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AMCO Chemical was a chemical distribution company located in Oakland, California. The land the company operated on is designated as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund cleanup site.
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port city, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the San Francisco Bay Area, the eighth most populated city in California, and the 45th largest city in the United States. With a population of 432,897 as of 2019, it serves as a trade center for the San Francisco Bay Area; its Port of Oakland is the busiest port in the San Francisco Bay, the entirety of Northern California, and the fifth busiest in the United States of America. An act to incorporate the city was passed on May 4, 1852, and incorporation was later approved on March 25, 1854, which officially made Oakland a city. Oakland is a charter city.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government for environmental protection. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970 and it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its Administrator, who is appointed by the President and approved by Congress. The current Administrator is former Deputy Administrator Andrew R. Wheeler, who had been acting administrator since July 2018. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the Administrator is normally given cabinet rank.
Superfund is a United States federal government program designed to fund the cleanup of sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants. Sites managed under this program are referred to as "Superfund" sites. It was established as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). It authorizes federal natural resource agencies, primarily the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), states and Native American tribes to recover natural resource damages caused by hazardous substances, though most states have and most often use their own versions of CERCLA. CERCLA created the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The EPA may identify parties responsible for hazardous substances releases to the environment (polluters) and either compel them to clean up the sites, or it may undertake the cleanup on its own using the Superfund and costs recovered from polluters by referring to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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AMCO operated from the 1960s until 1989. Chemicals were brought to the company in rail tank cars. The contents were off-loaded into 55-gallon drums which were stored on the lot until the chemicals were transferred into smaller containers for re-sale. An investigation by the Oakland Fire Department, Alameda County and the U.S. Coast Guard found over 100 full and empty 5- and 55-gallon drums, some of which were leaking. Subsequent to AMCO ceasing operations in 1989, the lot was used by DC Metals for scrap storage until 1998, and by Cable Moore, Inc. for cable storage until the present time.
A tank car is a type of railroad car or rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities.
The Oakland Fire Department (OFD) provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Oakland, California. The department is responsible for 78 square miles (200 km2) with a population of 406,253.
Alameda County is a county in the state of California in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,510,271, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state. The county seat is Oakland. Alameda County is included in the San Francisco Bay Area, occupying much of the East Bay region.
In June 1995, a construction crew digging a trench noted a strong chemical odor in the dirt. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), DC Metals, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted an investigation which uncovered chlorinated solvents and other contaminants, including vinyl chloride, and soil gas. Due to the presence of groundwater found during the investigation, emergency remediation processes were initiated.
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the US state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacramento.
An organochloride, organochlorine compound, chlorocarbon, or chlorinated hydrocarbon is an organic compound containing at least one covalently bonded atom of chlorine that has an effect on the chemical behavior of the molecule. The chloroalkane class provides common examples. The wide structural variety and divergent chemical properties of organochlorides lead to a broad range of names and applications. Organochlorides are very useful compounds in many applications, but some are of profound environmental concern.
Vinyl chloride is an organochloride with the formula H2C=CHCl that is also called vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) or chloroethene. This colorless compound is an important industrial chemical chiefly used to produce the polymer polyvinyl chloride (PVC). About 13 billion kilograms are produced annually. VCM is among the top twenty largest petrochemicals (petroleum-derived chemicals) in world production. The United States currently remains the largest VCM manufacturing region because of its low-production-cost position in chlorine and ethylene raw materials. China is also a large manufacturer and one of the largest consumers of VCM. Vinyl chloride is a gas with a sweet odor. It is highly toxic, flammable, and carcinogenic. It can be formed in the environment when soil organisms break down chlorinated solvents. Vinyl chloride that is released by industries or formed by the breakdown of other chlorinated chemicals can enter the air and drinking water supplies. Vinyl chloride is a common contaminant found near landfills. In the past VCM was used as a refrigerant.
The remediation efforts began with the construction of a ground water and soil vapor extraction (SVE) treatment system. Between January 1997 through July 1998, approximately 7,000 pounds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), approximately 40 pounds of which were vinyl chloride, were extracted from the soil and groundwater. The SVE ceased operation in July 1998 due to concerns from nearby residents over exposure to fumes from the exhaust of the system. During the remediation process, additional contamination from methylene chloride, 1,1,1-Trichloroethane (TCA), and trichloroethene (TCE) were discovered. Detailed assessments taken during the emergency remediation effort revealed that the danger to the surrounding residences was not imminent but the site would pose long-term dangers.
Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is a physical treatment process for in situ remediation of volatile contaminants in vadose zone (unsaturated) soils. SVE is based on mass transfer of contaminant from the solid (sorbed) and liquid phases into the gas phase, with subsequent collection of the gas phase contamination at extraction wells. Extracted contaminant mass in the gas phase is treated in aboveground systems. In essence, SVE is the vadose zone equivalent of the pump-and-treat technology for groundwater remediation. SVE is particularly amenable to contaminants with higher Henry’s Law constants, including various chlorinated solvents and hydrocarbons. SVE is a well-demonstrated, mature remediation technology and has been identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as presumptive remedy.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature. Their high vapor pressure results from a low boiling point, which causes large numbers of molecules to evaporate or sublimate from the liquid or solid form of the compound and enter the surrounding air, a trait known as volatility. For example, formaldehyde, which evaporates from paint and releases from materials like resin, has a boiling point of only –19 °C (–2 °F).
Dichloromethane (DCM or methylene chloride) is an organochlorine compound with the formula CH2Cl2. This colorless, volatile liquid with a moderately sweet aroma is widely used as a solvent. Although it is not miscible with water, it is polar, and miscible with many organic solvents.
The site was listed on the National Priority List (Superfund) on September 29, 2003. The detailed remediation investigation concluded in 2006. The Draft Remedial Investigation Report is being prepared but the EPA has already announced that they will excavate contaminated soil from six residences surrounding the AMCO site.
