By Jeremy Walsh
Another Maspeth industrial site was added to the superfund registry last month, officials at the state Department of Environmental Conservation said.
The two-acre property at 58-30 57th St. will be investigated further to determine what remediation is necessary, officials said.
Preliminary tests at the site detected large concentrations of tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethane in the soil, DEC officials said. The substances are industrial solvents often used for degreasing metal, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.
Once inspectors determine how to go about cleaning up the site, the property owner may begin remediation or the state may take matters into its own hands and seek reimbursement afterward, said DEC spokeswoman Maureen Wren.
“That's often what happens when a site is listed,” she said. “Companies that are now defunct… the state can pursue recourse down the road for reimbursement from whatever principals might still exist from that entity.”
The property has been used for industrial purposes for nearly a century. In the 1930s and 1940s, a radiator distribution facility operated there. A steel pipe distributor took over from the 1950s to the 1970s, followed by a corrugated box company and a beer distribution company. A recycling facility was present in the early 1990s through the current decade.
The south part of the property has been host to a lubricating oils company and a filling station.
Currently a lumber warehouse and a corrugated box company operate on the property.
Inspectors said people are not likely to be exposed to the contamination because it is below ground level and the site is almost completely paved over.
There are two other confirmed superfund sites in Maspeth.
The old Phelps Dodge Refining Corp. site at 42-02 56th Road operated from 1920-83, producing pesticides, copper and sulfate pentahydrate and refining copper. Waste sludges from the processes were stored in an unlined lagoon, the DEC said.
Two blocks away from the new superfund site sits an old electrical substation at 57-77 Rust St., where contaminated soil has already been excavated and the site is fenced off from the public.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
