Diamond Alkali

Last updated

Diamond Alkali Company was an American chemical company incorporated in 1910 in West Virginia by a group of glass industry businessmen from Pittsburgh. The company soon established a large chemical plant at Fairport Harbor, Ohio, which would operate for over sixty years. In 1947, the headquarters of the company was moved from Pittsburgh to Cleveland. [1] Later the company established a plant in Redwood City, California, that produced ion-exchange resins. In 1967, Diamond Alkali and Shamrock Oil and Gas merged to form the Diamond Shamrock Corporation. Diamond Shamrock would go on to merge with Ultramar Corporation, and the combined company, Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corporation, would in turn be acquired by Valero Energy Corporation in 2001.

Diamond Alkali was largely responsible for contamination leading to the creation of a Superfund Site in the Ironbound section of Newark, New Jersey. Between 1951 and 1969, Diamond Alkali in Newark produced approximately 700,000 US gallons (2,600,000 L; 580,000 imp gal) of the herbicide Agent Orange. The plant had a reputation for accidents and producing the lowest quality (most contaminated with by-products) herbicides. [2] Furthermore, the firm frequently dumped "bad" batches of the herbicide into the Passaic River [ citation needed ]. The former plant property and adjoining portions of the Lower Passaic River were declared a Superfund site in 1984. [3] In 1986, the Diamond Shamrock Corporation agreed to pay $150,000 for a canvas tarpaulin to cover 3 acres (12,000 m2) of the contaminated area. [2] Remediation efforts at Diamond Alkali began in 2000 [4] and ecological investigation, dredging, and other cleanup activities are still underway. [5] [6] [7] [8] As of 2020 the EPA indicates that the site is not yet ready for reuse and redevelopment. [9]

The Diamond Shamrock Corp. (Painesville Works) site is an 1,100-acre former chemical manufacturing facility in Lake County, Ohio. The Diamond Shamrock Painesville Works facility operated from 1912 through 1977. It made a variety of products, including soda ash, baking soda, chromium compounds, carbon tetrachloride, hydrochloric and sulfuric acids, chlorinated wax and coke. Facility operations contaminated soil, sediment and surface water with hazardous chemicals. Site cleanup is ongoing. [10] [11]

The cleanup at the site has been divided into 22 portions, also known as Operable Units. U.S. EPA is the lead agency for Operable Unit #16, only one of the 22 Operable Units that comprise the overall Site. The source of pollution in Operable Unit #16 is waste from chromate ore processing placed at the site. Operable Unit #16 was proposed for the National Priorities List but was never added to the list. U.S. EPA will withdraw the Proposal to the NPL for O.U. #16 and transfer all cleanup supervision authority to Ohio EPA. Ohio EPA is directing the cleanup at all the other Operable Units that comprise the Site. [12]

In 1982, Diamond Shamrock completed closure of the area designated as Operable Unit #16. However, the presence of chromate wastes in the landfill cell made it necessary to continue long term monitoring, inspection, and reporting for this area. The closure consisted of installing sheet piling along the Grand River and an impermeable clay cap placed over all the waste areas. U.S. EPA issued a legal order, known as an Administrative Consent Order, in 1983 under the RCRA program to ensure that monitoring continued in the long term.

In 2001, U.S. EPA performed a limited cleanup action. [13] In 2006, the potentially responsible parties upgraded and repaired the clay cap at Operable Unit #16, and improved some of the drainage at and around the site. Groundwater sampling is conducted every two years. The site is currently being addressed by a potentially responsible party under Ohio EPA oversight.

