Tennessee: EPA prepares to clean up old smelter in Knox Co.

KNOXVILLE - The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to clear an environmental hazard at an old aluminum smelter in Knox County. The federal agency is also proposing the property that was Smokey Mountain Smelters as a Superfund cleanup site.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation recommended the Superfund designation.

TDEC spokeswoman Tisha Calabrese-Benton said Wednesday that EPA is "in the preliminary stages of the removal action now."

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that phase includes removing about 2,700 cubic yards of aluminum dross, a waste byproduct, and demolition of the old smelter building. The first phase would cost up to $3 million dollars, all of which would be paid by the federal government, the newspaper reported.

The abandoned smelter was found to be leeching contaminants into groundwater and a nearby creek.

The EPA's proposal of the site states that in addition to the aluminum tailings, there are 75,000 cubic yards of salt cake on the 29-acre property.

The report said the aluminum dross contains extremely corrosive salts that dissolve in water. Among contaminants being released are aluminum nitride, sodium and potassium chlorides and heavy metals. Arsenic in excess of the EPA's drinking water safety standards were found on site.

Smokey Mountain Smelters began operating a secondary aluminum smelter on the site in 1979, melting aluminum scrap and dross and making ingots of the metal. The smelter has been abandoned since 1994.

The smelter property is among eight nationwide proposed Tuesday for addition to the National Priority List of Superfund Sites. If approved for Superfund cleanup, the federal government would pay 90 percent of the cost.

The Superfund cleanup would be a second phase and would address environmental problems that date to 1922. The land has been used by several companies over the years, most of them makers of agricultural chemicals.

The EPA says there is a group of multiple housing units less than 200 feet from the smelter property and more than 2,500 people within four miles of it use ground water.

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