Published: May 08, 2008 03:06 am      

WATCH THE VIDEO: MRS Plating demolished as part of EPA cleanup

The sign was the first thing to go.

As officials from the Environmental Protection Agency looked on, a bulldozer began to demolish the MRS Plating building on Park Avenue on Wednesday morning, starting by plucking the business sign off the front of the brick structure and dumping it on the ground.







The building was dismantled as part of the EPA’s effort to clean up the site, which was contaminated by laboratory chemicals including cadmium, chromium and corrosive liquids.

The business owner, 46-year-old Ronald Jagielo of Lockport, pleaded guilty in August to criminally disposing of hazardous wastes at the site between January 2004 and November 2006.

It was the second time since 2006 that Jagielo was convicted of violating criminal environmental laws, and the third time since 1996 that MRS Plating Inc., a family-owned corporation, was convicted of similar charges.

Now that MRS Plating Inc. is defunct, the EPA hopes the site can be cleaned up and restored for future use.

“We’re going to do some restoration here at the site. There’s going to be new site drainage, and there’s also going to be some additional asphalt and fencing put up here, too,” said Kevin Matheis, the EPA’s on-site coordinator. “It’s going to be relatively clean for the community.”

The cleanup process started in November 2006, when officials found some releases of chemicals outside the building. Puddles containing acids and rinse water from the site had formed on adjacent sidewalks and in the parking lot of a furniture store next door.

The City of Lockport notified the EPA, requesting a cleanup of the property, Matheis said.

The EPA moved in and fenced off the entire property. Inside, the building was in “poor condition,” he said.

“We saw that there was a serious threat in the building,” he said. “We immediately brought our contractor in to stabilize the site.”

Since then, the EPA has removed more than 97 drums of plating sludge, laboratory chemicals, waste oil and acids from the site, along with 11,000 gallons of acid waste and 80 cubic yards of metals and contaminated debris, which was shipped off-site for disposal.

The demolition process will continue over the next couple of weeks, Matheis said.

“The buildings are going to be loaded off-site and sent to appropriate disposal facilities,” he said. “Once the buildings are down, we’re going to start taking up the concrete slabs under the floors, and then we’re going to start removing some of the soils and the hot spot underneath the building.”

Once the area is clean, the EPA and the state will work together to determine what the site can be used for in the future.

“It’s a step-by-step process,” Matheis said. “We’re in the home stretch here.”

The demolition process Wednesday was carefully executed, with air sample readers placed around the site to measure the level of chemicals in the air. Mike Basile, public affairs representative for the EPA, said an alarm would sound if the levels got too high.

As he watched the workers prepare for the demolition, Basile said the EPA is dealing with cleanups like the one at MRS Plating more often these days.

“I’ve been with the EPA 20 years, and when I started, it was a little small part of one filing drawer,” he said. “(Now) I have one entire filing cabinet of just abandoned foundries, things like this. Companies are in business today, and tomorrow they’re out of business. I’m talking big companies. ... Sometimes we spend upwards of $5, $6, $10 million, because they just leave everything.”

Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.