By Mike Tony
For Charleston Gazette-Mail
The potential for environmental contamination is vast from a massive industrial fire just outside Parkersburg that caused Gov. Patrick Morrisey to declare a State of Emergency on July 5, according to a new site assessment plan obtained by the Gazette-Mail via a Freedom of Information Act request.
The plan, a preliminary site characterization strategy document, was prepared on behalf of Peoples Cartage Inc. for its 4301 Camden Ave. facility near Parkersburg and the Little Kanawha River, and approved by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection in a Sept. 17 letter to the company.
Peoples Cartage submitted the plan to comply with a DEP order issued four days after the State of Emergency declaration mandating that Canton, Ohio-based Peoples Cartage affiliate Publix, Inc. provide a site characterization plan including methods and a schedule for conducting a site assessment that would allow for “delineating the extent of soil contamination that originated from the aforementioned fire.”
The DEP order had required the site characterization plan to be submitted within 20 days of Publix and Peoples Cartage receiving the agency’s order, but the plan approved by the DEP on Sept. 17 was only submitted by the companies two days earlier, according to the DEP’s plan approval letter.
The plan authored by Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania-based Groundwater & Environmental Services, Inc. and dated Sept. 15, details a long list of potential contaminants stemming from the fire, noting that the fire and subsequent response and cleanup activities exposed fire-damaged materials and debris to stormwater and fire-suppression water. The water may have transported ash, soot and other fire-related materials into surrounding soils, according to the site characterization plan.
State and local officials were tight-lipped about the chemical composition of the fire while reporting that the building stored plastic materials and that there were no injuries from the fire.
Wood County residents reported black ash and debris from the fire in their yards and pools while contending with a nearly 24-hour shelter-in-place advisory issued by Wood County 911 for a roughly half-mile stretch of the Staunton Turnpike corridor along the Little Kanawha River. The agency attributed the shelter-in-place to “air monitoring particulate levels hav[ing] recently exceeded minimum threshold levels.”
A July 5 DEP emergency response document states the fire was fueled by cardboard and oil-based thermal plastic resins.
A July 9 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air quality monitoring report on the fire states that an EPA environmental response team conducted air monitoring from the afternoon of July 5 to the morning of July 8, initially deploying air-monitoring equipment at five perimeter locations and, the next day, a sixth. The EPA said it demobilized the air monitoring systems on July 8 after air monitoring throughout the impacted area consistently showed no exceedances of health-based standards.
The DEP has said that results of its and Peoples Cartage’s analysis of samples for parameters commonly assessed after structure fires and linked to building materials, plastics, resins and combustion haven’t identified concentrations warranting further response or protective measures beyond ongoing monitoring and remediation.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture collected approximately 200 water and soil samples since July 19 from agricultural and residential properties where sampling was requested, according to the DEP, which said no compounds analyzed linked to ash, combustion, fire debris, heavy metals or smoke were detected in residential water samples, while low concentrations of some compounds were detected in soil samples.
The DEP has said that the compounds can come from many combustion sources, including wood burning, vehicle emissions, wildfires and other fires, and that while some results were above state levels, samples didn’t exceed federal action levels. No additional response or protective measures were required, the DEP has said.
But the site characterization plan says the nature and extent of contaminant emissions into the environment from the warehouse along Camden Avenue’s industrial and commercial corridor haven’t been determined and are the subject of the phased investigation to follow the plan.
“Combustion and thermal decomposition of plastics and other stored materials may have generated airborne particulates and chemical constituents, while contact with firefighting water may have transported dissolved and particulate material in runoff,” the plan warns.
“[A]dditional evaluation” will take place if a “Constituent of Potential Concern” — a substance coming from a facility’s release to the environment that may threaten human health or the environment — is detected in soil or surface waters, according to a statement provided by Peoples Cartage spokesperson Shannon Whetsell via email.
Plan indicates potential Little Kanawha River impact
The phase-one work plan says that it is intended to assess accessible perimeter soils and surface waters, flag migration pathways and guide later assessment after debris removal.
The plan cautions that the fire and subsequent emergency-response activities generated significant quantities of firefighting water that contacted fire debris and entered stormwater pathways near the impacted buildings.
Some runoff appears to have reached drainage features leading toward the Little Kanawha River, according to the plan.
Emergency response and debris-handling activities may also have redistributed ash, soot and other fire-related residues onto surrounding paved and unpaved areas, per the plan.
Groundwater & Environmental Services states that at the time the plan dated Aug. 20 was prepared, large segments of the former warehouse footprint remained covered by collapsed structural materials, fire-damaged inventory, ash, roofing debris and other demolition materials.
Those conditions have limited safe access to underlying floors and soil, obscured possible release points and drainage pathways, and prevented representative sampling within much of the main burn area, according to the plan, which adds that ongoing debris removal and heavy equipment activity may also disturb or move materials and impact sampling locations.
So the initial characterization will focus on perimeter soils and stormwater pathways, with targeted sampling of the former building footprint to follow when debris removal and site stabilization allow safe and representative access, the plan states.
Peoples Cartage has operated the site as a warehouse, logistics and contract-processing facility used for receipt, storage, handling, packaging and distribution of customer-owned materials, including resins, polymers, powders and related industrial products, the plan notes.
The fire destroyed roughly 350,000 square feet of warehouse space, per the plan.
Plan warns of wide range of potential ‘human receptors’
The plan reports that the site and surrounding area are supplied with drinking water via the Parkersburg Utility Board public water system, with water sourced from five radial collector wells in the Ohio River alluvial aquifer 4 to 6 miles north of the site.
The Little Kanawha River, immediately east of the site, is the closest surface-water receptor, and surface water runoff from the fire-impacted segment of the property typically flows toward the river through overland drainage, low-lying ponded and wetland areas, catch basins, stormwater piping and outfalls, per the plan.
The plan notes that because of that “close hydraulic relationship,” the river and nearshore areas are important for determining whether fire-related ash, soot, dissolved contaminants, suspended solids or firefighting-water residues migrated off the site.
The plan contends that potentially contaminated water, suspended solids, ash, polymer fragments, and debris may have entered catch basins, storm drains, pipes, outfalls, and ultimately the Little Kanawha River. Initial surface water samples will be analyzed for substances that include semi-volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, according to the plan.
Semi-volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals, some of which have been linked to allergy symptoms, reproductive development issues and other adverse health impacts.
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