Former Pesticide Plants Put On Cleanup Lists

An inactive Calumet City, Ill., facility that once manufactured pesticides was among those EPA added last week to the Superfund National Priorities List of the nation’s most contaminated sites. The list establishes federal priorities for pollution cleanup that EPA will carry out but are paid for by polluters or other companies responsible for contamination. Estech General Chemical manufactured pesticides at the Illinois facility from 1952 until 1969, and the site is contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, and semivolatile organic compounds, EPA says. In addition, the agency proposed another pesticide manufacturing site, the former Kil-Tone Co. in Vineland, N.J., as a candidate for the priority list. According to EPA, Kil-Tone manufactured arsenic-based pesticides from the late 1910s to the late 1930s. Soil sampling near the facility has revealed high concentrations of arsenic and lead at the property and near neighboring residential properties.