Work to move contaminated soils near the Standard Chlorine of Delaware/Metachem EPA Superfund site north of Delaware City to a capped area will begin on Monday, March 14.
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Hydrologist Todd Keyser said that the process could produce a "mothball-like" odor, since mothballs were among the items produced on the Metachem site. However, he says there is no health risk to area residents from the work.
“As we’re getting closer to the work now, we decided it’s important to let the public know they may be smelling moth balls, but because of the site perimeter work to monitor for the site contaminants, we can be quite confident that we are not releasing contaminants across the fence line that would have a negative consequence on anyone in the area,” Keyser said.
DNREC has been working with Environmental Protection Area to consolidate all contaminated material in one location inside the former plant area since Metachem filed for bankruptcy in 2002.
“We’re currently moving an area called the Temporary Soil Staging area which is containing soils and other areas contaminated by site contaminants of concern, typically chlorobenzene materials which were part of the production at Standard Chlorine and Metachem,” Keyser said.
Keyser said that while there’s an incremental cost increase to move this material now, it saves money down the road. The capped area will be much smaller than currently monitored areas.
The work will occur over approximately one month’s time, weekdays only, between 7 a.m. and typically 3:30 p.m.
