Clean Up Contract Awarded

The state of Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality has awarded a contract to Philip Services Corp. and BE&K/Terranex to provide cleanup of hazardous auto shredder fluff and other scrap wastes generated at an abandoned scrap yard in Phoenix.

According to James Fallin, a spokesman for the DEQ, the project is expected to be complete by the end of this summer. Fallin says that approximately 3,000 tons of auto shredder fluff and other metals will be shipped to Nevada where they will be disposed of. According to the Arizona Republic, the contract is worth $1.2 million.

After cleaning up the scrap yard the contracted companies will then cap the abandoned salvage yard. “We are breaking any possible pathway,” Fallin notes.

The DEQ began an early response action response earlier this week, which included opening a community information office across the street from the site. The office is designed to provide residents with information and updates on progress at the site.

The potential to exposure to elevated levels of lead, cadmium, chromium and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) was found to represent an acute public health hazard in a recent Arizona Department of Health Services risk assessment study of the site released last December. This finding qualified the project for an "early response action" using the State's Water Quality Assurance Revolving Fund.

ADEQ took steps to limit the public’s exposure to the site by installing a perimeter fence in 1997; however, repeated vandalism and breaches in the original fence led the community and state to consider additional measures to further reduce the risk of exposure.

According to the Republic, parties potentially responsible for the clean up of the site, including Newell Salvage and National Metals companies, are bankrupt.

The site was used as an auto shredding and scrap metal recycling facility from 1961 through 1986.