EPA conducted a public hearing in Lock Haven earlier this week. The 8-acre Drake site operated as a chemical plant manufacturing chemicals for pesticide for 20 years until 1981. The site contained 60 tanks and reactors for making the chemical and 10 large tanks for bulk storage of acids, bases, and fuel oils. Also located on-site were two unlined waste lagoons. The air in the vicinity of the site was contaminated in 1982 with oleum gas clouds thought to originate from a leaking pipe on the site.
Ground water is contaminated with acids and organic compounds.
A contaminated waste stream, originating at the site, flows through Castanea Township Park to Bald Eagle Creek. On-site buildings and structures were contaminated with pesticide residues. Sediment and surface water in Bald Eagle Creek is contaminated with the herbicide fenac. Chemical sludge and contaminated soils cover or underlay all of the open area on the site. The soils are contaminated with organic compounds.