Posts Tagged ‘stinnes corporation’
Supervisors, resident address EPA stance on groundwater concerns
January 14th, 2010 | 
Author: Mary Krewson Abington Journal Correspondent
December 2, 2009
Based on the letters that have been exchanged over the past few weeks regarding a site located in Glenburn Township, a meeting proposed for Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. between federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and township supervisors may prove interesting.
Termed a “stakeholders’ meeting,” the proposed event is closed to the public. And, EPA’s On-Scene Coordinator Neeraj (Raj) Sharma’s Nov. 23 letter to township solicitor Malcolm MacGregor made no mention of a holding the public meeting slated for fall 2009.
Precision National Plating Services, Inc., formerly located at 198 Ackerly Road, according to published reports, released hexavalent chromium into nearby ground and water sources for decades while it manufactured toxic materials used in plating, dyes, pigments, leather tanning and wood preserving.
According to an EPA web site, hexavalent chromium “dissolves easily in water and can trickle deeply into ground water” and may cause cancer.
The round of letters started when Glenburn township resident and supervisor-elect David Jennings wrote Precision’s attorney, Kevin Quinn of Scranton, in Auguststating that he and his wife would like to build a home on property he owns next to the former Precision site.
Jennings wrote that in developing he had two alternatives: to drill a deep well and pray the contamination site did not migrate into his well and contaminate the deep aquifer or to have a public water line extended to his property at Precision’s expense.
Jennings’ letter drew a sharp response from Quinn.
In a letter dated Sept. 4, Quinn stated to Jennings, “I have discussed with Precision your email request of Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009 and have been instructed to advise you that Precision is unwilling to bear the expense of extending the public water line to service the property you now own that is located immediately adjacent to the former lagoon on the Precision site.”
Quinn also stated, “Precision has asked me to relay the fact that you and your wife will be held legally accountable if you cause or undertake any action on your property, including but not limited to construction of a well, that in any way, shape or form exacerbates or otherwise alters the current environmental state of the Precision site or surrounding properties.”
Following Quinn’s letter was a letter to Jennings dated Oct. 7 from Sharma.
In that letter to Jennings, Sharma stated, “First, EPA would be concerned about any deep excavation on your property, as you have described, that you may be planning. EPA has sampling results down to 18 inches on or near the property that do not show chromium contamination; however EPA has no information about soil deeper than that.”
He continued, “Also, EPA would be concerned about likely chromium contamination in shallow groundwater which may infiltrate into a deeper excavation such as the one you are planning.
“Any attempt to de-water the excavation could exacerbate a release of hazardous substances into the environment and you may be liable for the release of hazardous substances into the environment. ”
The supervisors were not pleased with Sharma’s letter to Jennings and directed their solicitor to tell him. MacGregor wrote, “Frankly, Raj, the Supervisors were not pleased with the tone of the letter inasmuch as it does not even address the long outstanding inquiry of Mr. Jennings for EPA to compel Precision National Plating to pay for his waterline hookup.
“Rather, the correspondence focuses more on the potential liability of Mr. Jennings for simply seeking to lawfully develop his property. Absent from the letter is any reference whatsoever to the culpability if Precision National Plating for creating this situation and why they should not be made to pay for water hookups for Mr. Jennings and others under the Administrative Order.”
MacGregor also stated that “we would hope that EPA would take the position that if a resident landowner who had nothing to do with contaminating the groundwater inadvertently caused some expansion of the contamination, that EPA would aggressively go after Precision National Plating, the offending polluter, rather than the landowner.”
MacGregor continued, “The supervisors feel strongly that they do not want there to be a perception in the community or within EPA that residents like Mr. Jennings, who have difficult and persistent questions out of concern for the safety of their family or community, are treated any differently than other residents affected by Precision National Plating’s hexavalent chromium contamination of the adjacent area.”
Jennings agrees.
He said he is also concerned about other residents in Glenburn Township, such as those who live along Old State Road if the contamination should migrate there. Jennings added that under the court mandated Administrative Order, Precision has a responsibility to extend a public water line to any properties that are found to be contaminated.
This story also appears on the following websites…
© Copyright 2010 The Times Leader. All Rights Reserved.
