Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Fisher Scientific Company in Indiana, Pennsylvania

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Cleanup Status

EPA is currently evaluating this facility to determine what corrective action activities may be warranted.  EPA is planning to visit the site in summer 2014 to help in this evaluation.  Current Human Health and Migration of Contaminated Groundwater Under Control Environmental Indicator Determinations will be assessed after the site visit.

 
 




 

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Site Description

Interactive map of Fisher Scientific Company, Indiana, PA


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Fisher Scientific formerly occupied this 14-acre facility located in White Township, Pennsylvania.  The facility manufactured various laboratory instruments and apparatuses such as clamps, burners, centrifuges, stirrers, ovens, incubators, hot plates and water baths.  The facility was constructed in three phases between 1958 and 1986.  Operations at the facility ceased in 2006 and Fisher Scientific has vacated the property.  The site is currently occupied by a sales/service branch of the NATCO Group of Houston and a portion of the property is used as storage space by the Gorell window plant, an adjacent facility.

A dry well, used to collect spilled solvents in the paint storage room from 1965 through 1980, was excavated, sampled and backfilled with clean fill in December 1985.  

In 1994, during the installation of a new sewer line through the parking lot area, steel shelving, pieces of table tops, transite, empty bottles and cans, pieces of plate glass, construction materials, concrete wire, and a gray material were unearthed.  The gray material was found to contain lead concentrations in excess of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP)’s Cleanup Standards for Contaminated Soils (CSCS).  Lower concentrations of barium and tetrachloroethene (PCE) were also detected in the gray material.  The gray material was excavated and disposed of off-site in December 1995 and the area was backfilled with clean fill in January 1996.  PADEP stated in a letter to Fisher dated March 11, 1996 that the site was approved in accordance with the provisions of the Land Recycling and Environmental Remediation Standards Act (Act 2) and no further action was required.

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Contaminants at this Facility

 Contmaminants of concern were lead, barium, and tetrachloroethene (PCE).

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Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility

The need for institutional controls has yet to be determined.

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Land Reuse Information at this Facility

The site is being reused.

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Site Responsibility at this Facility

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action activities at this facility have been conducted under the direction of EPA Region 3.

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