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EPA Completes Custom Plating Cleanup

Release Date: 02/13/2007
Contact Information: David Sternberg (215) 814-5548

PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has finished cleaning up the Custom Plating and Polishing site in Dunbar, Kanawha County, W.Va.

“I am pleased to announce that all hazardous waste has been properly disposed of and our job is done, ” said Robert Kelly, EPA on-scene coordinator.

After discovering hazardous chemicals in an abandoned building at 1428 Ohio Avenue in Dunbar, W.Va. on September 12, 2006, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection called in EPA to remove them.

Since that time, EPA has:
• Removed all hazardous chemicals from vats and improper containers.
• Cleaned and disposed of the vats.
• Removed all liquids in pipes.
• Transferred 3,700 gallons of acids and bases from vats and open drums to new drums for disposal.
• Bagged 222 drums of cyanides, placing them in larger drums for disposal.
• Transported the drums off-site for disposal in Ohio.
• Washed and coated floors and walls so they no longer pose a risk to human health.

EPA performed the cleanup under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) or Superfund. CERCLA is the federal law that enables EPA to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites and pursue the responsible parties in court to recover the cost to the taxpayers.