Former Indiana oil storage site to be cleaned up

MADISON, Ind. — A former oil storage site in southern Indiana that’s tainted with petroleum wastes will be cleaned up by the state’s environmental agency through a yearslong effort that begins this month.

Charter International Oil operated in Madison from 1978 to 1990, when the 11-acre complex closed. The property in the Ohio River city was used to store fuel, petrochemicals and solvents.

The Madison Courier reports that investigators who’ve been monitoring the property since 2002 have determined that several chemical spills occurred at the site. The first was in 1969, when about 20,000 gallons of a solvent used in paints and insecticides spilled.

Another 16,000 gallons of toluene — a compound found in paint thinner — spilled in the mid-1970s. And in 1983, mineral spirits and xylenes — a compound found in gasoline — were spilled in two separate incidents. A small portion of the property is being treated to remove chlorinated volatile organic compounds.

Madison Utilities Manager Randy Eggenspiller said while he’s concerned contaminants could possibly enter the city’s water supply during the cleanup, he stressed that this has not happened since the site closed.

Public supply wells for Madison’s water supply are 1,450 feet to the east and 820 feet to the northwest of the chlorination facility.

Russell P. Cepko, vice president of environmental projects for CBS Corp. — Charter International’s owner — said the groundwater is expected to “cleanse itself” once tainted soils are removed from the area.

“The public water supply wells near the site have not been impacted,” he wrote in a letter to area residents.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said the cleanup of the property could create nonhazardous odors in August or September. Agency officials say the cleanup will be done in two phases. The first begins this month and the second starts in 2014 or 2015.

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