Toxic-waste cleanup may force demolition
Pembroke Park site may need more work
A site once used to recycle petroleum in South Florida made the federal government’s list in 1987 as one of the nation’s worst hazardouswaste dumps.
Now, cleanup efforts at the Pembroke Park site, at 3130 SW 19th St., are expected to start all over again after the lingering contamination may be worse than expected — and buildings could be torn down to do it.
The town of Pembroke Park obtained the results of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study in August, showing the extent of contamination at the site. That has spurred plans for another cleanup. An estimated six buildings or warehouses could be razed to be able to get to the soil underneath.
Removing the warehouses, built inthe 1970s, would allow for “a more efficient, quicker, thorough and permanent cleanup,” according to a draft of the agency’s report recently obtained by the Sun Sentinel. If they arenot destroyed, they “may
not be structurally strong enough to survive nearby digging/vibrations.”
The property is home to a commercial park with numerous businesses, such as a shooting range and private storage facilities.
Victor West operates his pest-control business, All County Environmental Services, in one of the buildings that could be demolished. He said he sees officials taking samples from an old oilwell in front of his store daily.
The well’s opening, flooded from Friday’s rain, was marinating in brown sludge.
His brother Matthew West, a pest-control technician, said it would hurt if the building was torn down. “Itwould put a lot of good people out of work,” he said. “It’s like a little community here, we’re all family. We look out for each other.”
He said he wouldn’t care about the contaminated soil beneath the building, as long as the contamination doesn’t taint the water supply. “I don’t want to turn on the faucet and have black liquid come out,” he said.
Dawn Harris Young, spokes woman for the Environmental Protection Agency, said Friday that the site poses no immediate health threat.
If there was an emergency health risk, there would be an immediate cleanup, she said. “There is nothing necessitating an emergency cleanup,” she said.
Petroleum Products Corp. operated a used-oil refinery and oil-storage center there through the 1960s. Its clients included the U.S. Navy.
“If you got your oil changed, the tanker came and picked up the used oil and they tookit to this facility,” said Michael Miller, Pembroke Park’s town planner. “There was nothing there at the time — no houses, very few buildings. They dug a hole in the ground, they didn’t line it with anything and they processed used oil. It grew over time— as more people had cars— and they buried it.”
In the 1980s, officials from the Environmental Protection Agency found the area had contaminated groundwater and soil. If the oil is not removed, the fear is it could eventually pollute drinking water, although the nearest wells in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach are still far away, Miller said.
The former pit was about 2 acres, but the pollutants spread out by 7 acres, Miller said. He said the original estimate was anywhere from 20,000 to 60,000 gallons of oil underground. Almost 34,000 gallons of that have been removed since the cleanup began.
“Nobody really knows,” Miller said of how much oil was stashed. “It was a big hole in the ground back in the ’50s. The quantity is unknown until they dig it up.”
Despite cleanups, the problem has not gone away. “What is in the ground is almost like hard tar,” Miller said.
The Town Commission wants the government to remove soil that is contaminated and move it to another approved site, such as a landfill, so it never becomes a problem in the future, town officials said.
But the federal government’s initial estimate of $60 million to do that might be cost-prohibitive.
The Town Commission has not made a formal, public decision on its position about building demolition but wants the hazardous soil gone, town officials said. “The town has always wanted it cleaned up to the highest standard we can get — it is up to EPA staff and their funding,” Miller said.
The Town Commission must wait for the next report from the Environmental Protection Agency. It would detail a cleanup schedule, say if demolishing buildings is a viable option and determine who would pay for it all.
If the buildings are not knocked down to get to the soil, an alternative option is to pour in concrete so the oil could not continue to move, an encapsulation of the errant oil. Entombing of the oil would cost about half the price, $30 million, but could prevent the area from being developed in the future for residential use, officials said.
“The proposed plan will include a remedy to address the contaminated soil/sludge,” Harris Young said.
A property manager for the business park in Pembroke Park couldn’t be reached for comment Friday despite a visit to the leasing office and a phone call.
The Pembroke Park site is part of the federal government’s Superfund program, which finances cleanups of toxic waste sites across the country. There are more than 1,300 Superfund sites nationally, some of which have languished for years without cleanup plans or funding.
President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget seeks to cut money for the program by 30 percent, though Congressional Republicans have indicated they are likely to approve less-severe cuts, according to The Associated Press.