FORT SMITH : Plating plant cleanup averts danger to river
Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008
FORT SMITH — An Environmental Protection Agency contractor beat heavy weekend rains and removed most of the chemical-contaminated water from an abandoned electroplating plant that burned last week, an agency spokesman said.
Althea Foster, the EPA’s onscene coordinator, said Wednesday that workers with U. S. Environmental Services LLC of North Little Rock were able to remove contaminated water from a large ditch on Saturday before heavy rains filled it to the point of overflowing.
The company removed the water from several areas along the ditch where it pooled against sand dams placed by city employees to keep the contaminated water from flowing into the Arkansas River. Foster said city fire hydrants were opened to flush the ditch after the contaminated water was removed.
The chemicals in open vats inside the former Arkansas Plating plant at 3021 N. Albert Pike Ave. were pumped into containers and removed, she said.
Several plastic drums containing liquids also were removed from the plant. Foster said some of the barrels were unsealed. Some barrels with legible labels were identified as nonhazardous. The contents of barrels with illegible labels will have to be tested.
All the removed chemicals are being stored temporarily at the Fort Smith Regional Landfill until they can be identified and appropriately disposed of, she said.
Fort Smith fire officials are still investigating how and where the May 21 fire started.
Officials believe the plant contained cyanide and different acids in vats that overflowed when firefighters extinguished the fire. Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Doug Szenher said department officials inspected the plant in 2004 and found copper cyanide, copper acid, boric acid, chrome rinse and nickel rinse inside.
EPA officials were called to the plant on Wednesday because of the presence of the chemicals and have taken charge of the case from the Environmental Quality Department, Foster said.
A team will be brought in to assess possible chemical contamination along the ditch and around the plant, she said. The assessment could be completed by the middle of next week.
Despite the presence of chemicals, officials have said the risk to the public’s health has been minimal; exposure to the contaminated water might cause minor skin irritation.
The plant was closed in 2000 because plant owner Thomas Mikus failed to obey department orders to set up and follow a plan to identify, sample, handle and dispose of wastes at the plant, according to Environmental Quality Department records. Department records showed it has had trouble with Arkansas Plating since 1992 when the company and Mikus were charged with violating the Arkansas Hazardous Waste Management Act. The charges were reduced in a plea agreement and a $ 75, 000 fine against the company was suspended on condition Mikus adhere to regulations. The company never met any of the requirements it agreed to, department officials have said.
Dave Bary, a spokesman for the EPA’s regional office in Dallas, said Wednesday that funding for the cleanup would come from the government’s Superfund program, although the plant has not been designated a Superfund site. As is its policy, he said, the agency will seek repayment for the work from the plant owner.
Mikus, 56, is serving a 10-year sentence in the Arkansas Department of Correction on drug convictions in Sebastian County. He is scheduled to be released from prison in October 2009, according to prison records.
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