Sheet piling has been installed to control the seeps. Extraction wells behind (upgradient from) the sheet piling extract the contaminated groundwater and prevent overtopping of the sheet piling. Seeps have not been observed since this system was put in place in early 2006. Site cleanup continues under the direction of Ohio EPA.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Diamond leases Cleveland offices for executive officers". Painesville Telegraph. Cleveland. 7 October 1947. Retrieved 5 November 2023– via Google News.
  2. 1 2 Morren, George (2007). When the Chips are Down. ISBN   978-1-59271-388-2
  3. ↑ USEPA Region 2 Superfund: Diamond Alkali, Newark, NJ
  4. ↑ "Diamond Alkali Superfund Site". Archived from the original on 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2013-01-12.
  5. ↑ "Natural Resource Damage Assessment Plan" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-03-01. Retrieved 2013-01-12.
  6. ↑ "Lower Passaic River Restoration Project Commercial Navigation Analysis" (PDF). United States Army Corps of Engineers. July 2, 2010. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  7. ↑ DePalma, Anthony (13 August 2012). "Superfund Efforts to Clean Waterways Come With a Risk". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  8. ↑ "DIAMOND ALKALI CO. Site Profile".
  9. ↑ Superfund Site: Diamond Alkali Company Newark NJ Cleanup Progress (retrieved 12/1/2020)
  10. ↑ "DIAMOND SHAMROCK CORP. (PAINESVILLE WORKS) Site Profile". cumulis.epa.gov. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  11. ↑ "Diamond Shamrock Corp Painesville Works in Painesville, OH | Homefacts". www.homefacts.com. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  12. ↑ "Ohio EPA monitoring site every step of way". News-Herald. 2005-05-15. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  13. ↑ "DIAMOND ALKALI CO. Site Profile". cumulis.epa.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-03.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berry's Creek</span> River known for its pollution in northeastern New Jersey, United States

Berry's Creek is a tributary of the Hackensack River in the New Jersey Meadowlands in Bergen County, New Jersey. The creek watershed contains a diverse array of wetlands, marshes, and wildlife. The creek runs through a densely populated region and has been subject to extensive industrial pollution during the 19th and 20th centuries. Several companies discharged toxic chemicals into the creek in the 20th century, and these chemicals have remained in the sediment. The creek has the highest concentrations of methyl mercury of any fresh-water sediment in the world. Portions of the creek watershed are Superfund sites and cleanup projects began in the late 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diamond Shamrock</span>

Diamond Shamrock Corp. or Diamond Shamrock Refining and Marketing was an oil refinery and gas station company in the United States, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olin Corporation</span> American chemical manufacturing company

Olin Corporation is an American manufacturer of ammunition, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide. The company traces its roots to two companies, both founded in 1892: Franklin W. Olin's Equitable Powder Company and the Mathieson Alkali Works. Accidents at Olin chemical plants have exposed employees and nearby residents to health hazards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FMC Corporation</span> American manufacturer founded 1883

FMC Corporation is an American chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which originated as an insecticide producer in 1883 and later diversified into other industries. In 1941 at the beginning of US involvement in WWII, the company received a contract to design and build amphibious tracked landing vehicles for the United States Department of War, and afterwards the company continued to diversify its products. FMC employs 7,000 people worldwide, and had gross revenues of US$4.7 billion in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naylors Run</span>

Naylors Run is a 4.6-mile-long (7.4 km) tributary of Cobbs Creek in Haverford and Upper Darby Township, Pennsylvania, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Havertown Superfund</span> Superfund site in Pennsylvania

Havertown Superfund is a 13-acre polluted groundwater site in Havertown, Pennsylvania contaminated by the dumping of industrial waste by National Wood Preservers from 1947 to 1991. The state first became aware of the pollution in 1962 and initiated legal action against the owners in 1973 to force them to cleanup the site. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranked the site the eighth worst cleanup project in the United States. The site was added to the National Priorities List in 1983 and designated as a Superfund cleanup site in the early 1990s. Remediation and monitoring efforts are ongoing and the EPA transferred control of the site to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in 2013.

In 1990, the Allied Paper, Inc./Portage Creek/Kalamazoo River in southwestern Michigan was declared by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be a Superfund site – in other words, an abandoned industrial site containing significant amounts of toxic waste. The EPA and companies responsible for the waste in this area, which includes a three-mile section of Portage Creek as well as part of the Kalamazoo River, into which it flows, are currently involved in an effort to reduce the amount of toxic waste at the site, which is contaminated by PCBs from paper mills and other factories.

