NCD980602163_19810211_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Columbus County PCB Spill-OCR

-~ .
~ February 11, 1981
Memorandum
To: Ted Mew, Enforcement & Emergency Response
From: Steve Long, Wilmington Regional Office
Subject: PCB Spill
Georgia Pacific Company
.,-C-o1 -umbu s S,Ounty/
·,..___ ---_:_ ---~
On Thursday, February 5, 1981 at 11:35 A.M. you notified the Wilmington
Regional Office of the subject spill. At 1:30 P.M. the writer and Mr. Ed
Beck arrived at the Georgia Pacific Plant and conducted an investigation.
A brief description of the spill and a chronology of events including
actions by Georgia Pacific nre described below:
On January 20, 1981 employees at the mill detected a small amount of
oil leaking from an electrical transformer at the chip and saw plant. The
amount of the spill was estimated to be approximately five gallons. The
oil was on a concrete pad at the base of the transformer. The oil was
covered with sawdust by employees and then taken to a boiler and burned.
(This area was checked on February 5, 1981 and clean-up was concluded to
be adequate. The burning of the oil soaked sawdust was not condoned.)
On February 3, 1981 Georgia Pacific transported the transformer to
Westinghouse located at Charlotte, N.C. On February 4, 1981, Westinghouse
informed Georgia Pacific that the oil in the transformer was contaminated
with PCB's, and on February 5, 1981 Georgia Pacific notified the National
Response Center of the spill.
After finding out that the oil in the leaky transformer contained
PCB's, Georgia Pacific proceeded to clean-up the flat-bed trailer which
carried the faulty transformer to Westinghouse for repair. The trailer
was cleaned with fuel oil and the oil soaked rags, gloves, boots, etc.
were placed in barrels. Also the wooden boards from the trailer bed were
cut-up and placed in barrels.
The three barrels containing the contaminated material and the flat-bed
trailer were examined by the investigators. The writer informed Georgia
Pacific that the three barrels should be disposed in a landfill approved
for PCB's. The contact person for Georgia Pacific is Mr. Gerald Tice,
Environmental Engineer, phone [phone].
On February 6, 1981 the writer contacted Westinghouse in Charlotte, N.C.
regarding information on the transformer. During conversation with Mr. Ken
Holder, plant manager at Westinghouse, the writ~r found out that the capacity
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RECEIVED
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Memorandum
February 11, 1981
of the transformer was 1200 gal. and contained 1174 ppm of PCB's. Mr. Holder
also infonned the writer that Westinghouse was waiting for repair instructions
from Georgia Pacific to either replace the oil or to re-use the contaminated
oil. Re-use of this oil does not appear to be in the best interest of the
environment. Mr. Holder's phone number is 704-333-3771.
A report will follow this memo when all the paperwork has been completed.
cc: WR0
Steve Long