Overview/History
The Brenntag Site consists of 8.9 acres containing a chemical warehouse, repackaging, and distribution facility located at 4200 Azalea Drive in Charleston, SC. From 1960 to 1997 the facility was owned and operated by Burris Chemical as a chemical warehouse and distribution facility. Since 1997, the majority of the facility property has been owned and operated by Brenntag. A 2-acre parcel that was originally part of the facility property was distributed to Burris Environmental Services and subsequently purchased by William M. Bird & Co. The Bird & Co. property contains an office building.
Between 1975 and 1981, several large spills were reported to DHEC. In January 1975 there was a fire in the former warehouse area. On August 31, 1978, a glacial acetic acid spill was reported. On July 2, 1979, a chemical called dimethylamine was spilled, and on July 10, 1981, there was a sulfuric acid spill. Numerous smaller spills and incidental releases are believed to have occurred. Since 1990 DHEC has worked with Burris Chemical, Burris Environmental Services, and Brenntag to investigate and clean up soil and groundwater at the Site. Soil and groundwater at the site are contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents. Two areas were initially identified for assessment and remediation.
Preferred Clean-up Option
Area #1 groundwater is contaminated by chlorinated solvents. Chemical amendments were injected underground to destroy the chlorinated solvent compounds in Area #1.
Area #2 is contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbons and chlorinated solvents. Recent investigations have defined an area of heavily contaminated soil and groundwater in Area #2 on Brenntag's property. Due to issues related to off-site disposal of Area #2 soils, the removal originally planned for August 2022 has been delayed. This website will be updated when Area #2 remedial activities are rescheduled.
Area #3 was identified in 2021. This area is contaminated by chlorinated solvents. Area #3 includes an area of contaminated soil that will be removed and properly disposed of at an off-site disposal facility. The excavation will be backfilled with clean soil. Following the removal, additional actions are planned to clean up groundwater. These actions include injection of chemical amendments to break down contaminants (“in situ chemical reduction” or “ISCR”), and extraction of soil vapor and groundwater (“Aggressive Fluid Vapor Recovery” or “AFVR”). ISCR has been used at Area #1 and has shown very good early results. AFVR has been conducted in Area #2 to remove contaminant mass from soil and groundwater. This technology is commonly used to clean up fuel contamination at underground storage tank release sites.
Removal of soil from Area #3 is scheduled to begin on September 18, 2023. You may see and hear equipment and workers at the site during this time. The area to be excavated is shown in purple on Figure 10, below.
The ISCR and AFVR actions will occur in the months following the excavation.
*Figure 7 - Brenntag and adjacent properties. Areas 1, 2 & 3 are highlighted in pink. Numbers next to each monitoring well indicate the total concentration of volatile organic compounds in groundwater.
*The green circles on Figure 10 represent the planned injection well points for ISCR.
Administrative Record