Imperial Oil is a current Superfund site located off Orchard Place near Route 79 in Morganville, Marlboro Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. This site is one of 114 Superfund sites in New Jersey. It is in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 Superfund area of control and organization. The 15-acre (61,000 m2) Imperial Oil Co./Champion Chemicals site consisted of six production, storage, and maintenance buildings and 56 above-ground storage tanks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown & Bryant</span>

Brown & Bryant Inc. was a chemical distribution company located in Arvin, California in Kern County. The land the company operated on is designated as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund cleanup site. The company was a formulator of agricultural chemicals including fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fumigants.

The Del Amo Superfund Site is located in southern Los Angeles County between the cities of Torrance and Carson. It is a U.S. EPA Region 9 Superfund Site. The waste-disposal site of a rubber manufacturer is one of 94 Superfund Sites in California as of November 29, 2010.

The Federal Creosote Superfund site is a 50-acre (20 ha) property located in Manville, New Jersey. It was used as a wood treatment facility. Starting in 1919, the site was contaminated with creosote. Creosotes are a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and by pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. It took the EPA about 18 years to cleanup the site.

The Diamond Head Oil Refinery is a former oil reprocessing facility located in Kearny, New Jersey, United States, that was designated as a Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It opened up in 1946, but then stopped production in 1979 and has been inactive since then. The refinery was shut down in 1980 and the EPA designated it as a Superfund site in 1991 due to the discovery of toxic chemicals in the soil and the surface water. This created a dangerous work environment for the workers at the facility. The EPA proposed a clean up plan for the site, but it has yet to take effect. So far, the Diamond Head site is still in the process of being cleaned up. Although cleanup plans were discussed and finalized, the future of the Diamond Head Oil Refinery and its cleanup state is unknown.

Brook Industrial Park (BIP) is an industrial area occupying 4.5 acres of the Borough of Bound Brook, New Jersey, in the United States of America. It is located on the northern bank of the Raritan River. Industrial, chemical and pesticide operations began in 1971 and eventually lead to the contamination of groundwater and exposure of workers to harmful dioxins. Throughout 1980 to 1988 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) conducted studies to determine if there were any threats being posed on the workers, community or environment by the BIP companies in their disposal of processed and stored chemicals.

The White Chemical Corporation Superfund site is 4.4 acres of contaminated industrial land in Newark, New Jersey, about a half mile away from Newark Airport. The Newark site operated from 1983 to July 1990, selling small amounts of chemicals. Some of the chemicals sold there were Trichloroethylene and 1-2-Dichloroethane. These chemicals were being improperly stored and leaked into the soil and groundwater. The EPA placed the property on the National Priorities List (NPL) in 1991, declaring it a Superfund site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newark Riverfront Park</span>

Newark Riverfront Park is a park and promenade being developed in phases along the Passaic River in Newark, New Jersey, United States. The park, expected to be 3 miles (4.8 km) long and encompass 30.5 acres (12.3 ha), is being created from brownfield and greyfield sites along the river, which itself is a Superfund site due to decades of pollution. It will follow the river between the Ironbound section along Raymond Boulevard and Downtown Newark along McCarter Highway. Announced in 1999, a groundbreaking took place in 2008, and the first phase of the park opened in 2012. It was the first time residents of the largest city in New Jersey have ever had public access to the river. Other segments of the park have subsequently opened, while others are being developed. The East Coast Greenway uses paths and roads along the park.

The Lava Cap Mine is an abandoned gold mine in Nevada County, California. The mine is located 5 miles (8.0 km) southeast of Nevada City. The site is undergoing cleanup by the United States Environmental Protection Agency for arsenic contamination.

Adams Plating, also known as Adam's Plating, is a 1-acre (0.40-hectare) Superfund site in Lansing Charter Township near Lansing, Michigan.

Thermo-Chem, Inc., also referred to as Thermo-Chem, is a 50-acre Superfund site located in Egelston Township near Muskegon, Michigan.

The G&H Industrial Landfill is a Superfund site located in Shelby Charter Township near Utica, Michigan. The 60-acre (24-hectare) landfill, with about 10 to 20 acres of adjacent property, operated as a waste oil recovery facility from 1955 to 1967. From 1955 to 1974 the site was used as an industrial and municipal landfill. Contaminated soil, surface water, and groundwater with hazardous chemicals have been left behind as a result of the disposal of waste solvents, waste oil and paint sludge. Operation and maintenance activities are ongoing following the cleanup.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.