Expansion Of Transformer Recycling Company Raises PCB Concerns

Indiana company seeks to handle transformers.

 

Transformer Decommissioning LLC has applied to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to store larger quantities of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs). Some local residents are concerned about toxic PCBs being stored in the area.

 

Transformer Decommissioning, which has been operating at the site since 1999, recycles transformers from electric companies. Some of the transformers contain PCBs and are temporarily stored at the Marble Hill site. The company is based in Indianapolis.

 

Rob Van Vliet, president of Transformer Decommissioning LLC, said residents should not be concerned because very few of the transformers contain PCB, which has not been manufactured in the United States since 1977. Transformers that test positive for PCB are immediately put in a secondary containment area and no one touches them, he said.

 

“The amount of PCB containment will be very small,” Van Vliet said. “Less than 3 percent of the units have PCB.”

 

Transformers that have PCB are stored in the secondary containment area the entire time they are at the Marble Hill facility, then they are shipped by hazardous-materials carriers to an approved incinerator, Van Vliet said. “Anything with PCB does not get handled” at Transformer Decommissioning LLC, he said. “We don’t process PCB material.”

 

Transformers that contain PCB are picked up during the company’s regularly scheduled shipments, which occur every 30 days, Van Vliet said. “It’s a very clean operation,” he said.

Priscilla Fonseca of the EPA said she understands why people might be nervous about having the PCBs stored near their homes and near the Ohio River, but she does not think there is any reason to be alarmed.

 

“I don’t think they should be” worried, Fonseca said. “I understand why they are because it’s PCB. I don’t want to be living next to one of those things. But it is just a temporary place for them (PCBs). They will be intact.”

 

Fonseca said the facility has been inspected and approved for PCB storage. To stay in compliance, the company must maintain proper storage facilities for the waste and send annual written reports to the EPA about how much PCB it has stored. It also has to have a clean-up procedure in place in the event of a spill, she said.

 

Anyone wanting to comment on the application or the storage of PCBs in the area should send written statements, postmarked no later than April 1, to the EPA or IDEM.Madison (Indiana) Courier

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