EPA RCRA ID: MDD003071875

Disclaimer / Legal Notices

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the public law that creates the framework for the proper management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste. Corrective action is a requirement under RCRA that facilities that treat, store or dispose of hazardous wastes, or did so in the past, investigate and clean up hazardous releases into soil, groundwater, surface water and air. For more information, and for more information on RCRA-specific terms used on this page, please visit EPA’s umbrella RCRA web page or EPA’s RCRA Corrective Action page.

On this page:

Cleanup Activities
Facility Description
Institutional/Engineering Controls
Enforcement and Compliance
Related Information and Publicly Available Electronic Records
Contacts for this Facility

Cleanup Activities

The EPA is the lead agency for cleanups at this facility.

In November 1989, EPA issued a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) corrective action permit to the company to proceed with site cleanup. EPA and the facility worked jointly to complete the requirements of the permit which included:

Providing supplemental groundwater characterization of the facility and submittal of a Groundwater Characterization Report
Submittal of a Contaminant Characterization Summary
Preparation of a Corrective measures Report identifying alternatives for facility remediation
Development of a Corrective Measures Plan

The corrective measures study recommended a pump and treat system to remove contaminated groundwater from the underlying aquifer below the plant and to prevent its migration into Curtis Bay. After treatment, the groundwater is then sent to the publicly owned treatment works (POTW). The system’s construction was completed in May 1997. The system has been operational since that time. The pump and treat system will be operational while the groundwater has contaminants that are above a health based protective level. The facility provides EPA Region III with quarterly reports addressing the groundwater collection and treatment system. Based on the results provided in the quarterly reports, a Visualization of Groundwater Contamination Report was prepared by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers for EPA in April 2003. The purpose of the report was to provide a better understanding of the contaminant plumes, determine the effectiveness of the groundwater extraction system, and to develop groundwater elevation contours for the FMC site. EPA has reviewed that data and will be working with FMC to maximize the effectiveness of the groundwater collection system. FMC has recently completed a round of bioassay testing that is part of the groundwater monitoring program for that facility. EPA has evaluated and discussed those results with FMC. A Statement of Basis was developed that proposed a remedy for the Facility. The proposed remedy was presented to the public for a 30-day comment period starting on September 9, 2010. A Final Agency Decision for the property was signed on April 4, 2011. Elements of the Final Decision include: Restoration of contaminated ground water; control of off-site migration of groundwater; an investigation of impacts of Facility-related contaminated groundwater on Stonehouse Cove and Curtis Bay; and the implementation of institutional controls.

Cleanup Actions or environmental indicators characterizing the entire facility are shown below. This listing, and all the data on this page, come from EPA’s RCRAInfo and are refreshed nightly to this page. For this table, a blank in the Status column could mean the action either has not occurred or has not been reported in RCRAInfo.

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to the Entire Facility

Action	Status	Date of Action
(CA725)
(CA750)
(CA400)
(CA550)
(CA800)
(CA900)
(CA999)

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to a Portion of the Facility

	Action	Area Name	Date of Action

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Facility Description

Link to a larger, interactive view of the map.

This facility is approximately 84 years old and is located on Curtis Bay, in Baltimore, Maryland. FMC has ended operations at the Curtis Bay agricultural chemicals facility and the majority of the buildings and equipment have been dismantled. FMC is leasing the property to Energy Answers International to develop a Resource Recovery System at this location.

Main contaminants in the groundwater and surface water are benzene, ethyl benzene, chlorobenzene, substituted chlorobenzene isomers and phenolic compounds.

Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility

Institutional controls include, but may not be limited to, an environmental covenant to be entered pursuant to the Maryland Uniform Environmental Covenants Act, Maryland Environment Code, Sections 1-801 to 1-815 (UECA) and recorded with the deed for the Facility property. The Environmental Covenant required to include the following:

A restriction on the use of groundwater beneath the Facility for potable purposes or any other use that could result in human exposure until cleanup levels are achieved, unless such use is required by the Remedy
A restriction on well drilling at the Facility without prior EPA approval, to prevent inadvertent exposure to the contaminated groundwater and adverse affects to the Remedy
A restriction that the Facility not be used for any purpose other than industrial unless it is demonstrated to EPA that another use will not pose a threat to human health or the environment and EPA provides prior written approval for such use
A requirement that any earth moving activities by any entity on Facility property, including construction and drilling, be done in accordance with the EPA-approved Soil Management Plan
A requirement that a vapor control system, the design of which shall be approved in advance by EPA, is installed in any existing and all new structures constructed at the Facility

Institutional and Engineering Controls help ensure human exposure and groundwater migration are under control at a cleanup facility. Where control types have been reported by states and EPA in EPA’s RCRAInfo, they are shown below. Not all control types are needed at all facilities, and some facilities do not require any controls. Where there are blanks, the control types may not be needed, may not be in place, or may not be reported in RCRAInfo.

Are Controls in Place at this Facility?

Control(s) Type		Control(s) in Place?	Areas Subject to Control(s)
(CA 772)	(ID)
	(GC)
	(EP)
	(PR)
(CA 770)	(GW)
(CA 770)

Enforcement and Compliance at this Facility

EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) provides detailed historical information about enforcement and compliance activities at each RCRA Corrective Action Site in their Enforcement and Compliance Historical Online (ECHO) system.

RCRA Enforcement and Compliance Reports from ECHO

Related Information and Publicly Available Electronic Records

For more information about this facility, see these other EPA links:

RCRA information in EPA’s Envirofacts database
Information about this facility submitted to EPA under different environmental programs as reported in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Alternative Names for this facility as reported by EPA programs in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Cleanups in My Community provides an interactive map to see EPA cleanups in context with additional data, and lists for downloading data
Search RCRA Corrective Action Sites provides a search feature for Corrective Action Sites

Documents, Photos and Graphics

Contacts for this Facility

EPA Region implements and enforces the RCRA Corrective Action program for and federally recognized tribes.

For further information on this corrective action site, use the Contact Information for Corrective Action Hazardous Waste Clean Ups listings that are accessible through Corrective Action Programs around the Nation.

Date Last updated: Data on this page was last refreshed on