Region 5 Superfund (SF)

U.S. EPA REGION 5
WAYNE COUNTY
DETROIT

Congressional District # 13

CARTER INDUSTRIALS, INC.

EPA ID# MID980274179
Last Updated: October, 2006

Site Description

The Carter Industrials facility is located at 4690 Humboldt, Wayne County, Detroit, Michigan. The site encompasses this location and adjacent properties. The site covers approximately 3.5 acres and contained seven piles of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated soil and debris (approximately 46,000 cubic yards). The site is located in a mixed residential and light industrial neighborhood near downtown Detroit. This residential community comprises almost exclusively low-income minorities. The 1980 Census tracts, which immediately adjoin the Carter site, reported a total population of over 21,000 persons. 

 From 1966 to 1986, the Carter site was used to store and salvage scrap metal. A portion of the scrap metal items, accepted at the Carter site, included electrical capacitors and transformers. During salvage operations at the site, dielectric fluids, containing PCBs, were spilled from electrical capacitors and transformers, contaminating onsite soil.

Commercial, municipal, and residential properties adjacent to the site were contaminated by direct runoff of spilled material; contaminated storm water runoff; wind-blown dust; and tracking of spilled material and contaminated soils by vehicular traffic.

Site Responsibility

This site was cleaned up by a group of Potentially Responsible Parties to cleanup levels that are protective for residential use - 1 ppm PCBs and it was deleted from the NPL. 

Threats and Contaminants

Soils both on-site and off-site were remediated to levels suitable for residential use and no threat remains at the Site.

Cleanup Progress

Approximately 17 respondents signed a Consent Decree on September 30, 1992, for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to complete the site cleanup. The original remedy, selected in the 1991 Record of Decision (ROD) to address the 40,000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated soil and debris at the site, was Low Temperature Thermal Desorption. This ROD was amended in 1994 to change the remedy to excavation and offsite disposal at a Toxic Substances Control Act landfill. The amended remedy was completed more quickly than onsite treatment would have been and resulted in a site cleaned to one part per million (ppm) PCBs which provided for expanded reuse options of the site in the future. The site cleanup commenced in August 1996 and was completed by December 1996. During the negotiations for Remedial Design and Remedial Action, the potentially responsible parties would not agree to cleanup the 1.25 miles of combined sewers that were contaminated with as much as 20,000 ppm PCBs. They argued that there were other additional sources of PCBs to the sewers, and these parties should also be held liable. U.S. EPA refused to delete the site from the National Priorities List (NPL) until the sewer cleanup was completed. The respondents acquiesced, and the sewer line cleanup occurred during summer and fall 1996. The site was deleted from the NPL on March 25, 1997. 

Success Story

The Site was cleaned up and deleted from the NPL and the USEPA recovered most of the moneys that it had expended as well as securing the PRPs agreement to implement a $12 million cleanup.

Property Reuse

The site is ready for unrestricted re-use.

Contacts

Remedial Project Manager, U.S. EPA
david linnear (david.linnear@epa.gov)
(312) 886-1841

Community Involvement Coordinator, U.S. EPA
bob paulson
(312) 886-0272

Aliases

CARTER IND INC
CARTER SALVAGE CORP
CARTER INDUSTRIALS, INC

 

Site Profile Information

This profile provides you with information on EPA's cleanup progress at this Superfund site.