EPA RCRA ID: ILD006271696

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Cleanup Status
Facility Description
Contaminants at this Facility
Institutional/Engineer Controls
Enforcement and Compliance
Related Information
Contacts for this Facility

Congress amended the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in November 1984, expanding the Act's cleanup provisions and prompting EPA and its state partners to develop the RCRA Corrective Action Program. The program oversees the investigation and cleanup of nearly 4,000 hazardous waste sites across the country, including many with risks comparable to Superfund sites.

The Olin Corporation (Olin) site is a 1,247-acre facility located at 600 Powder Mill Road in East Alton, Illinois. Historically the whole facility was owned by Olin. The company currently owns and operates on the part of the facility that manufactures

small arms ammunition,
ammunition components, and
explosives.

Olin also operates a public trap-and-skeet shooting range in the northeast part of the property. The southwestern portion of the facility is owned by Global Brass Corporation (GBC) and manufactures copper-based alloy (for example, brass) strip and fabricated products. The GBC-owned portion of the property has the address of 427 N. Shamrock Street in East Alton.

Olin applied for a RCRA Hazardous Waste Permit with EPA and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in the 1980s. These permits were issued in 1990 and required Olin to conduct a RCRA Facility Investigation (RFI) to determine if any releases of hazardous waste to the environment had occurred at the facility. The permits also allowed operation of a mercury-contaminated waste container storage area and two hazardous waste incinerators. Olin has since closed these incinerators and container storage area, and the permits expired in 2000. There were mercury impacts to the soil at several locations and sediments in two stormwater collection ponds, known as sloughs, at the facility. Both areas are being addressed in the Final Decision.

Olin conducted the RFI in two phases, in 1995 and 2006. Twenty-nine solid waste management units and Areas of Concern (AOCs) were identified and investigated during the RFI. Several additional AOCs were identified after or during the RFI. Olin investigated these AOCs and the findings were summarized in separate reports. Olin also conducted soil sampling in residential areas around the facility property for lead. No impacts above EPA’s residential risk screening criteria were detected. Olin also sampled sediments in the East and West Fork of the Wood River, which passes through the facility property. No impacts were found above appropriate ecological or human health risk criteria.

Cleanup Status

Olin submitted a Remedy Selection Process Document to EPA in January 2021. This document summarizes the investigation work done at the facility and recommends corrective measures to address contamination at the facility. EPA will review the document and approve or modify the proposed remedy in the Statement of Basis document for public comment.

Over the last three decades of site investigations, Olin investigated thirty-five (35) areas on the facility property where releases were known or suspected to have occurred. Many of these facility property areas were places on the facility property where scrap ammunition, clay shooting targets, explosive residues, and other wastes were disposed of on soil prior to the 1980s. The proposed remedy to address these areas is a Soil Management Plan enforced through an Administrative Order with EPA. The Soil Management Plan would require Olin to prevent unauthorized digging and to require sampling/protective equipment when doing work in these areas.

Olin investigated two stormwater collection ponds, known as sloughs, historically used for waste disposal at the facility. The proposed remedy partly required Olin to remove the contaminated sediments in these sloughs and then dispose in an off-site landfill.

Additionally, Olin investigated several areas of the site with stockpiled ballistic sand. Ballistic sand is sand used to stop ammunition during testing. It is often contaminated with lead and other metals. Part of the proposed remedy required Olin to remove the top foot of contaminated soil in these areas and install an engineered cap using asphalt, clay, or other low-permeability material, to prevent future exposure to this contamination.

Olin also investigated an oil release under a building in the Brass Mill area in the southwest part of the property. In 2003, Olin installed an oil skimmer system of eight wells where accumulated oil is pumped into a container for off-site disposal. The company continues to operate the system. Part of the proposed remedy requires Olin to continue system operation until no oil is detected.

Finally, the proposed remedy also requires Olin to conduct groundwater monitoring for at least one year after completing the previous remedies to ensure conditions are stable at the facility. A legal restriction put into place on Olin’s property would limit the use of groundwater on the property for industrial purposes and would prevent use of groundwater for drinking.

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to the Entire Facility

Action	Status	Date of Action
(CA725)
(CA750)
(CA400)
(CA550)
(CA800)
(CA900)
(CA999)

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Cleanup Activities Pertaining to a Portion of the Facility

	Action	Area Name	Date of Action

^{For definitions of the terms used, hover over or click on the term.}

Facility Description

Link to a larger, interactive view of the map.

East Alton is in the northwest portion of Madison County, which is in the southwestern portion of Illinois, near St. Louis, Missouri. The site is in a mixed industrial, commercial, and residential area.

The site is bounded by State Route 111 (McArthur Drive) to the north, along with agricultural land on the other side of McArthur Drive, the Spencer. T. Olin Golf Course and Illinois State Route 3 (Homer M Adams Parkway) to the west; and residential property bordering the site to the south and east.

Contaminants at this Facility

Olin conducted investigations to determine the extent of contamination at the facility resulting from historical spills and/or waste disposal. The contamination detected in soil, groundwater, and sediments consists of mainly:

Explosives residues (2,4-dinitrotoluene, 2,6-dinitrotoluene)
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs – benzo(a)anthracene, benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene, dibenzo (a, h) anthracene, indeno (1,2,3-cd) pyrene)
Metals (arsenic, antimony, chromium, copper, cadmium, mercury, lead)
Vinyl Chloride

Institutional and Engineering Controls at this Facility

Olin currently operates an oil recovery system to address an oil spill found under a building in the Brass Mill area (southwestern portion of the facility). The system consists of eight monitoring wells with absorbent socks or skimmer pumps to remove accumulated oil.

No other engineering or institutional controls are currently in place at the facility; however, several are proposed as part of EPA’s Final Remedy for the facility (see the Statement of Basis for more information on the proposed remedy).

Institutional and Engineering Controls help ensure human exposure and groundwater migration are under control at a cleanup facility. Where control types have been reported by states and EPA in EPA’s RCRAInfo, they are shown below. Not all control types are needed at all facilities, and some facilities do not require any controls. Where there are blanks, the control types may not be needed, may not be in place, or may not be reported in RCRAInfo.

Are Controls in Place at this Facility?

Control(s) Type		Control(s) in Place?	Areas Subject to Control(s)	Documents available on-line:
(CA 772)	(ID)
	(GC)
	(EP)
	(PR)
(CA 770)	(GW)
(CA 770)

Enforcement and Compliance at this Facility

EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance provides detailed historical information about enforcement and compliance activities at each RCRA Corrective Action Site in their Enforcement and Compliance Historical Online (ECHO) system.

RCRA Enforcement and Compliance Reports from ECHO

Related Information

For more information about this facility, see these other EPA links:

RCRA information in EPA’s Envirofacts database
Information about this facility submitted to EPA under different environmental programs as reported in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Alternative Names for this facility as reported by EPA programs in EPA’s Facility Registry Services
Cleanups in My Community provides an interactive map to see EPA cleanups in context with additional data, and lists for downloading data
Search RCRA Corrective Action Sites provides a search feature for Corrective Action Sites
More Information from the Envirofacts database

Contacts for this Facility

Zack Sasnow ([email protected]), Project Manager, 312-886-0258; Ruth Muhtsun ([email protected]) Community Involvement Coordinator, 312-886-6595.

EPA Region implements and enforces the RCRA Corrective Action program for and federally recognized tribes.

For further information on this corrective action site, use the Contact Information for Corrective Action Hazardous Waste Clean Ups listings that are accessible through Corrective Action Programs around the Nation.

Date Last updated: Data on this page was last refreshed on May 19, 2021.