Meeting to discuss American Brass plant cleanup

By Jim Cook

Published: November 18, 2008

Environmental Protection Agency officials will hold a public meeting in Headland on Thursday to discuss the cleanup of the old American Brass plant.

The public meeting will be held at Headland City Hall from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and give local residents the opportunity to ask questions about the project.

The American Brass plant on Alabama Highway 134 has been closed since 1992 and it is now one of 13 Superfund sites in Alabama. Contaminants such as aluminum, arsenic, boron,  nitrate, ammonia, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, lead, thallium, vanadium, zinc, manganese and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been detected at the site.

The EPA has started work on removing about 25,000 yards of soil and sediment. The EPA’s efforts will also entail groundwater monitoring.

Brian Farrier, EPA remedial project manager, said the cleanup project would take until the end of September 2009 to complete. The project has been estimated to cost $5.6 million, and has been funded for $4.5 million. Farrier said he hopes the cleanup project will come in at the funded amount.

The EPA’s Superfund was established to address abandoned hazardous waste sites. According to the EPA Web site, the program allows the EPA to clean up such sites and to compel responsible parties to perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-lead cleanups.