EPA RCRA ID: DED003913266
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the public law that creates the framework for the proper management of hazardous and non-hazardous solid waste. Corrective action is a requirement under RCRA that facilities that treat, store or dispose of hazardous wastes, or did so in the past, investigate and clean up hazardous releases into soil, groundwater, surface water and air. For more information, and for more information on RCRA-specific terms used on this page, please visit EPA’s umbrella RCRA web page or EPA’s RCRA Corrective Action page.
On this page:
- Cleanup Activities
- Facility Description
- Institutional/Engineering Controls
- Enforcement and Compliance
- Related Information and Publicly Available Electronic Records
- Contacts for this Facility
Cleanup Activities
The final remedy has been selected for this Facility and construction of the various final remedy components will begin shortly. EPA released its Final Decision and Response to Comments for the selected cleanup approach for the Facility on December 8, 2011. The selected remedy emphasizes source removal and source control through excavation, consolidation and capping of soils and sediments with concentrations of contaminants above cleanup levels. The primary sources of groundwater contamination are being and will continue to be controlled by barrier walls and free product removal, and targeted in-situ treatment will be used to address areas outside of the barrier wall containment areas to restore groundwater to drinking water standards. Certain institutional controls will be continued and additional institutional controls will be implemented to prevent current and potential future exposure to contamination and any activities that would impair the integrity of the remedy.
In June 2012, EPA completed negotiations and entered into a RCRA Section 3008(h) consent order with Occidental Chemical Corporation. This consent order requires Occidental to implement the final remedy (or corrective measures) selected by EPA for the New Castle facility. A Corrective Measures Implementation (CMI) Work Plan describing the overall strategy for remedy construction, including a schedule and sequence of remedy design documents, was developed in coordination between EPA, Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and Occidental and approved by EPA on June 3, 2013. Between 2013 and 2014 EPA worked with the Facility to review remedy design documents, with the focus on starting construction of the soil remedies in August 2014. The soil remedy construction occurred between September 2014 and April 2015. This work involved the excavation of impacted soils, construction of a Consolidation Area at the former cell room location, consolidation of soils and installation of a temporary cover over the Consolidation Area and installation of vegetated soil (and gravel) covers. EPA issued a construction complete determination for the CMI report documenting this work on February 17, 2016. EPA also worked through the review of pilot study reports and the development of design documents for two in situ groundwater treatment remedies and the sediment remedy between 2015 and 2016. We expect to complete the design phase for the groundwater remedies in 2016 and to proceed with full-scale implementation in 2017.
On September 21, 2023, EPA determined the facility was ready for anticipate use. Cleanup goals have been achieved for current and reasonably anticipated future land uses of the facility so there are no unacceptable risks.
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Cleanup Actions or environmental indicators characterizing the entire facility are shown below. This listing, and all the data on this page, come from EPA’s RCRAInfo and are refreshed nightly to this page. For this table, a blank in the Status column could mean the action either has not occurred or has not been reported in RCRAInfo.
Cleanup Activities Pertaining to the Entire Facility
| Action | Status | Date of Action |
|---|---|---|
| Human Exposure Under Control Human Exposure Under Control(CA725) | ||
| Groundwater Migration Under ControlGroundwater Migration Under Control (CA750) | ||
| Remedy DecisionRemedy Decision (CA400) | ||
| Remedy ConstructionRemedy Construction (CA550) | ||
| Ready for Anticipated Use Ready for Anticipated Use (CA800) | ||
| Performance Standards AttainedPerformance Standards Attained (CA900) | ||
| Corrective Action Process TerminatedCorrective Action Process Terminated (CA999) |
For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.
Cleanup Activities Pertaining to a Portion of the Facility
| Action | Area Name | Date of Action |
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For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.
Facility Description
Link to a larger, interactive view of the map.
The Occidental property consists of a former manufacturing area covering approximately 20 acres, several former waste lakes and landfills totaling approximately 13 acres, and marshlands totaling approximately 215 acres. The plant operated as a chlor-alkali plant from 1964 through 2005. The plant stopped chlorine production in November 2005, and stopped production of anhydrous potassium hydroxide in 2007. Decommissioning and demolition of most of the plant structures was completed in 2007 and 2008 to make the property suitable for industrial redevelopment.
The primary contaminants of concern were in the soils, surface water, sediments, and groundwater are volatile organics such as benzene, chlorobenzene, vinyl chloride and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) ; and heavy metals such as mercury.
Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility
Institutional controls for the site , enforced under an Environmental Covenant (UECA) agreement are:
- No Groundwater wells shall be installed or groundwater withdrawn from any well on property without DNREC approval.
- Use of property restricted to non-residential use.
- There shall be no drilling, digging, excavation without prior approval of DNREC.
- The facility will comply with the site's Materials Management Plan including handling of subsurface material.
Institutional and Engineering Controls help ensure human exposure and groundwater migration are under control at a cleanup facility. Where control types have been reported by states and EPA in EPA’s RCRAInfo, they are shown below. Not all control types are needed at all facilities, and some facilities do not require any controls. Where there are blanks, the control types may not be needed, may not be in place, or may not be reported in RCRAInfo.
Are Controls in Place at this Facility?
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Control(s) Type |
Control(s) in Place? |
Areas Subject to Control(s) |
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|---|---|---|---|
|
Institutional ControlsNon-engineering controls used to restrict land use or land access in order to protect people and the environment from exposure to hazardous substances remaining in the site/or facility. (CA 772) |
Informational DevicesInformational Devices (ID) |
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Governmental Controls (GC) |
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Enforcement and Permit Tools (EP) |
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| Proprietary ControlsProprietary Controls (PR) | |||
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Engineering ControlsEngineering measures designed to minimize the potential for human exposure to contamination by either limiting direct contact with contaminated areas or controlling migration of contaminants. (CA 770) |
Groundwater ControlGroundwater Control (GW) |
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Non-Groundwater |
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For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.
Enforcement and Compliance at this Facility
EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) provides detailed historical information about enforcement and compliance activities at each RCRA Corrective Action Site in their Enforcement and Compliance Historical Online (ECHO) system.
RCRA Enforcement and Compliance Reports from ECHO
Related Information and Publicly Available Electronic Records
For more information about this facility, see these other EPA links:
- RCRA information in EPA’s Envirofacts database
- Information about this facility submitted to EPA under different environmental programs as reported in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
- Alternative Names for this facility as reported by EPA programs in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
- Cleanups in My Community provides an interactive map to see EPA cleanups in context with additional data, and lists for downloading data
- Search RCRA Corrective Action Sites provides a search feature for Corrective Action Sites
Documents, Photos and Graphics
Contacts for this Facility
EPA Region implements and enforces the RCRA Corrective Action program for and federally recognized tribes.
For further information on this corrective action site, use the Contact Information for Corrective Action Hazardous Waste Clean Ups listings that are accessible through Corrective Action Programs around the Nation.