Source: The Evening Sun (Hanover, PA), January 2, 2012
Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com
A Harrisburg businessman says he didn’t quite know what he was bidding on when he offered to buy a plot of marshland where 5,000 tons of toxic waste was dumped in the 1990s.
James Halkias didn’t know an additional 676 drums of metallic sludge had been dumped there. And he didn’t know the 63-acre property was involved in what’s been called the worst case of deliberate pollution ever prosecuted in Pennsylvania.
“I actually drove over there and it smelled really bad. I didn’t know what it was,” he said. “It just didn’t smell right to me.”
Halkias offered $1,600 for the former Gettysburg Foundry property, but his bid was turned down by Cumberland Township. When told the history of the property he was confused, surprised and then relieved.
“I’m glad it didn’t go through. I don’t want to get stuck with a nightmare,” he said.
Apart from Halkias, nobody has shown interest in the property in two years, even after all the liens and back taxes were wiped clean months ago.
The lack of bids isn’t surprising, especially considering toxic material was found in high enough concentrations to harm plants and animals, according to a state Department of Environmental Protection report.
Whoever buys the property must permit state officials to continue testing four on-site wells. And the contamination levels are too high to build apartments of offices.
While most developers wouldn’t consider buying such a property, Halkias buys up defunct properties, cuts down the trees and sells the timber.
“I thought there was a deadline so I put in bids quickly,” he said. “I wasn’t really knowing what I was bidding on.”
Adams County officials are eager to sell the property and get it back on the tax rolls. But $1,600 just wasn’t enough for the township supervisors, considering the Emmitsburg Road parcel is assessed at $1.48 million.
In 1999, the father and son who ran the foundry were fined and received prison sentences for crimes associated with polluting the air, wetlands and groundwater.
At the foundry, scraps of aluminum metal were melted down in a process that left a waste material called “dross,” which is high in sodium and reactive with water.
The salt was found in such concentrations that local fire companies said they would no longer respond to fires there. The decision came after firefighters attempting to quell a blaze caused multiple explosions when water ignited tomato-paste-sized canisters of pure sodium.
The grounds required $5.2 million in restitution by the state EPA, which was supposed to be paid by the former owners Creed and Robert White. But the pair filed for bankruptcy and the property was sold for $1 to C.M. Metals under the agreement the new owners would pay the cleanup costs.
But C.M. Metals never fulfilled the obligation, causing the entire cleanup process to fall to the state. In the end, the Department of Environmental Protection spent eight years and millions of dollars restoring the grounds.