GREENVILLE STEEL CAR Probe seeks contamination

Witnesses said solvents were allowed to saturate earthen floors in the plant.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- The state is looking for evidence of illegally discarded solvents and other hazardous materials at the former Greenville Steel Car/Trinity Industries plant.
The Environmental Crimes Section of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's office, aided by the state Department of Environmental Protection, served a search warrant at the plant Wednesday, bringing in a backhoe and other equipment to dig up soil at several locations in the closed plant.
The state alleges that Greenville Steel Car, which ran the plant for decades until it went out of business in 1985, and Trinity Industries Inc., which bought and ran the plant from 1985 to late 2000, allowed various solvents and other materials to contaminate soils in the plant, particularly in the old and new paint shops.
The plant was used by both companies to manufacture railroad cars.
The section of plant now being investigated is owned by Commerce Park of Greenville Inc. which bought the 475,000-square-foot facility in February of this year, planning to convert it into an industrial park.
Effect on park
It wasn't clear if the state's investigation would affect Commerce Park plans. Calls to company officials weren't immediately returned.
If the state finds significant contamination, it could order a cleanup that the parties responsible for creating the problem would have to pay for.
Greenville Steel Car no longer exists, but Trinity Industries, based in Texas, is still in business. A Trinity spokesman said the company has no knowledge of any environmental violations at the plant and will cooperate with the investigation launched by authorities.
A court document filed by the state in seeking a search warrant for the property said the probe into allegations of illegal disposal of waste materials began on June 16 of this year but didn't indicate how the state learned of possible contamination.
Former workers
The document alleges violation of the Pennsylvania Solid Waste Management Act between 1980 and 2000. It lists several former employees of both Greenville Steel Car and Trinity who told investigators they witnessed the use and unsafe disposal of a variety of solvents, paint waste and PCB-laced oil in the plant.
The solvents listed include such products as xylene, mineral spirits, methyl ethyl ketone and trichloroethane, chemicals used to clean grease and oil from railroad cars about to be painted.
The employees said they witnessed the solvents being allowed to saturate the earthen floors of both paint shops and saw where drums of the used solvents and paint wastes contaminated other soil in the plant complex. One recounted how PCB-laden oil from electric transformers being removed from the plant was used to lubricate railroad switches located at various locations in the plant, contaminating the ground beneath the switches.
The witnesses told investigators that Trinity eventually hauled material away for disposal as hazardous waste but never did anything about the contaminated soil.
The court document noted that DEP never issued any permit for disposal of any hazardous materials on site. It also quotes a DEP representative as saying that the illegal disposal of such materials could pose a serious threat to the public because the material can enter the ground water.
Gathering evidence at the site was supposed to take one day, according to a spokesman for the attorney general's office.
gwin@vindy.com