EPA Wants Former Midwest City Business Declared a Superfund Site

 

A former industrial site that’s left groundwater contaminated in Midwest City is being suggested to be named an EPA Superfund site.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced this week it is adding the former Eagle Industries site to the Superfund program’s National Priorities List of the nation’s most contaminated sites.

“Communities get healthier and local economies grow when contaminated sites get addressed,” explained Samuel Coleman, Acting Regional Administrator for the EPA in Dallas. “The people, businesses and environment of Oklahoma will benefit from EPA’s work to clean up the Eagle Industries site.”

Located just southeast of Oklahoma City at 10901 SE 29th in Midwest City, Eagle Industries was an inspection and repair operation for aircraft oxygen and fire extinguisher systems. It operated from 1990 to 2010 and in 2003, the state discovered improper disposal of trichloroethyelene, considered to be a threat to surrounding area ground water.

The inspection was carried out at the time by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality where Scott Thompson is Executive Director.

“Eagle Industries inspected and repaired safety equipment, which resulted in contamination of the ground water with chlorinated solvents.”

The Eagle Industries site was one of seven added to the National Priorities List by the EPA and the agency is proposing the addition of four more. The EPA adds sites to the list when contamination threatens public health and the environment. The agency initiates Superfund involvement at a site when states, tribes or citizens ask for the government’s help.

More than 850 Superfund sites nationwide have some type of actual or planned reuse underway. The EPA reviewed 454 Superfund sites supporting use or reuse activities and found they had nearly 3,900 businesses with 108,000 employees.