Published: September 06, 2008 10:17 pm            

EPA: Cleanup at WET could cost up to $1M

TERRE HAUTE — Federal officials are preparing to clean up potentially hazardous materials at the former Wabash Environmental Technology site on South First Street in Terre Haute.

The cleanup, which could begin early next month, will cost between “a couple of hundred thousand” dollars up to $1 million, said Mick Hans, an EPA spokesman in Chicago. It will be paid for by the EPA’s Superfund program, he said.

Officials with the EPA, which is directing the cleanup, visited the WET facility at 1331 S. First St. in June and took samples of materials found there, said Theresa Holz, an on-scene coordinator in the EPA’s Superfund program.

The visit came at the request of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, she said.

The June inspection revealed a large variety of laboratory chemicals, waste oil and caustics at the WET site, Holz said. The chemicals discovered are “typical for this kind of thing,” she said.

Some of the chemicals at the facility are flammable or could cause an explosion if mixed together, Holz said. However, barring that, “you wouldn’t have to worry that you’re driving down the street past the site [that] you’re going to be exposed to something on a day-to-day basis. That’s definitely not an issue,” she said.

“The cleanup would involve opening up tanks and containers that haven’t been opened in a while and things like that,” Hans noted. “But that’s the sort of thing we do routinely when we are doing a cleanup. That doesn’t pose any kind of unusual challenge for us.”

WET was formerly a wastewater treatment facility. Its owner, Derrik Hagerman, was sentenced in November to five years in federal prison for falsifying documents related to the discharge of materials from WET into the Wabash River. Hagerman was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of $237,680.74.

For now, EPA’s Superfund program is paying for the cleanup.

If drums containing hazardous chemicals found on the site include labels identifying the owner of the drums, that owner might be contacted to help with the cleanup, Holz explained. “It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going after a sole entity owner of the actual property itself,” she said.

“Our focus is to address what’s there, clean that up [and] prevent any releases to the environment or the human population nearby,” Holz said.

EPA officials will contact local officials, including firefighters, before beginning the cleanup in October, Holz noted. The cleanup could last a couple of months, she said.

Hans said he did not believe there were any public documents available regarding the materials found at the site by the EPA. He said the EPA may put a “fact sheet” together prior to beginning the cleanup.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.

        

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