TONAWANDA, N.Y. -- Thousands of pounds of hazardous materials are now making their way from a warehouse in the Town of Tonawanda to safe disposal sites, allowing those living and working in the area to breathe a sigh of relief.
It may just look like an ordinary warehouse, but Environmental Protection Agency officials say Morgan Materials Incorporated was a disaster waiting to happen.
"This was a very bad situation and if there was a catastrophic event, it would have been significant," said Peter Lisichenko, an EPA on-scene coordinator. "You had corrosives that were stacked on top of flammables. You had oxidizers within fiber drums.
"Just a lot of incompatibles being commingled together, and that's very concerning and they could potentially react very badly."
Morgan Materials Incorporated bought off-specification, or excess chemicals, stored and sold them from a warehouse on Vulcan Street for decades. Department of Environmental Conservation officials called in the EPA last November to clean up the site after they said the storage situation had gotten progressively worse and there was an imminent danger to the community.
"Because of the number of unknowns in the facility and the different types of chemicals that were stored here, it would have been a very difficult fire to fight. It most likely would have been fought from a distance. It most likely would have lasted for several days. Given the proximity of the facility to the residential neighborhood, to a major manufacturing company, and to other smaller businesses, as well as a charter school, it would have a significant impact to the area," said Lisichenko.
For months, EPA teams have been cleaning, categorizing and disposing of those hazardous chemicals.
"They removed close to 2,700 tons of materials contained in 250 gallon totes, super sacks, and small, like 50-pound brown bags," said Gez Bushra, EPA on-scene coordinator.
While a lot of progress is made here, EPA officials say there's still a lot of work to be done.
"Most cases, we see a label on the side of the drum, we can't trust that label. We don't know where that drum has been, how it's been handled, whether or not it has the original seals on it, so we're going to sample everything," said Lisichenko.
It's so far cost the EPA, and thus taxpayers, $500,000, and crews are about halfway done. EPA officials say the owner is cooperating and will be allowed to continue to use the facility for non-hazardous materials.