EPA RCRA ID: VAD003121928

On this page:

Cleanup Status
Facility Description
Contaminants at this Facility
Institutional/Engineer Controls
Enforcement and Compliance
Related Information
Contacts for this Facility

Cleanup Status

Note: The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VDEQ) is the lead agency for managing cleanups at this facility.

Hercules submitted the RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI) Summary Report in November 2011. The RFI Summary Report includes the Human Health Risk Assessment and the Baseline Ecological Risk Assessment as Attachments A and B respectively. EPA approved the RCRA Facility Investigation Summary Report in a letter dated March 27, 2012. Hercules submitted the Corrective Measures Study in April 2014. EPA prepared a Statement of Basis, which documents the proposed remedy for the site. The Statement of Basis went out for public comment during the month of June. The Final Decision and Response to Comments (FDRTC) was signed by EPA's Director of Land and Chemicals Division on July 22, 2015. The selected remedy calls for Institutional controls, restriction on groundwater use and continual maintenance of the existing security fence. Hercules will use the Virginia Uniform Environmental Covenant Act (UECA) to link the institutional controls to the property.

On July 22, 2024, the VDEQ conducted a Long Term Stewardship assessment to assess whether the remedy was implemented and protective of human health and the environment. VDEQ determined that the remedy institutional and engineering controls have been fully implemented and no control deficiencies were identified.

Cleanup Actions or environmental indicators characterizing the entire facility are shown below. It is not intended as an extensive list of milestones/activities. This listing, and all the data on this page, come from EPA’s RCRAInfo and are refreshed nightly to this page. For this table and the Cleanup Activities Pertaining to a Portion of the Facility table that follows, a blank in the Status column could mean the action either has not occurred or has not been reported in RCRAInfo.

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to the Entire Facility

Action	Status	Date of Action
(CA725)
(CA750)
(CA400)
(CA550)
(CA800)
(CA900)
(CA999)

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to a Portion of the Facility

	Action	Area Name	Date of Action

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Facility Description

Link to a larger, interactive view of the map.

The Hercules Aqualon site occupies a 390-acre parcel of land in Hopewell, Virginia and employs about 400 local residents. Hercules purchased the property in 1926 but the site has been used for industrial purposes since 1912 under various owners/operators. The Hercules Hopewell Plant is one of the largest cellulose derivative production facilities in the world. All of the finished products are based on cellulose, a raw material that comes from trees or cotton. The cellulose is swollen with sodium hydroxide (caustic) and reacted with one or more chemicals, depending on the product being manufactured. The resulting product is then purified, dried, and packaged.

Contaminants at this Facility

Several organic and inorganic contaminants have been detected in ground water at the site. The contaminants of most concern include diethyl ether, tert butyl alcohol, 1,4-dioxane, and 2-butoxyethanol. Soil investigations have shown several organic and inorganic contaminants at several solid waste management units.

Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility

Institutional Controls include:

Groundwater can only be used for monitoring and no wells can be constructed on the site.
The site cannot be used for residential purposes.
All excavation, earth moving activities are prohibited unless authorized by the EPA.
A vapor instrusion systems shall be maintained round the groundwater contaminated plume.
The soil cap covers over SWMU 5 (Landfill #156 and old Landfill) shall be maintained.

Institutional and Engineering Controls help ensure human exposure and groundwater migration are under control at a cleanup facility. Where control types have been reported by states and EPA in EPA’s RCRAInfo, they are shown below. Not all control types are needed at all facilities, and some facilities do not require any controls. Where there are blanks, the control types may not be needed, may not be in place, or may not be reported in RCRAInfo.

Are Controls in Place at this Facility?

Control(s) Type		Control(s) in Place?	Areas Subject to Control(s)	Documents available on-line:
(CA 772)	(ID)
	(GC)
	(EP)
	(PR)
(CA 770)	(GW)
(CA 770)

Enforcement and Compliance at this Facility

EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) provides detailed historical information about enforcement and compliance activities at each RCRA Corrective Action Site in their Enforcement and Compliance Historical Online (ECHO) system.

RCRA Enforcement and Compliance Reports from ECHO

Related Information

For more information about this facility, see these other EPA links:

RCRA information in EPA’s Envirofacts database
Information about this facility submitted to EPA under different environmental programs as reported in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Alternative Names for this facility as reported by EPA programs in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Cleanups in My Community provides an interactive map to see EPA cleanups in context with additional data, and lists for downloading data
Search RCRA Corrective Action Sites provides a search feature for Corrective Action Sites

Documents, Photos and Graphics

Contacts for this Facility

EPA Region implements and enforces the RCRA Corrective Action program for and federally recognized tribes.

For further information on this corrective action site, use the Contact Information for Corrective Action Hazardous Waste Clean Ups listings that are accessible through Corrective Action Programs around the Nation.

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