EPA RCRA ID: MDD074933961
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
W.R. Grace submitted the Corrective Measures Study (CMS) report in February, 1999. EPA reviewed the CMS report and the Human Health Risk Assessment and this report was accepted on April 5, 2006. A Statement of Basis (SB) was signed by EPA on June 29, 2006. The purpose of the SB was to explain EPA's proposed remedy for the Facility; provide a summary of investigation results used in the remedy selection process, and to solicit public comments on the proposed remedy prior to EPA making its final remedy decision.
The Final Remedy was issued in the Final Decision and Response to Comments (FDRTC) document on September 14, 2006. The Final Remedy will be implemented through a permit modification to the corrective action permit (“Original Permit”) which on its terms expired on August 14, 2002, was administratively continued under 40 C.F.R. § 270.51. EPA issued two subsequent permit modifications in 2007 and 2016, respectively. The 2007 Permit Modification became effective on November 30, 2007 (First Permit Modification) and the 2016 Permit Modification (Second Permit Modification) became effective on January 1, 2016. The Original Permit, as modified by the First and Second Permit Modifications, expired on November 30, 2017. The Original Permit was administratively continued until the Final Permit for the Facility became effective.
EPA issued a Final Permit on May 16, 2018. It became effective on June 14, 2018 and shall remain in effect until June 14, 2028. With the Final permit, the Permittee shall implement a Facility-wide groundwater monitoring program in accordance with the Sampling and Reporting Plan, approved by EPA on February 13, 2017. In addition, the permittee shall abide by the institutional controls which include groundwater use restrictions prohibiting the development of onsite wells at the Facility for drinking water or other domestic uses. The prohibition shall remain in effect for as long as necessary to minimize potential exposure until Groundwater Cleanup Standards for the Facility are demonstrated to be achieved and maintained in the long-term. The Permittee shall continue to maintain assurances of financial responsibility, initially established under the First Permit Modification, for completing the Final Remedy under this Permit as required by Section 3004(u) of RCRA, 42 U.S.C. § 6924(u). Financial assurance was received in September 2008 by an irrevocable trust and letter of credit. The 5-year comprehensive sampling report was submitted on November 14, 2008 and is being reviewed by EPA.
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 |
|---|
For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.
Facility Description
Link to a larger, interactive view of the map.
W.R. Grace is located in Columbia, Maryland, northeast of Route 32 and north/northwest of Cedar Lane. The facility is approximately 125 acres. The Middle Patuxent River is located just east of the Grace property. The property has been owned and operated by Grace since the 1950s. Until 1997, the facility served as the corporate research and development center, in support of the specialty chemical, building materials, and biomedical components of Grace's business lines. The facility was then referred to as the Washington Research Center, or WRC. In 1997, the specialty chemical unit of Grace, Grace-Davison took over the management of the property, and subsequently relocated their headquarters to the Columbia facility. Today the majority of the buildings are used as offices.
W.R. Grace has worked closely with its two primary adjacent property owners Howard Research and Development Corporation (HRD) which is a subsidiary of The Rouse Company and Howard County. HRD and Howard County have plans to establish a Middle Patuxent Environmental Area (MPEA) to cover hundreds of acres of Howard County. Portions of the planned MPEA involve property owned by HRD that is to be deeded over to Howard County. Two of these areas are adjacent to the Grace property.
The contaminants of concern include trichloroethene (TCE), 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane, tetrachloroethene, 1,1-dichloroethene, 1,1-dichloroethane, 1,2-dichloroethane, and trichlorofluoromethane.
Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility
Institutional and Engineering Controls at the site include:
- No onsite wells for drinking water or other domestic use at the Facility. A deed restriction has been used as the mechanism to list the groundwater restriction for successors-in-title to the property. Institutional Controls Established to Property identifying area where onsite groundwater use is not allowed (approximately 44 acres) and the groundwater restriction area.
- Enforcement and Permit Tools: Corrective Action Permit requires groundwater pump & treat and monitored natural attenuation, prohibition on potable well installation, requirement to include deed notice Engineering Controls Established - Groundwater Control - Pump and treat system.
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?
|
Control(s) Type |
Control(s) in Place? |
Areas Subject to Control(s) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
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) |
||
|
Governmental Controls (GC) |
|||
|
Enforcement and Permit Tools (EP) |
|||
| Proprietary ControlsProprietary Controls (PR) | |||
|
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) |
||
|
Non-Groundwater |
|||
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.