On this page:

• Cleanup Status
• Site Description
• Contaminants at this Facility
• Institutional/Engineer Controls
• Land Reuse
• Site Responsibility

Cleanup Status

EPA/state is reviewing existing environmental information to determine if further investigation is required.  EPA/State will focus first on the health and groundwater impacts, if any, presented by the facility.  Once EPA/state completes this review process, an environmental indicator determination will be prepared and posted to this website. 

Cleanup History

Contaminated soil and groundwater at Lot One of the facility was investigated and remedial activities were conducted in the early 1990s; approximately 4,300 tons of contaminated soil were removed and groundwater monitoring was conducted.  The final round of monitoring in 1993 detected petroleum solvent constituents.
 
Lot Two was investigated during 2003 and 2004 as part of the due diligence activities prior to the divestiture of Lot Two.  Soil in Lot Two was the primary focus of the investigation; although groundwater and sediment samples were also collected at selected locations.  Ten wells were sampled on Lot Two.  None of the 22 groundwater samples, collected during the Phase II investigation, were reported to have contained any constituent exceeding their Used Aquifer Residential MSCs.  Based on the western groundwater flow direction and Phase II analytical groundwater data, it appears that contaminated groundwater on Lot One has not migrated onto Lot Two.  In April 2008, PADEP reviewed and approved the Final Report for Lot Two in accordance with Act Two.  Lot Two continues to be wooded and it is reported to be visited by trespassers for recreational motorcycling.

Top of Page

Site Description

The Betz Laboratories, Inc. (Betz) facility is located in Trevose, within the municipality of Bensalem Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and is currently known as GE Water and Process Technologies (GEWT), which primarily conducts research and development activities in support of the production of water and process chemicals.  The total facility complex area is 96 acres.

Currently, the facility operates a research and development center on the portion of the property (Lot One).  A wooded area to the north (Lot Two), adjoining the Poquessing Creek was sold to a developer in the early 2000s.  The two lots are similar in area, occupying approximately 46 acres each. 

This facility previously had a production plant, electrical substation, water tower, tank farm, a skimmer building, a hazardous waste storage building.  Parking lots separated the facilities from corporate headquarters, administration, and research and development offices along Somerton Road.  The production plant, tank farm and skimmer building were removed during the plant decommissioning activities from 1989 to 1991.   During a March 10, 2009 site visit, a fitness building and a training building were present at the general location of the production plant, tank farm and skimmer building in the southwestern corner of Lot One.  These buildings were physically separated from the pilot plant building, research and development laboratory, and administrative offices.  The water tower continued to be present.  The facility was surrounded by a chain-link fence around its perimeter with a security entrance.  Reading Railroad traversed the eastern boundary of Lot One in a generally northeast-to-southwest direction.

Top of Page

Contaminants at this Facility

 The site is a large quantity hazardous waste generator including volatile organic compounds and universal hazardous wastes. 

Top of Page

Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility

Then need for Institutional Controls is yet to be determined.

Top of Page

Land Reuse Information at this Facility

The site's future use is yet to be determined.

Top of Page

Site Responsibility at this Facility

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

Top of Page