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History Ignored Forgetting About Air Force Plant 51’s Toxic Wastes by Hugh Mitchell Like a bunch of kids pointing fingers at each other, they say some other agency should clean up one of Rochester’s most polluted toxic waste sites - Air Force Plant 51 at the end of Dewey Avenue, next to the Monroe County Water Authority’s Shoremont Treatment Plant. For example, in what must be one of the biggest whoppers of all time, the Defense Department, with the deepest pockets in the world, claims they have no more money for clean-up of this dangerous site. But other agencies involved with remediation of toxic waste, from the US Army Corps of Engineers to the New York’s DEC, have failed to move rapidly on remediation of this festering sore on the shores of Round Pond. Air Force Plant 51 is a huge, old rotting World War II Defense Department factory, originally called the Odenbach plant. During the Second World War they made landing barges there and did other metal fabrication. Later the Air Force took over the plant to produce B-52 bomber bulkheads and Talos missiles. In those dirty old days the toxic waste produced from such manufacturing was unceremoniously dumped in the back yard, which in this case happens to be the wetlands on the edge of Round Pond. There this stew of toxic poison has lain festering since the Air Force bailed out in 1959 and the site was declared surplus. In November 1999 the Army Corp of Engineers conducted a site investigation to determine what areas might be contaminated. They discovered at least seven toxic waste sites including the “Area One” site which was a shallow toxic pond used to collect wastewater from electroplating operations. This liquid pool of poisons included the following primary contaminants: acetone, several forms of Dichloroethane (DEC), Tetrachloroethane, Ethyl benzene, Trichloroethene (TEC), chromium and other volatile organic compounds and metals. Hardly the kind of cocktail you want flowing into Round Pond, which flows into Lake Ontario only one and a half miles from the main water intake pipe for two thirds of the drinking water of Monroe County. The pond was pumped out and declared safe by the “rapid response action team” by Spring 2001. At that time the Corps declared, “No definite timetable has been set for the other investigations due to a lack of funding.” The foul ball was then thrown to the NYS DEC to investigate further how to clean up the estimated remaining seven to nine unremediated toxic sites. In January 2002 the DEC announced that the current property owner, 4800 Dewey Avenue Enterprises, Inc, had signed a voluntary agreement to investigate further. By April 2002 six quart sized bottles were found on the site with the trade name of Chlorextol or PCB’s, a major carcinogen. Another search of the site later found an additional 123 containers characterized as hazardous waste such as oil cans and batteries. These wastes were removed, but as of October 2003 (the last DEC report) studies of the sediments in Round Pond area detected “…elevated concentrations of various metals and organic compounds in the wetlands and sediments adjacent to the site.” In other words the site has still not been adequately remediated and toxic wastes have moved outside the property boundaries. When a full investigation is complete in all likelihood Plant 51 could be ranked as the largest toxic waste site on the shores of Lake Ontario. The Monroe County Water Authority, the next door neighbor, has assured us that our drinking water continues to pass every federal and state drinking water test and further, “… tests of fish from Round Pond indicate that no more restrictive advisories are needed than for fish in Lake Ontario.” Still, the Sierra Club contends that Air Force Plant 51 can not be ignored by way of some weak voluntary agreement with the current owner, requiring the person least responsible for the mess to shoulder the economic burden of suing state and federal authorities to force them to accept their responsibility to pay for the clean up.
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