Mississippi's Chemfax Site Set for Next Round of Cleanup

By: Duane Craig

Through the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. taxpayers helped Gulfport, Miss., complete an emergency cleanup of the Chemfax industrial site at Three Rivers and Creosote roads. The bill was about $1.5 million, according to this report at SunHerald.com.

Now, the cleanup needs to be taken to the next level to prevent contamination from reaching Bernard Bayou, and Mississippi will have to carry the financial ball from here to completion. The state says it is waiting for a final cleanup plan before determining the funding.

The work is estimated to include removing 18,000 cubic feet of soil contaminated with base neutral acids, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. That requires digging down from 4 to 10 feet at a cost of about $2.5 million. After the contaminants are removed, the groundwater will have to be monitored for 100 years.

Benzene in air 180 times EPA health-based benchmark

Chemfax made petroleum hydrocarbon resins using a paraffin wax blending process. Water used in the process was stored in a pond, and the pond had an overflow drain going to a drainage ditch. Air sampling in 1990 turned up high levels of "benzene, toluene, xylenes, ethyl benzene, and styrene. The concentrations of benzene detected in the air were over 180 times EPA's health-based benchmarks. Other contaminants were also found in air samples significantly above upwind sample concentrations," according to EPA documents.

Firm hired to search for more creosote in Hattiesburg Mississippi neighborhood

January 24, 2008 - The city of Hattiesburg has hired a local firm to drill in a Hattiesburg neighborhood where residents believe the ground is contaminated with creosote.

The work is the most recent development in what has been an ongoing dispute over alleged contamination of creosote, a toxic chemical, from a closed plant.

Creosote was found in the ground at the site after the company went out of business in the 1960s.

Sometime prior to 1960, the creosote seeped into the ground of an old industrial park in the area, which then drained, contaminating several blocks near the plant, environmental agencies said.

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Texas lawsuits links cancer and birth defects to contamination from industrial activities

January 7, 2008 - One of many lawsuits against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. claiming a railroad tie factory poisoned residents in the small town of Somerville, causing cancer and birth defects, is set to go to trial in Fort Worth this week.

The suit was filed by Linda and Donnie Faust, two of the dozens of people living in the Central Texas town who have sued the Fort Worth-based railroad company over a railroad tie factory owned by a predecessor firm until 1995.

The Fausts say creosote and other dangerous substances released by the factory helped cause Ms. Faust's devastating stomach cancer. Donnie Faust has worked at the plant near the Fausts' home since 1974.

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Mississippi residents fear carcinogen in soil despite cleanup

June 24, 2007 - More than 13,000 tons of soil containing the carcinogen creosote have been removed from a southeast Hattiesburg neighborhood, but residents have a lingering fear that the pollutant is still in their soil.

And their persistent pleas to City Hall caused a tumultuous last week in city government, leaving officials promising to conduct a new round of testing in the neighborhood.

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