Bleachery decision nears

By Charles Sowell  

MARCH 10, 2011 2:21 p.m. (0)

The Old Union Bleachery at 3555 Buncombe Road about 3 miles north of downtown Greenville moved a step closer to listing as a Superfund site when the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the site for the National Priorities List, officials with EPA said this week.

“What it means is that the site isn’t on the Superfund list yet, but we at DHEC are no longer responsible,” said Thom Berry, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

James Pinckney, a spokesman for EPA, said the proposed listing means the mill site is on track for Superfund listing.

Jennifer Wendel, National Priority List co-coordinator for Region 4 of EPA, said the agency will open a period for public comment for 60 days. Those public comments must be addressed before things move on.

“If there are no adverse public comments then the usual procedure would see the site listed on the NPL in the fall, when we do our next listing,” she said.

Wendel said the site is contaminated with hexavalent chromium, the same cancer-causing compound featured in the movie “Erin Brockovich,” and a host of other contaminants associated with the textile manufacturing process.

Chromium and other heavy metals were used in the process of finishing cloth at the site for decades. The mill site is located in Sans Souci and is adjacent to Langston Creek, a tributary of the Reedy River.

The Greenville site was one of five proposed for the National Priorities List. The other proposed sites are: Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp, Columbus, Miss.; Red Panther Chemical Company, Clarksdale, Miss.; CTS of Asheville, N.C.; and Alamo Contaminated Ground Water plume in Alamo, Tenn.

Added to the Superfund list was Wright Chemical Corporation in Riegelwood, N.C.

EPA said Superfund sites represent a significant risk to human health and that it tries to identify parties responsible for contamination before proceeding with cleanup.

The former owners of the Union Bleachery site have declared bankruptcy or are out of business.

The site has been used in textile manufacturing since the early 1900s. It operated for Union Bleachery until 1947 when it was sold to Aspinook Corp., which eventually became Cone Mills.

American Fast Print bought the site in 1984 and operated there under the name U.S. Finishing. After a fire in 2003 the site was shut down.

Currently there are 1,290 sites listed in the National Priorities list. With the proposal of Union Bleachery and four other sites in the Southeast as well as 10 other sites nationwide, there are a total of 67 proposed Superfund sites now on the federal books.