More Work At Mobile Waste Site

By Steve Alexander Reporter

Closed bumper factory on Navco Road could have hazardous waste More Work At Mobile Waste Site

Published: Thu, May 15, 2008 - 8:59 pm Last Updated: Thu, May 15, 2008 - 9:29 pm

Steve Alexander

Good news about what's being done to clean up an old bumper factory in Mobile that could contain dangerous chemicals.
More work is apparently underway.
People who live near the old AMPS bumper factory on Navco Road have been worried about what type of chemicals could have been left on the site when it closed.
An official with the Environmental Protection Agency or, EPA, spoke to a meeting of the River Park Community Action Group in March about tests done at the factory.
A member of the group, Donna Brown, said at the time, "I was personally surprised to see how bad the site really is."
Brown said the EPA promised to come back and work on the site again, and on Thursday she said, "Yesterday, there was some equipment out there. I saw a "Bobcat" (machine) and trucks and things and this morning they were out there again, too."
Brown said a recent e-mail from an EPA official talked about what the agency planned to do.
She said, "They're going to assess the extent of the contamination that's on-site and off-site because some of the surrounding property has some contamination as well. We're interested to see what happens with the ground water testing and they've assured us that they're going to do a thorough job cleaning it up, removing the soil and taking it off site."
Brown said an EPA official told the neighborhood meeting in March that its investigation found chromium had leaked on the ground around the factory.
One type of chromium compound has been found to cause cancer.
Brown said EPA crews "found a good bit of chrome, some nickel and cadmium. There was a list of hazardous chemicals that were found there."
No word on how long it will take to finish the cleanup.