He describes a holding pond created to contain the chemicals. The dam broke several times, and it was sometimes many weeks before it was repaired, he says. Petroleum naphtha is a combination of aliphatic hydrocarbons, naphthenic hydrocarbons, benzene, and aromatic hydrocarbons. Many of these compounds are highly toxic and are known human carcinogens. Chlorosilanes are a mixture of silicon, hydrogen, and chlorine.
Acrylic acid is a corrosive material that causes skin and eye burns on contact.
However, by the time the contaminated soil was ready to be shipped off-site, the concentrations in the soil were low. State officials we interviewed agree with that assessment. Under Michigan law, the soil was automatically classified as a legally hazardous waste that had to be buried in a hazardous waste landfill. Under Michigan law, a solid waste can go to a Type II landfill and a Type II landfill can be unlined and built in a sand and gravel pit, offering no protection to the environment. Finally, the state Department of Natural Resources decided on the basis of chemical analyses and a risk assessment that the wastes should be redesignated non-hazardous.