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NPL Site Narrative for Alabama Plating Company, Inc.
ALABAMA PLATING COMPANY, INC.
Vincent, Alabama
Federal Register Notice: August 24, 2000The Alabama Plating Company, Inc., facility is comprised of approximately 6 acres, including 4.33 acres north, and 1.35 acres south of Highway 60, in Vincent, Shelby County, Alabama. The site is a former cadmium, copper, and zinc electroplating and hot-dip galvanizing facility that operated from 1956 to 1986. The site is being proposed to the NPL based on evidence that cyanide and metals, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc, have impacted a recreational fishery and the ground water underlying the facility and have the potential to migrate to a major drinking water source.
In 1956, the company began electroplating operations at the site and later expanded to include hot-dip galvanizing processes. Solutions generated from these processes included cadmium, hexavalent chromium, nickel, and cyanide. Waste treatment ranged from the direct discharge of process wastewater to an adjoining receiving system to the use of a wastewater treatment system which discharged treated effluent. Additionally, an unlined retention lagoon was constructed behind the electroplating building into which cooling, rinsing, and process wastewaters were directly discharged. Solids generated from these processes were allowed to settle in the lagoon and the remaining liquids, approximately 24,000 gallons per day, were released via a permitted discharge into a drainage ditch leading to an unnamed stream bordering the eastern boundary of the facility. The unnamed stream flows intermittently to Spring Creek, which then flows into the Coosa River.
In March 1986, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) ordered that all discharge of wastewater from the treatment system cease due to the facility's continued violations of permit conditions. Subsequently, ADEM ordered the Alabama Plating facility to cleanup the wastewater discharge ditch and install 21 monitoring wells to determine the horizontal and vertical extent of ground water contamination. Cyanide, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, and zinc were detected in the ground water at concentrations above their respective maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), the highest permissible level of a contaminant allowed by EPA in drinking water. In May 1999, EPA oversaw sampling activities at the facility and surrounding area. Soil samples revealed elevated concentrations of cadmium, chromium, lead, zinc, and arsenic at the facility process and waste disposal areas and in the wastewater discharge ditch and intermittent stream. EPA subsequently arranged for the removal and off-site disposal of contaminated soil, sediment, and debris.
The Vincent Water Works public supply well is located approximately 1/4 mile south of the facility and supplies water to approximately 2,357 people. A surface water intake is located along the Coosa River, approximately 6 miles downstream from the site and provides drinking water for 25,408 individuals. Elevated concentrations of cadmium, copper, and zinc have been detected in a recreational fishery at the confluence of Spring Creek and the Coosa River.
For more information about the hazardous substances identified in this narrative summary, including general information regarding the effects of exposure to these substances on human health, please see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs. ATSDR ToxFAQs can be found on the Internet at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html or by telephone at 1-888-42-ATSDR or 1-888-422-8737.