The federal Environmental Protection Agency is likely now weeks away from beginning to remove about 500 containers of hazardous materials and other substances from the former Lincoln Chemical Co. building that was partially demolished after fires last fall.
The drums and other containers filled with various chemicals are in the basement of the three-story building along the 600 block of South Ninth Street near Laurel Street, EPA officials said during a media tour of the structure Friday.
The hazardous substances and hazardous waste have all been identified and are safely contained in the staging area awaiting removal, which will start after a contract for the work is finalized, said Ashley Nilsen, EPA’s on-scene coordinator.
It’s taking time for the building, which was once a soap manufacturing facility, to be released to the property owner because the cleanup work must be so meticulous, she said.
The materials will be moved to appropriate waste-disposal facilities, she said, with much of it being incinerated and some of the non-hazardous chemicals going to landfills or being treated. That removal process will take weeks, officials said.
The city and the property’s owner will then decide whether to rehabilitate or demolish the structure, said Lt. Kirk Litzenberger of the Reading fire marshal’s office.
In the meantime, the dilapidated building continues to deteriorate as rain falls in and it’s exposed to the elements, he said.
The area surrounding the site is zoned mixed industrial and residential.
The chemicals still on-site include flammables, combustibles, acids, bases, oxidizers and peroxides, EPA officials said.
Among the officials at the site Friday was EPA Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz, who said the cleanup is going smoothly and safely thanks to cooperation between federal, state and local authorities.
“We’re making sure it’s done right,” he said.
The Oct. 31 fire was quickly contained, but the two-alarm blaze on Nov. 4 was the more serious of the two, and the one that led to much of the brick building having to be knocked down.
An EPA team has had a presence on the property ever since.
To protect the community, a section of South Ninth Street was fenced off for about three months before being reopened to traffic Jan. 26.
From a mobile laboratory on the site, scientists monitored air quality and water runoff to make sure no hazardous chemicals left the property, Nilsen said.
The 137-year-old three-story brick building was owned by Lincoln Chemical Co. for about 30 years before the company ceased operations within the last few years. The building was owned by Reading Brewing Co. for 90 years until the mid-1970s.