Precision site cleanup moving forward, officials complain about lack of information
By Erin L. Nissley (Staff Writer)
Published: January 10, 2010
GLENBURN TWP. – As federal officials tout big decreases in contamination at a former industrial site, officials and residents are upset about the continued lack of information available about the cleanup.
“There’s a lot of frustration,” Glenburn solicitor Malcolm MacGregor said. “All we want is more information.”
Just under a year ago, several areas in and near the former Precision National Plating Services site were injected with calcium polysulfide to decrease the levels of hexavalent chromium that has leached into the soil, groundwater and Ackerly Creek.
Federal officials have said the levels of contaminants decreased significantly after the injections. Now, they are awaiting the completion of two reports that will help plot the next steps in the cleanup.
Residents and supervisors say they are not being provided with updated information about contamination levels and the cleanup’s progress. The lack of information fuels their concern about possible contamination still lurking underground and whether a public water source is necessary for those living near the former plant.
Cleanup progressing
The contamination at the 45-acre site could have begun as early as the 1950s, when chromium was used to plate locomotive crank shafts.
Precision bought the plant in 1970 and began dumping the chromium waste into an unlined lagoon on the site, according to EPA site coordinator Raj Sharma.
In 1994, water from private drinking wells on Arch Avenue tested positive for chromium contamination. Four years later, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an administrative order that held Precision responsible for cleaning up the site.
Precision closed the plant in 1999 and the building was demolished in 2000.
Injections of calcium polysulfide completed in early 2009 have been successful at decreasing the contamination levels in the soil and groundwater at and near the site, Mr. Sharma said.
In 2006, contamination in the soil was measured at 600 parts per million. But after the injections, those levels came down to 15 parts per million, which is 45 parts per million less than the federal maximum allowed.
Levels of contamination in parts of Ackerly Creek are still much higher than federal limits, though. One portion of the creek tested at 290 parts per billion in September 2006. Nine months after the injections, though, the same site found contaminant levels of 28.5 parts per billion, which exceeds the federal maximum of 11 parts per billion, Mr. Sharma said.
Glenburn Twp. officials and residents have criticized the EPA for not releasing enough information and for not keeping their Web site updated with current test results.
Mr. Sharma said the EPA is releasing information to residents and supervisors, most recently at a meeting last month open only to residents who lived near the former Precision site and township officials.
Glenburn resident and newly elected township supervisor David Jennings, a vocal critic of the ongoing cleanup efforts, said EPA officials talked about information at that meeting that even they could not find on the Web site when asked about it.
“This has been an issue for years,” Mr. Jennings said. “They say it’s on the Web site and it’s not. Or it is for a few days and then it’s taken down.”
Reports coming soon
There is more progress on the horizon, which Mr. Sharma said will be announced to residents and elected officials as it is available.
By February, Precision will submit a report to EPA officials outlining the next step in the cleanup process, including what they plan to do to continue decreasing contamination levels in Ackerly Creek. EPA officials will review the report before deciding to approve it, Mr. Sharma said, and may be made available for public viewing as early as March.
The EPA is also working on a report outlining options for longterm solutions to the groundwater contamination, Mr. Sharma said.
Precision has been resistant to the idea of providing a public water source to residents who live near the site, and Mr. Sharma said he is not yet sure that doing so would be necessary.
After that document is complete, Mr. Sharma said the EPA will hold a public meeting held to answer questions and address concerns, he added.
That report may answer lingering questions about whether Precision should or will provide an alternate water source for people who live close to the contamination.
Township officials said the EPA has been vague about whether it is safe to develop any property near the former Precision site, advising them to restrict development but not giving any direction as to how, where or why.
Because the EPA has provided no reasons why development should be restricted, township supervisor Bill Wicks said he and other officials have no clear path to follow when deciding whether to approve any development proposals in the areas near the contaminated site.
“(The EPA) say they think it’s a bad idea but they can’t really say why,” Mr. Wicks said. “So we’re going to landowners and basically forced to say they can’t develop their property. It’s not something I take lightly.”
Because of all the questions about the continued safety of the drinking water, township officials said they want EPA to force Precision to provide a public water source as soon as possible.
