Sonneborn seeks plan approval
PETROLIA — Sonneborn LLC is seeking state approval of a plan to address polluted sites on the plant property.
The company intends to submit the plan to address three sites on the 400-acre plant property, in Fairview Township just south of Petrolia, to the Department of Environmental Protection for review by the end of the month, said Tom DuPlessis, Sonneborn environmental manager.
Previous owners of the facility began remedial risk assessments of the sites and Sonneborn assumed some responsibility to complete the clean ups when it took over the plant, DuPlessis said.
“This site has been used continuously for petroleum production since the 1880s,” DuPlessis said.
The DEP approved the risk assessment in December and is waiting on the cleanup plan, which the department will have 90 days to review, he said.
“This is intended to cover the entire plant property. Most of what is impacted you can see from Route 268,” DuPlessis said.
Previous plant owners have conducted pollution cleanups, such as cleaning out lagoons and ponds, in the past.
“It's not like this is the first cleanup to happen,” he said.
The cleanup plan is required by the state's Land Recycling Program, established under Act 2, for remediating industrial properties.
The proposed plan from the company calls for placing deed restrictions for future development on two of the sites and continued monitoring of a third site with oil in the groundwater. Removing polluted soil or groundwater is not part of the plan.
One site, located on a hill in the center of the property that overlooks the former acid plant building, was found to have mercury in the soil.
“As a consequence, because this site will never be residential, we can put in a deed restriction that we will never develop that portion without permission from the DEP,” DuPlessis said.
The second site includes two areas. One is near the sulfonation facility and the other near the wastewater treatment plant.
Low concentrations of benzene, naphthalene and 1,2,4 trichlorobenzene were found in groundwater at both areas at the site. The cleanup plan calls for imposing deed restrictions on the areas.
The deed restrictions will include excavations management plans requiring employees or contractors to wear respirators or other breathing protection and use air monitors when doing excavation work to safeguard against vapors from the pollutants, DuPlessis said.
“If we dig in the affected areas we must make sure employees or contractors have personal protection equipment and monitor the air to make sure the area is safe, I don't expect that it will ever be a problem because of the low concentrations in the ground water. We will always take those precautions,” he said. “We're not going to guess it's OK. We're going to make sure it's OK.”
Oil was found floating on the ground water at the third site, located near the boiler house,
Sonneborn takes samples to measure the oil in the water and the cleanup plan requires the company to continue that testing.
“We are proposing to the state to continue taking measurements to determine the best way to remove it,” DuPlessis said.
He said attorneys working for Sonneborn have prepared the deed restrictions, which also require DEP approval, and the company will work with the DEP to resolve any issues it finds during the plan review.
Before Sonneborn LLC took over the plant in 2012, the facility was operated by Sonneborn Inc. from 2005 to 2012. Previous owners included Crompton and Witco, he said.
