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Sites in Reuse in Maryland
Chemical Metals Industries
The Chemical Metals Industries (CMI) Superfund site in Baltimore, Maryland included a chemical manufacturing center and the inactive gas station it used as a dumping ground. CMI manufactured copper compounds and recovered precious metals. Leaking drums on both properties prompted inspections of the areas, which revealed extensive contamination and the potential for fire or explosion from some of the chemicals. In 1981, EPA added the site to its list of hazardous waste sites needing cleanup. EPA, supported by the Maryland Department of Environmental Protection (MDEP), removed the contaminated drums, debris, and liquid waste from the site, and constructed a protective cap to prevent further contamination. In May 1998, at the request of the state, EPA inspected the site and found that the protective cap was deteriorating and cracking. EPA, in consultation with the state, conducted a fund-financed removal of contaminated soils remaining under the deteriorating cap to eliminate or significantly reduce the threat posed to public health, welfare, and the environment by the contamination. EPA completed the final removal action in early November 1998. The former dumping ground is an empty lot, and the former CMI facility is used by the MDEP as an emergency response field office.
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Kane & Lombard Street Drums
For more than 22 years, the 10-acre property at the corner of Kane and Lombard streets in Baltimore, Maryland, was used as part of an open dump for disposing of demolition, municipal, and industrial wastes. As a result, ground water and soil became contaminated. The site is located next to a high school and lies along the edge of an industrial and commercial area. At the request of the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), EPA investigated the site. In 1986, EPA added the site to its list of priority hazardous waste sites, the National Priorities List (NPL). EPA worked closely with the local community, MDE, and a private investment group to design and implement a cleanup that allowed for the redevelopment of the property. As part of the site remedy, EPA removed over 1,200 drums of waste, installed a subsurface barrier to prevent further contamination of ground water, and installed a permanent cap over contaminated soils. EPA also implemented institutional controls at the site to restrict the use of the land and ground water to prevent exposure to subsurface contaminated soil and ground water. Today, the property has been redeveloped into a family-oriented golf course, and a taxi cab dispatch facility also operates on the site.
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Mid-Atlantic Wood Preservers
The three-acre Mid-Atlantic Wood Preservers, Inc. facility is located in Harmans, Maryland and operated as a wood treatment facility from 1974 through 1993. The wood was treated on-site using chromated copper arsenate (CCA). In 1978, soil and ground water were found to be contaminated with chromium and arsenic from site operations. EPA added this site to its list of priority hazardous waste sites, the National Priorities List (NPL), in 1986. In 1993, as part of EPA response actions, contaminated soil was excavated from a neighboring property and the entire three-acre facility was covered with an asphalt cap. In 1994, EPA entered into a Prospective Purchaser Agreement with Gunther’s Leasing & Transport, a neighboring property owner. Gunther’s now uses the property for a truck maintenance garage and a filling station.
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Middletown Road Dump
The Middletown Road Dump is a privately-owned property located on approximately 15 acres of land off Route 50, near Annapolis, Maryland. The site took in rubble, construction debris, and municipal and industrial waste for several decades without proper state permits. A site inspection in 1981 shut down the dump after it discovered 40 crushed and deteriorating drums and four dumpster loads of debris contaminated with hazardous substances, such as paint sludge and solvents. Soil was contaminated with the heavy metals lead, aluminum, chromium, zinc, cyanide, barium, and cadmium, which additionally threatened the ground water and nearby surface water. The site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 1983. The site’s remedy included the removal of 68 drums, 70 contaminated tires, 610 tons of contaminated soil, and numerous 5-gallon pails of marine paint, which were properly disposed of off-site. This removal was successful in eliminating threats to human health and the site was deleted from the NPL in 1988. The property is currently used as a private residence, as well as a site for a firewood supply business.
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Ordnance Products, Inc.
The Ordnance Products Inc. site occupies 95 acres in the town of North East, Maryland. The site housed a manufacturing plant that made ordnance products, such as grenade fuses and detonators, from 1960 until 1972. Wastes from the manufacturing process, including drums of solvents and acids, were either buried on-site, burned in open pits, or discharged to five unlined surface impoundments. Sediments and sludges from the impoundments contained elevated concentrations of metals including cadmium, chromium, and zinc. All local residents rely on ground water as a drinking water sources, and on-site groundwater and soil are contaminated with perchlorate, organic solvents and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as vinyl chloride. Residential wells near the site were found to be contaminated with similar compounds and the site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List in 1997. Water treatment systems were installed on four domestic wells and toxic materials were removed from the site along with contaminated soils. The former impoundments were excavated, backfilled, and graded, then re-seeded. Several tenants are leasing buildings from Mechanics Valley Trade Center.
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Southern Maryland Wood Treating
The Southern Maryland Wood Treating (SMWT) site occupies 94.2 acres of predominantly wetland property in Hollywood, Maryland. From 1965 until 1978, approximately 25 acres of the site were used for wood treatment operations using creosote and pentachlorophenol (PCP) which contaminated soils, ground water, and a stream adjacent to the site. In the early 1980s, the site was abandoned, leaving processing equipment, as well as deteriorating containers of creosote and PCP, on the property. The unaddressed, ongoing contamination, in addition to the proximity of the site to residential wells, led the EPA to add the site to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 1986. More than 270,000 tons of creosote-soaked soils and sediments were excavated and treated with thermal desorption to remove hazardous substances. Since soils were cleaned to residential standards, there are no restrictions on future use for the site. During fall of 2000, EPA regraded the site and planted a diverse mix of wildflowers and grains to re-establish the area as a wildlife habitat. Regrading and revegetation of the excavated areas were completed in 2001 and ground water monitoring was completed in 2003. Since all cleanup levels set forth in the Record of Decision were achieved, the EPA removed the SMWT site from the NPL in 2005. Once private lien foreclosure rights on the property are addressed, the most appropriate future use of the property will be determined by local stakeholders and government entities.
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Woodlawn County Landfill
The Woodlawn County Landfill site occupies approximately 37 acres in Cecil County, Maryland. The property was a privately-owned sand and gravel quarry before it was purchased by the County in 1960. The County operated the site as a municipal landfill from 1960 until 1978, when the site was closed to municipal waste. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industrial sludge was disposed at the site between 1978 and 1981. Ground water and soils have been contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as vinyl chloride and 1,2-dichloroethane, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides, and heavy metals including manganese and mercury. The site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 1987. Remedial actions included capping the landfill, extraction and treatment of ground water, surface water treatment and monitoring, restrictions on use of landfill property and local ground water, and provision of an alternate water supply to area residents. In 1999, provisions were added to build a vegetative soil cover over the landfilled wastes as a final remedy and to develop a wildlife habitat on the site. Long-term site maintenance and monitoring is in place at the site which currently operates as a wildlife habitat called New Beginnings, the Woodlawn Wildlife Habitat Area. It is currently used as a nature and science study area by local schools, an area for projects by the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, and a site for community environmental education and recreation. The long-term monitoring indicates that, as a result of the remedial actions, the extent of the ground water contamination has decreased significantly.
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