“I’d like to see a water line within the next six months,” Mr. Jennings said. “The EPA (has) the legal power to force Precision to provide one.”
Contact the writer: enissley@timesshamrock.com
Copyright © 2010 The Scranton Times Tribune
Solicitor: Township needs to force cleanup
GLENBURN TWP. – As federal officials tout big decreases in contamination at a former industrial site, officials and residents are upset about the continued lack of information available about the cleanup.
“There’s a lot of frustration,” Glenburn solic- itor Malcolm MacGregor said. “All we want is more information.”
Just under a year ago, several areas in and near the former Precision National Plating Services site were injected with calcium polysulfide to decrease the levels of hexavalent chromium that has leached into the soil, groundwater and Ackerly Creek.
Federal officials have said the levels of contaminants decreased significantly after the injections. Now, they are awaiting the completion of two reports that will help plot the next steps in the cleanup.
Residents and supervisors say they are not being provided with updated information about contamination levels and the cleanup’s progress. The lack of information fuels their concern about possible contamination still lurking underground and whether a public water source is necessary for those living near the former plant.
Cleanup progressing
The contamination at the 45-acre site could have begun as early as the 1950s, when chromium was used to plate locomotive crank shafts.
Precision bought the plant in 1970 and began dumping the chromium waste into an unlined lagoon on the site, according to EPA site coordinator Raj Sharma.
In 1994, water from private drinking wells on Arch Avenue tested positive for chromium contamination. Four years later, the Environmental Protection Agency issued an administrative order that held Precision responsible for cleaning up the site.
Precision closed the plant in 1999 and the building was demolished in 2000.
Injections of calcium polysulfide completed in early 2009 have been successful at decreasing the contamination levels in the soil and groundwater at and near the site, Mr. Sharma said.
In 2006, contamination in the soil was measured at 600 parts per million. But after the injections, those levels came down to 15 parts per million, which is 45 parts per million less than the federal maximum allowed.
Levels of contamination in parts of Ackerly Creek are still much higher than federal limits, though. One portion of the creek tested at 290 parts per billion in September 2006. Nine months after the injections, though, the same site found contaminant levels of 28.5 parts per billion, which exceeds the federal maximum of 11 parts per billion, Mr. Sharma said.
Glenburn Twp. officials and residents have criticized the EPA for not releasing enough information and for not keeping their Web site updated with current test results.
Mr. Sharma said the EPA is releasing information to residents and supervisors, most recently at a meeting last month open only to residents who lived near the former Precision site and township officials.
Glenburn resident and newly elected township supervisor David Jennings, a vocal critic of the ongoing cleanup efforts, said EPA officials talked about information at that meeting that even they could not find on the Web site when asked about it.
“This has been an issue for years,” Mr. Jennings said. “They say it’s on the Web site and it’s not. Or it is for a few days and then it’s taken down.”
Reports coming soon
There is more progress on the horizon, which Mr. Sharma said will be announced to residents and elected officials as it is available.
By February, Precision will submit a report to EPA officials outlining the next step in the cleanup process, including what they plan to do to continue decreasing contamination levels in Ackerly Creek. EPA officials will review the report before deciding to approve it, Mr. Sharma said, and may be made available for public viewing as early as March.
The EPA is also working on a report outlining options for longterm solutions to the groundwater contamination, Mr. Sharma said.
Precision has been resistant to the idea of providing a public water source to residents who live near the site, and Mr. Sharma said he is not yet sure that doing so would be necessary.
After that document is complete, Mr. Sharma said the EPA will hold a public meeting held to answer questions and address concerns, he added.
That report may answer lingering questions about whether Precision should or will provide an alternate water source for people who live close to the contamination.
Township officials said the EPA has been vague about whether it is safe to develop any property near the former Precision site, advising them to restrict development but not giving any direction as to how, where or why.
Because the EPA has provided no reasons why development should be restricted, township supervisor Bill Wicks said he and other officials have no clear path to follow when deciding whether to approve any development proposals in the areas near the contaminated site.
“(The EPA) say they think it’s a bad idea but they can’t really say why,” Mr. Wicks said. “So we’re going to landowners and basically forced to say they can’t develop their property. It’s not something I take lightly.”
