Little Contamination found at Harding

But Environment Ministry orders clean up fo used tires, transformers and drums of waste chemicals
11/06/2003

BY SUSAN GAMBLE
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD


A two-part report on contamination at the Harding Carpets site on Morrell Street shows just two sites of concern.

The report, filed in 2000 with a Ministry of the Environment district office in Guelph, details an aboveground assessment of problems and potential contamination and then analyzes samples drawn from boreholes around die property. "Based on the information in the Phase 1 and 2 reports," said ministry supervisor John Cooke on Wednesday, "our assessment is that there's some groundwater contamination in the middle of the property, but it's a pocket of contamination within a 10-acre site."

Cooke said that considering the site has been industrial for about 80 years; the contamination is very moderate, especially compared to similar properties. The reports, developed in 1994 and 1995, may be a bit old, but Cooke said the ministry has no reason to believe conditions have changed at the property. The ministry would like to see additional monitoring done on the property to update the information it currently has, he added.

When Harding Carpets was taken into receivership in 1997, the reports became the property of Ernst and Young. An owner or receiver has no obligation to report contamination to the ministry unless it's likely to cause offsite problems. But in 2000, when Ernst and Young received permission to abandon the site, the receiver volunteered the reports to the ministry.
Phase 1 concerned itself with storage tanks, stains on the factory's cement floors and PCB-filled transformers that were on the site. In Phase 2, inspectors dug a test pit in the factory courtyard and drilled seven boreholes, collecting samples from various levels. Three pf the holes were in the courtyard, while one was in the northwest comer of the plant. Another was toward the southeast corner and two holes were outside the plant perimeter on the south side, toward the Grand River.

"In general," the report summary says, "the Phase 2 subsurface investigation revealed that there were very few exceedances of the current Ontario... or proposed Ontario guidelines."

A FEW EXCEPTIONS

The exception to that was found in the centre of the site where two boreholes revealed higher than acceptable levels of the volatile organic compounds 1, 1, 1-trichloroethane and 1,1dichloroethene.

Both compounds are sweet smelling liquids that evaporate quickly. The first, 1, 1-1trichloroethane, is also known as methyl chloroform and is found in glue, paint and industrial degreasers. The second, 1,1dichloroethene, is also known as vinylidene chloride and is used to make flame-retardant coatings for fibers and carpet backing.

A list of chemical analysis shows testing was done for several dozen other compounds including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nitrogen, oil, silver, zinc, barium and all were well below the cleanup guidelines set by the ministry.

Another exception was the pH levels of the groundwater, which ranged from 8.09 to 9.13 in various spots. Cleanup guidelines are required for a pH of six to eight but the report specified that a high pH likely reflects the natural alkaline of the soil because of bedrock in the area.

Other spot problems were aluminum, iron, manganese and sodium, but the levels, while above the provincial cleanup guidelines, were still fairly low. The ministry has also been taking a great interest in the material that's now being stored at the site.

In 2001, Inspector Cameron Hall visited the site and ended writing up then owner Michael Lewidd for operating a waste disposal site without approval.

The environmental orders demanded that Lewidd hire security for the site, remove all waste, chemicals and plastic within two months and submit to the ministry records of how the stuff was properly disposed.

Orders were also written for other parties that had items stored on the site. Rework Fibers (shredded diapers, personal care products and plastics), Yazdi Guard (old and rejected chemicals) and Donald Black (plastic) were ordered to remove their items.

But while a ministry spokesman confirmed that some material was removed from the site, most of it remained.
'The bulk of material there now is from2001," said Cooke. He said those who don't comply with the orders are referred to the enforcement branch of the ministry, but couldn't specify if the ministry had taken further steps.

RECENT VISIT

After The Expositor recently published pictures and an account of a tour through the unlit facility, the ministry decided to look at the place again.

An inspector went in on Oct. 24 and wrote another order against Lewicki after finding drums of waste chemicals, old electrical equipment containing PCBs and more than 600 square meters of used tires.

The ministry's main concerns are about the potential for fires and the building security. "As it sits now, this material doesn't pose an environmental threat," explained Cooke. "But fire is a concern, because if there's a fire you'd have emissions to the environment."