Background/ History
The SECO Products site is located at 5025 Old Highway 100 East in Washington, Missouri. The facility was first owner and operated by Washington Metal Products Co. in 1952. The facility was subsequently owned by McGraw-Edison Food Service Division, who later sold the facility to Bastian-Blessing Inc. Bastian-Blessing Inc. was later owned by International Food Service Equipment Systems Inc. The Hussmann Corp. purchased the facility in November 1985. From 1985 to 1989, SECO Products was an operating division of the Hussmann Corp. In 1989, Hussmann sold the facility to the Seco Middleby Co. The facility manufactured stainless steel food service equipment, including steel pitchers, trays, and salad bar service units. Manufacturing operations included metal cutting, welding, electropolishing, and solvent degreasing. By September, 1983, SECO had discontinued its electropolishing and metal etching process and replaced it with an annealing process. The Seco Middleby Co. went bankrupt and operations stopped in 1999. The facility remained mostly vacant until it was purchased by MPH Properties LLC, in early 2007.
A variety of hazardous wastes were produced as part of the facility operations. Until 1985, SECO stored waste solvents and waste oil in drums in a hazardous waste drum storage areas next to the production building until shipped off-site for disposal. An on-site surface impoundment (lagoon) was built in 1976 to store liquid acid wastes from the former electropolishing and metal etching processes. To prepare the surface for finishing, the steel products were dipped in various concentrations of acid solutions and then dipped in a series of rinse water tanks. The main rinse water and any spillage from the concentrated acid tank were routed to the lagoon and included phosphoric, nitric and hydrofluoric acids contaminated with metals from the processes. The degreasing solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) may also have been discharged to the lagoon. SECO operated the surface impoundment and drum storage area under the “interim status” portions of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
Cleanup Summary
The lagoon stopped receiving wastes in 1983, but boiler blowdown water was still discharged to the lagoon. SECO began closing the surface impoundment in 1985. The department accepted SECO’s closure certification for the hazardous waste surface impoundment and drum storage area in 1988. Hussmann Corp.-SECO Products Division was responsible for post-closure care of the closed units until 2001.
Hussmann-SECO is also subject to corrective action because they completed closure of the interim status hazardous waste areas after the effective date of the federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments. Investigations concluded that soil and groundwater are contaminated with dichloroethylene (DCE), TCE, vinyl chloride, other volatile organic compounds and several metals. In 1989, Hussmann-SECO voluntarily entered into a 3008(h) Corrective Action Administrative Order on Consent with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to implement a remedial action plan to investigate the nature and extent of contaminant releases and to implement any corrective measures. According to the Consent Order, Hussmann-SECO installed a groundwater pump and treat system using an air stripper, which is currently operating. EPA modified the Order in 1994, requiring Hussmann-SECO to evaluate the effectiveness of its groundwater treatment system as a whole. A soil vapor extraction system operated from 1990 until 2005. In-situ chemical oxidation injections were performed in 2007. In 2009, the department and Hussmann-SECO executed an Environmental Covenant in the chain-of-title for the affected property, which will notify in perpetuity, any potential purchaser of the environmental conditions of the property. The Environmental Covenant restricts the property to non-residential land use, requires non-interference and protectiveness of all engineered controls, prohibits the disturbance of the soil beneath the contaminated areas and prohibits the drilling or use of shallow groundwater for drinking water. A sub-slab depressurization system was installed at the facility in 2010 to reduce vapor intrusion. The facility received a construction complete approval from EPA for their final remedy in 2010.
