Holley site may be added to Superfund list

According to the state's Environmental Protection Agency, Holley's Diaz Chemical plant may be eligible for Superfund listing.

The EPA proposed adding the Diaz facility to its National Priorities List, meaning the site would be eligible for federal dollars toward clean up efforts. The money in the Superfund program is used to clean up abandoned hazardous sites. Funding comes from taxes on chemical and petroleum industries.

The Diaz facility, which closed last year, had operated in Holley for several decades. In January 2002, Diaz accidentally released chemicals into the air when a safety valve opened in response to a build up of pressure in a chemical reactor vessel. A cloud of chemicals was released into the air that included toluene and 2-chloro-6-fluorophenol. The chemicals released are used in the making of prescription arthritis medicine.

More than two years later there are still nine families who lived near the business that have not returned to their homes. The families and 150 other residents in the village have filed a $63 million lawsuit against the company. In addition to the residents' suit, the Attorney General's office and the Department of Environmental Conservation have also filed suit against Diaz. In response to the lawsuits, the company went out of business in May 2003 and filed bankruptcy in June.

Dr. Andrew Saul, an outspoken critic of Diaz, has maintained that community opposition to Diaz has not only been about the January 2002 spill but about the chemicals the company has dumped over the past 30 years. "We're talking about known cancer-causing chemicals, chemicals that cause learning disabilities and respiratory problems," Saul said. "This is about the health and safety of the residents of Orleans County."

A comment period is now in effect with the EPA which is seeking input before they make their final determination on the Diaz site's inclusion on the Superfund list.

Diaz did begin a voluntary clean up operation at the site in 1994 when tests on groundwater and soil showed the site was contaminated with volatile and semi-volatile compounds. According to the EPA, those contaminants still "potentially threaten the public supply wells located as close as 0.66 miles south."

The January 2002 spill was to the first chemical release that occurred at the Diaz plant during its decades of operation. The EPA has documented numerous spills at the site dating back to 1977.

Since the Superfund began in 1980 it has addressed more than 1,500 sites nationwide and has cleaned up 892 of them.

Saul said Diaz's inclusion on the EPA Superfund site is a bright spot in what has been a trying and dark time in Holley's past. "If the EPA claims it, we have a chance to get it cleaned up and have a safer, cleaner Holley for everyone who lives here."