Remediation, 10th Floor
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233-7252

The inspection of some of the documents cited in the site fact sheet may require a formal request under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).