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Sunday, October 22, 2006

Environment - Two hazardous waste sites focus of stories in Sunday papers

Major stories today on the Feddeler landfill in Northwest Indiana and on the Hassan site in Fort Wayne.

Feddeler landfill. The Gary Post-Tribune has this story, by Andy Grimm, headlined "A poisoned past Documents detail history of inaction in 30 years by state, landfill owner: Officials in Indianapolis were clued in." The long story begins:

The problems at the Feddeler dump were no secret, not in the Lowell area and not in Indianapolis.

State environmental officials had a hint the Feddeler landfill was a hazardous waste site the first time they stepped onto the 40-acre landfill more than 30 years ago.

The first report on file with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, dated 1975, notes that workers were burying drums that might have contained toxic acryl-onitrile, pesticides and other waste as the inspector watched.

But for more than 20 years -- and even as they accepted plans to close off the site -- IDEM has treated the site as if those barrels weren't rusting beneath the surface.

After years of hearing neighbors complain about the landfill, county officials released test data that may prove residents' worst fears are true: Toxic gases and dangerous chemicals may be seeping out of the now-abandoned dump.

What is in the Feddeler dump, and what should be done to keep it from threatening public health?

The answers might be buried under mountains of trash and IDEM paperwork.

In the meantime, state and county officials agree: The dump is a mess, and it's getting worse.

A companion story is headed "Paper trail shows dump violations, incomplete files."Also of interest may be these two ILB entries from April 29th and 30th, 2004, headed "500 barrels of hazardous waste found."

Hassan site. "Over a barrel of toxicity: Responsibility for Hassan site cleanup unclear" is the headline to this story by Dan Stockman today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. The story begins:

Two years after a padlocked industrial site was discovered to be essentially a toxic waste dump surrounded by homes and a school, the federal government is figuring out whom to sue to pay for the cleanup.

The Hassan Barrel Co. recycled industrial barrels on its 7-acre site at 1605 Summer St. until the summer of 2003, when the owners padlocked the gates and walked away. They left behind mountains of rusting, leaking barrels filled with paint wastes and caustic chemicals, crumbling buildings filled with barrels, semi-trailers filled with barrels and open pits where the company apparently dumped hazardous waste into the ground.

It was more than a year before the site was discovered; contractors hired by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency removed more than 5,000 empty barrels in October 2004; a year later they removed about 5,000 full ones.

The immediate environmental nightmare has been removed, but its toxic legacy remains: The soil is contaminated with everything that leaked from the barrels, from butanone, ethyl-benzene and toluene to cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury. A ditch where neighborhood children play is contaminated with barium, cadmium, chromium and lead.

Here is a list of earlier ILB entries on the Hassan barrel recycling site.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 22, 2006 08:24 AM
Posted to Environment