By April Amadon<br><a href="mailto:amadona@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail April</a>
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
October 09, 2008 02:17 am
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The Environmental Protection Agency has completed its $1.5 million demolition and cleanup project at the old MRS Plating site on Park Avenue.
The project, which took just under two years to complete, began with the arrest of the facility’s owner, Ronald Jagiello, who is currently serving a 22-month jail sentence for violating criminal provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
The MRS Plating site had been contaminated by laboratory chemicals including cadmium, chromium and corrosive liquids.
The cleanup process started in November 2006, when officials found some releases of the 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 building was demolished by the EPA in May.
During the cleanup, the EPA removed 17,000 gallons of acid waste, 160 cubic yards of metal-contaminated debris, 1,300 tons of chromium and solvent-contaminated soil and 650 tons of building debris.
They also removed 97 drums of plating sludge, laboratory chemicals, waste oil and acids.
Kevin Matheis, the EPA’s on-site coordinator, said the EPA worked with the City of Lockport to leave the property in a condition for possible future development.
Jagiello still owns the property, he said.
“It’s still in private property ownership,” Matheis said. “The city’s going to be in the process of perhaps foreclosing, once the environmental reports have been prepared and the state pretty much says that there’s no further action needed here.”
The EPA restored the site with drainage enhancements and new fencing around the perimeters. They also restored the sidewalk along Park Avenue and repaved the parking lot of the business next door.
It wasn’t the first time MRS Plating had been involved in legal action.
MRS Plating Inc., as a company, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on May 10, 1996, to violating the Clean Water Act. EPA investigators said the company was discharging untreated plating wastes, including high concentrations of acids and metals, into the Lockport water treatment system.
The company was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to pay $1,494.24 to the Lockport Police Department and $14,800 to the Lockport Wastewater Treatment Plant. The company was also ordered to pay a $40,000 fine.
In 1999, Jagiello and the company pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to felony violations of the Clean Water Act, admitting to discharging untreated plating waste to the Lockport Wastewater Treatment Facility.
In that case, Jagiello was sentenced to a year in jail and was ordered to pay several fines.
After his 2006 arrest, Jagielo was ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to the EPA.
EPA Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg said the agency is pleased with the outcome of the case.
“Not only has justice been served, but the work at MRS Plating Facility has been finished, and the site requires no further cleanup work,” Steinberg said.
Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.
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