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Mowbray Engineering Company
National Information
Photos/Multimedia
Mowbray site, overlooking Tanyard Branch creek
- Additional Site Photos
- Site Video
Additional Resources
- Site Cleanup Terms - can be found in EPA's glossary
- EPA Guides to Cleanup Technologies
- Superfund Community Involvement (PDF) (17 pp, 130K, About PDF)
Site Summary Profile
EPA ID: ALD031618069Location: Greenville, Butler County, AL
Lat/Long: 31.831660, -086.613050
Congressional District: 02
NPL Status: Proposed 12/30/82; Final 09/08/83; Deleted 12/30/93
Affected Media: Soil
Cleanup Status: Deleted from the NPL
Site Reuse/Redevelopment: No current plans to reuse the property
Site Manager: Erik Spalvins (spalvins.erik@epa.gov)
Site Background
The Mowbray Engineering Company (MEC) site is located approximately 40 miles southwest of Montgomery in the town of Greenville, Alabama. The site encompasses a 2.7 acre tract situated across from the MEC facility. The site is currently an unused empty lot that is fenced on three sides with the Tanyard Branch creek on the fourth. Entrance to the property is controlled via a locked gate. The surrounding area is a mix of residential and light industrial properties.
The MEC facility repaired electrical transformers. From 1955 to 1974, used transformer oil from company operations was disposed of on the ground behind the Mowbray plant, across the street from this current Superfund site. The contaminated oil entered a stormwater drainage system which discharged into a swamp across the street from the property. Soils in the swamp have been contaminated with Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB), a constituent of transformer oil.
The contamination was discovered in 1975 after a fish kill in Tanyard Branch was caused by an oil spill. A second fish kill occurred in 1980 after another oil spill.
In 1985, MEC, and its owner, filed petitions for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. MEC no longer owns this property.
Threats and Contaminants
Soils were contaminated with PCBs. Low levels of phenols, chloroform, dichloroethane, and trichloroethanes were also detected during site investigation activities.
Site Cleanup Plan
The 1986 Record of Decision established the following cleanup goals for the site:
- Excavation, removal, and disposal of underground storage tanks on the Mowbray Property.
- Treatment or disposal of waste oils encountered in the swamp area and in the underground storage tanks.
- Excavation of contaminated soils above 25 parts per million PCB and either off-site incineration, on-site incineration, or on-site stabilization of these soils.
- Drainage diversion of surface run-off around the contaminated swamp area.
- Grading and revegetation of the contaminated swamp area.
- Closure of the abandoned on-site city supply well in accordance with Alabama Department of Environmental Management well closure regulations.
- O&M activities to maintain the drainage diversion ditch and the revegetated area.
- Institutional controls to be identified during the remedial design, if necessary.
Cleanup Progress
EPA performed extensive sampling in February 1981 to determine the extent of the PCB contamination in the soil. A removal action was conducted in August 1981 to remove the top six inches of contaminated soil from the swamp.
The site was listed on the National Priority List in December 1982. In 1985, EPA completed a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RI/FS) and determined whether PCBs were the only contaminant of concern. PCBs were the primary contaminant, although low levels of phenols, chloroform, dichloroethane, and trichloroethanes were also detected.
Cleanup work at the site began in June 1987 and was completed in August 1987. Soil was excavated at any location where PCB concentrations in soils exceeded 25 ppm. The excavated soil was solidified and placed on-site beneath a six foot thick cap. The cap consisted of two feet of compacted clay, a drainage layer of two feet of sand, a water permeable geotextile fabric, and two feet of topsoil. Grass was established on top of the cap to prevent soil erosion. During the course of the excavation activities, approximately 3,350 transformers were uncovered on the northwest side of the site.
The site was officially deleted from the National Priority List in December 1993.
A series of Five-Year Reviews (FYRs) have been conducted at the site. The first FYR was conducted in February, 1993, and second FYR was completed in August 1998. A third FYR was completed in September 2003. A fourth FYR was completed in late 2008. This most recent FYR found that the cap was in place and the remedy was performing as expected.
Institutional controls have not yet been implemented at the site.
Site cleanup activities are being led primarily by potentially responsible parties with oversight by EPA.
Enforcement Activities
Alabama Power Company (APCO) is the lead responsible party. However, over 100 responsible parties are listed in the Consent Decree (CD) for this site. The CD, which states that the potentially responsible parties (PRPs) will conduct O&M at the site, was signed by EPA and entered in by Federal Court in 1991. O&M activities for APCO, which are expected to last 30 years, are outlined in the CD.
Community Involvement
A public notice was issued by EPA to notify the community of the fourth FYR for the site. No community members have contacted the EPA about the site since the beginning of the FYR.
Future Work
APCO continues to perform the O&M on the site.
EPA has been working with PRP attorneys to implement restrictive covenants on the site.
Site Administrative Documents
Site Repository
For more information or to view any site-related documents, please visit the site information repository at the following location. As new documents are generated, they will be placed in the information repository for public information.
Greenville Public Library309 Fort Dale St.
Greenville, AL 36037
Administrative Record Index
For documents not available on the website, please contact the Region 4 Freedom of Information Office.