Because of all the questions about the continued safety of the drinking water, township officials said they want EPA to force Precision to provide a public water source as soon as possible.
“I’d like to see a water line within the next six months,” Mr. Jennings said. “The EPA (has) the legal power to force Precision to provide one.”
Contact the writer: enissley@timesshamrock.com
December 30, 2009
Solicitor: Township needs to force cleanup
Mary Krewson Abington Journal Correspondent
GLENBURN TWP. – “This is stagnant and stagnant is not good for the residents of Glenburn,” Malcolm MacGregor, Glenburn township solicitor, said about a subject that dominated the Dec. 21 meeting .
With the new year, a new township supervisor and a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) site representative, MacGregor said the supervisors soon need to agree on a short list of how to get EPA officials to force a manufacturing company to clean up the toxic chemicals it openly discharged there from 1956 until it ceased operations in 1999 and demolished the plant in 2000.
As it stands now, MacGregor said, EPA officials are providing the township with useless information because it cannot be understood. “Looking at the results, it doesn’t give you what a normal (water) table is, doesn’t give ranges—this is not too impressive,” MacGregor said, adding it “does not instill confidence.”
“They (EPA officials) need to communicate with people effectively,” MacGregor added. “This isn’t good enough.”
Precision National Plating Services Inc., formerly located at 198 Ackerly Road, openly released vast amounts of hexavalent chromium into ground and well water sources for more than three decades while it manufactured chemicals used in plating, dyes and leather tanning. It also manufactured locomotive crank shafts.
An EPA Web site states hexavalent chromium dissolves easily and deeply into ground and well water and may cause cancer.
According to supervisor Michael Savitsky, a bit of information was revealed during a “stakeholder’s meeting” held Dec. 10 between EPA, state Department of Environmental Protection (EPA) and township officials.
The stakeholders’ meetings are closed to the public and held between state and federal environmental officials and township officials once or twice per year.
Savitsky said that during the Dec. 10 meeting township officials were informed by the EPA site representative that the levels of contamination “under the foundation” of the former manufacturing plant measured at “about 200,000 parts per billion.”
“Those are astounding numbers that never made it to the (EPA) Web site,” Savitsky added.
Glenburn Township resident David Jennings, who will become a new township supervisor in January, has been involved for more than 20 years in trying to get environmental officials to force Precision officials to clean up toxic chemicals it left behind and has explained EPA’s target is to get the contamination to a level of “11 parts per billion.”
“They (EPA and Precision officials) know that it’s not all cleaned up,” MacGregor said. “It’s very unpredictable where it (the contamination) is going to end up—the bad thing is when it gets into the ground.”
Jennings told MacGregor and supervisors Savistsky and Frank Berardelli that he has serious concerns about residents’ water wells located half way up Kiddle Lane and especially along Old State Road. Those residents use well water and have no public water line extended to their properties.
“We really can’t speculate who may be affected in the future, it is a 46-acre property,” MacGregor said.
Information revealed recently, according to MacGregor, is that EPA officials want the supervisors to adopt an ordinance that would create strict legislation of the type of testing that would need to be done before any township residents could construct a well.
“We’re a small little township with the authority over wells with state and federal environmental officials on site?” asked MacGregor. “That doesn’t make sense.”
Jennings said he is willing to construct a well on his property at his own expense so the township has a way of testing ground and well water in the township. MacGregor cautioned that once Jennings becomes a supervisor the township will need to make certain matters are “handled correctly in any active litigation.”
Both Precision and EPA officials have told Jennings they may hold him legally liable if he builds a well on land he owns next to the former Precision site and the digging releases chemicals and contaminates nearby properties.
MacGregor said an election year is upcoming and that may be the time to contact state representatives to see if they are willing to assist the township in getting some action from environmental officials .
“(Arlen) Specter was here six, seven, eight years ago. Maybe he would like to come back for a visit to see what is not going on,” MacGregor said. “EPA had authority to do things but didn’t do them—and they are not doing enough.”
