GAC Chemical's toxic waste health threat - Getting the agencies to act on it

No action taken after DEP inspection of chemical company shoreline confirms waste concerns of Friends of Penobscot Bay.

SEARSPORT. Wastes from mid 20th century fertilizer, alum and acid manufacturing operations  on the shore of Stockton Harbor's Kidder Point are entering intertidal flats from eroding bluffs, crumbling wooden containment cribs and uncontrolled stormwater runoff, according to a recent site visit report by Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

But the agency has opted not to act, even declining to gather samples. 

The October 18th sitevisit followed a complaint by environmental watchdog group Friends of Penobscot Bay identifying multiple waste issues at the location. The group praised the report, released earlier this month and is urging the agency to act on its findings.

"Maine DEP has found a whole bandolier of smoking guns along that shore," said Ron Huber, executive director of the organization, which represents a number of lobstering, clamming, wormdigging and aquaculture interests that support clean water and healthy habitat in Penobscot Bay.  

The DEP report consists of a two page letter by solid waste expert Karen Knuuti and a 38 page powerpoint document by Wilkes Harper of the agency's Division of Remediation. They describe the October 18th visit to the GAC Chemical shoreline by the two DEP officials, their regional director Susanne Miller and GAC Chemical's environmental consultant John Pond.

The report found:

* Uncontrolled surface water runoff  Agency photo

* Shoreline encroachment via landfilling. Agency photo

* Slumping & erosion of the filled shoreline, releasing waste materials onto the beach and into water.Agency photo

* Discolored upland, beach and intertidal sediments in colors of gray, red, yellow, orange, white. Agency photo

* Wooden cribwork installed in the mid 20th century, rotting and releasing the materials piled behind them. Agency photo

* Skimpy vegetation upland atop some of the filled areas Agency photo

* Sulfur chunks  & other debris dotting the shoreline and eroding from the dumped wastes Agency photo

The Friends of Penobscot Bay says its review of state & federal records, area media archives, and comparison aerial photos  of the site from 1940  & 20111, suggests that thousands of tons of wastes left from production of alum and superphosphate fertilizer were dumped along the shore of Kidder Point between 1940 and 1970. 

One of the wastes the group believes is eroding from the shore is the fertilizer byproduct "phosphogypsum".  The federal government  requires strict maintenance of phosphogypsum dumps(called "stacks") to reduce radon leakage and prevent the spread of the fine grained waste as dust in the wind.   Maine has no laws or rules  to manage this chemical. Sulfuric acid wastes and bauxite mud are also known to have been dumped or spilled on that shore. 

"It's time for DEP to follow up with a Phase II site review. Huber said."Let's find out just what's been dumped along that shore since the start of the 20th century.  Then GAC Chemical can set up appropriate erosion controls to seal those wastes off from ever reaching the bay again."   

Huber said that a DEP ecologist examined the area in 1998  and found that at least an acre of intertidal flats had mud discolored by the wastes. 

"Erosion of wastes into coastal wetlands is tightly regulated under state erosion control and waste management laws" the group told DEP in its November 18th letter.  "In particular 38 MRSA 420-C ["Erosion and Sedimentation Control"] requires effective control of erosion and sediment arising from “a human activity before July 1, 1997 involving filling, displacing or exposing soil or other earthen materials.”

Huber also said that while the present owners of the property have been exemplary in keeping their present-day chemical operations in compliance,  "GAC Chemical needs to apply that spirit to mending their shore." he said.  "DEP can help them get moving on it."

End