The U.S. Environmetnal Protection Agency has completed its cleanup of thousands of gallons of hazardous pesticides stored at the V.I. Department of Agriculture’s Lower Love site.
The cleanup of 30, 55-gallon drums containing the pesticide malathion started in January at the request of the Department of Agriculture. Since then some nine cubic yards of malathion-contaminated soil have been removed from the department’s property at Lower Love.
The cleanup, which was done under the Superfund program, cost approximately $150,000.
The liquid malathion was originally intended to be used for mosquito control by the V.I. Department of Health, which had inappropriately stored the pesticide and other hazardous materials at the Charles Harwood complex in Estate Richmond. In 1995, after the other hazardous materials were removed under EPA oversight, the malathion was moved to the Lower Love site.
The drums, however, were stored outside and ultimately deteriorated from exposure to the elements. The Department of Health asked EPA for help in disposing of the drums in November 1999, said Nina Habib Spencer, an EPA spokeswoman, and has agreed to reimburse the agency for its work.
The cleanup follows a similar project on St. Thomas last year. It took the EPA six months for the $500,000 cleanup of a V.I. government-owned warehouse in Sub Base. The Department of Property and Procurement-operated warehouse was filled with improperly stored chemical containers and potentially dangerous materials.
EPA found approximately 100, 50-pound containers of a chlorine-based oxidizer, herbicides, 300 cans of solvent-borne paint, caustics and 10 drums of unknown substances.
Property and Procurement operated the warehouse for the storage and distribution of chemicals to different government agencies until the 1970s. Over the years, the warehouse fell into disrepair and materials stored inside, including several drums of waste oil, began to deteriorate.
The chemicals removed from the warehouse were loaded onto a cargo ship for transport to licensed disposal sites on the U.S. mainland.