The Abington Journal News Article from December 2, 2009
Supervisors, resident address EPA stance on groundwater concerns
Mary Krewson Abington Journal Correspondent
Based on the letters that have been exchanged over the past few weeks regarding a site located in Glenburn Township, a meeting proposed for Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. between federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and township supervisors may prove interesting.
Termed a “stakeholders’ meeting,” the proposed event is closed to the public. And, EPA’s On-Scene Coordinator Neeraj (Raj) Sharma’s Nov. 23 letter to township solicitor Malcolm MacGregor made no mention of a holding the public meeting slated for fall 2009.
Precision National Plating Services, Inc., formerly located at 198 Ackerly Road, according to published reports, released hexavalent chromium into nearby ground and water sources for decades while it manufactured toxic materials used in plating, dyes, pigments, leather tanning and wood preserving.
According to an EPA web site, hexavalent chromium “dissolves easily in water and can trickle deeply into ground water” and may cause cancer.
The round of letters started when Glenburn township resident and supervisor-elect David Jennings wrote Precision’s attorney, Kevin Quinn of Scranton, in August stating that he and his wife would like to build a home on property he owns next to the former Precision site.
Jennings wrote that in developing he had two alternatives: to drill a deep well and pray the contamination site did not migrate into his well and contaminate the deep aquifer or to have a public water line extended to his property at Precision’s expense.
Jennings’ letter drew a sharp response from Quinn.
In a letter dated Sept. 4, Quinn stated to Jennings, “I have discussed with Precision your email request of Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009 and have been instructed to advise you that Precision is unwilling to bear the expense of extending the public water line to service the property you now own that is located immediately adjacent to the former lagoon on the Precision site.”
Quinn also stated, “Precision has asked me to relay the fact that you and your wife will be held legally accountable if you cause or undertake any action on your property, including but not limited to construction of a well, that in any way, shape or form exacerbates or otherwise alters the current environmental state of the Precision site or surrounding properties.”
Following Quinn’s letter was a letter to Jennings dated Oct. 7 from Sharma.
In that letter to Jennings, Sharma stated, “First, EPA would be concerned about any deep excavation on your property, as you have described, that you may be planning. EPA has sampling results down to 18 inches on or near the property that do not show chromium contamination; however EPA has no information about soil deeper than that.”
He continued, “Also, EPA would be concerned about likely chromium contamination in shallow groundwater which may infiltrate into a deeper excavation such as the one you are planning.
“Any attempt to de-water the excavation could exacerbate a release of hazardous substances into the environment and you may be liable for the release of hazardous substances into the environment. ”
The supervisors were not pleased with Sharma’s letter to Jennings and directed their solicitor to tell him. MacGregor wrote, “Frankly, Raj, the Supervisors were not pleased with the tone of the letter inasmuch as it does not even address the long outstanding inquiry of Mr. Jennings for EPA to compel Precision National Plating to pay for his waterline hookup.
“Rather, the correspondence focuses more on the potential liability of Mr. Jennings for simply seeking to lawfully develop his property. Absent from the letter is any reference whatsoever to the culpability if Precision National Plating for creating this situation and why they should not be made to pay for water hookups for Mr. Jennings and others under the Administrative Order.”
MacGregor also stated that “we would hope that EPA would take the position that if a resident landowner who had nothing to do with contaminating the groundwater inadvertently caused some expansion of the contamination, that EPA would aggressively go after Precision National Plating, the offending polluter, rather than the landowner.”
MacGregor continued, “The supervisors feel strongly that they do not want there to be a perception in the community or within EPA that residents like Mr. Jennings, who have difficult and persistent questions out of concern for the safety of their family or community, are treated any differently than other residents affected by Precision National Plating’s hexavalent chromium contamination of the adjacent area.”
Jennings agrees.
He said he is also concerned about other residents in Glenburn Township, such as those who live along Old State Road if the contamination should migrate there. Jennings added that under the court mandated Administrative Order, Precision has a responsibility to extend a public water line to any properties that are found to be contaminated.
This story also appears on the following websites…
Posted in Press, Restored Harmony | 
Tags: Abington Journal News, Ackerly Creek, David Jennings, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Hexavalent Chromium, Inc., Malcolm MacGregor, Neeraj (Raj) Sharma, Precision National Plating Services, stinnes corporation | 
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