Project leaders informed Salt Lake residents Thursday about the cleanup of the Petrochem/Ekotek Superfund site, marking the end of an initial, investigative phase of the process.
There were few surprises for listeners, aside from the results of a recent study that show no concrete link between the site and five cases of cancer in nearby Swedetown.The Petrochem/Ekotek property, located west of Beck Street at 1628 N. Chicago St., was once the site of an oil refinery and recycling plant for hazardous materials. The site is responsible for contaminated groundwater in the area and for an oil slick, approximately one foot thick, that rides on top of the water table there.
The findings were no surprise to residents who first reported noxious fumes and oozing liquid at the site more than five years ago. The 6.6 acres was operated from 1953 to 1988 as a used-oil refinery and oil reclaiming/recycling center.
The site was abandoned in February 1988 after the state cited the owner at that time, Petrochem Recycling Inc., for violating requirements for storage, treatment, waste analysis and recordkeeping at the facility.
Sixty above-ground tanks, as well as 500 drums and more than 1,500 containers and underground tanks, were identified as contamination sources. Some 200,000 to 400,000 gallons of liquid were stored at the site.The property had previously been operated as Ekotek, whose owners were convicted of negligence by the U.S. Justice Department in a landmark case. The ruling marked the first time an individual was convicted of a federal felony environmental crime in Utah, said J.D. Keetley, Petrochem/Ekotek project manager for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
Some 129 parties have since been identified as potentially responsible for the contamination, he said. The group ranges from major corporations to small business operators.
"Basically, how we look at it is not how big the corporations are but how large . . . their contribution to the problem was," Keetley said. The seriousness of the contamination was not recognized until after the citations for violations were issued.
"In the 1980s in Utah, it slipped through the cracks," he said. "We really didn't discover the problem until the law had been broken."
The contamination is sporadic across the property and is closely monitored to ensure nearby residents and other property owners aren't further affected, said Desiree Campbell, Petrochem/ Ekotek project manager for the Environmental Protection Agency.
The primary contamination is found in the quadrant of the site called the tank farm, Keetley and Campbell said.
"Otherwise, there are a few hot spots - places where the soil has some pretty high levels of contamination," Campbell said. "The main problem is going to be the groundwater contamination."
Test wells have identified a large area where the materials have seeped into the groundwater. In addition, contaminated oil, stored from the facility's days as a recycling center, has leaked into the ground to settle on top of the water table, located some 15 feet below the surface.
Because of the grade of the water table, gravity has caused the oil to run north of the site, she said.
Both the oil- and water-contamination areas are slow moving and pose no danger to residents. The affected groundwater and oil do not affect a public culinary water source, Campbell said.
Because the test sampling did not find evidence of contamination in the direction of the Swedetown residential area - located south of the site - the Superfund process does not allow for more testing there, Campbell said.
"There's nothing to trace the contaminants from the site to Swedetown," she said. "We feel we've proven that."
Next comes a feasibility study and eventually a decision regarding the course of cleanup.