Big Chemical Cleanup North of Sacramento
By Bob Moffitt
Friday, January 25, 2013


 
The State of California says it has cleaned up tons of hazardous materials from an abandoned chrome and bumper shop in a semi-residential area of Yuba City.

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has removed 11,000 gallons of chemicals from the site formerly known as Custom Chrome and Bumper in Yuba City.  The department says the owner of the business died last August and his business died with him.  But the dozens of chemicals at the site on Garden Highway remained.  

Adam Palmer with the department says some of the chemicals were in 55-gallon drums, but some were in open vats.  The site is in an area close to homes and businesses, "Because the facility was no longer in operation, nobody was there keeping an eye on it, we were concerned about somebody getting in there and possibly coming in contact with that material and getting burned or the possibility of the material being mixed which would produce a kind of an exothermic reaction which could possibly lead to a small explosion."

Today, a Chico company transported about 75-percent of the chemicals to hazardous waste facilities in Utah and Nevada. Twenty five percent was recycled.  

There is still solid hazardous waste at the bottom of several dipping tanks on site.  Toxic Substances Control plans to liquefy the waste and move that off of the property in late spring.  The department says it cleans up 125 contaminated sites each year, but the volume of chemicals on this site was especially large.   




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