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EPA to begin cleanup at Parish Chemical site in Vineyard, Utah

Release Date: 09/23/2013
Contact Information: Richard Mylott, 303-312-6654

Removal of chemical waste to start this week

(Denver, Colo. – September 23, 2013) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will begin to remove hazardous materials at the Parish Chemical Company site in Vineyard, Utah during the week of September 23. The 2.5 acre site, located at 145 North Geneva Road, operated as a chemical manufacturing facility between 1978 and 2012. EPA cleanup activities will include the removal and proper disposal or recycling of several thousand containers at the facility. EPA estimates the cleanup will be completed by the summer of 2014.

“EPA’s Superfund removal action will bring closure to a long history of environmental concerns at the Parish Chemical facility,” said David Romero, EPA’s On-Scene Coordinator at the site. “We are pleased to be moving quickly to eliminate a long-standing risk to the community and expect to safely remove all hazardous materials at the site by next year.”

EPA and the State of Utah have a long history at the Parish Chemical site. Previous inspections have identified significant noncompliance with state and federal laws regulating the management and storage of hazardous wastes. EPA conducted a cleanup action at the facility after a fire in 1992 and again in 2008 to address a threat caused by improperly stored hazardous substances.

A March 2013 settlement between EPA and a court-appointed receiver for Parish Chemical included a $100,000 penalty for violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and prohibits the company from manufacturing chemicals or generating hazardous waste at the site. EPA and the receiver also entered into a separate agreement that resolved Parish Chemical’s liability for cleanup costs under the Superfund law. The property is currently held in trust, and EPA is entitled to collect proceeds up to approximately $900,000 of the sale of the site property.

The Parish Chemical Company’s Vineyard facility specialized in the research, development and production of organic chemicals and materials. The site includes a two-story building with offices, laboratories, and process areas and contains several chemical and drum storage areas and surface impoundments. The following materials, among others, have been found at the facility: acetone, dimethyl formamide, petroleum ether, tetrahydrofuran, dichloroethyl ether, benzene, toluene, perchloric acid and phosphorus pentachloride.