Crews work to limit storm's environmental impact

Fri, May 16, 2008

By ANNA FERGUSON

The Brunswick News

The powerful EF4 tornado that ripped through McIntosh County Sunday did more than damage businesses and homes.

It has led to environmental hazards that federal and state agencies are now trying to clean up.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources began doing what they could to limit the environmental impact of the storm at the McIntosh Industrial Park as early as Monday.

The industrial park, which housed the Outboard Rejuvenation boat warehouse, McIntosh Public Safety Complex and Gateway Behavioral Health Services, was hit hardest by the tornado. All three buildings were left flattened and completely demolished by the storm's heavy winds of more than 170 mph.

Dozens of orange and yellow drums now sit in the middle of the industrial park and the smell of gasoline fills the air. Each brightly-colored vat is filled with potentially hazardous materials, including oil, batteries, fuel and paint.

The materials were tossed from the boat warehouse. Fuel from the stored boats and EMS vehicles bled into the ground.

Jeff Crowley, an agent with the EPA, and Michelle Cortes, an agent with the Georgia DNR, watched Wednesday as work crews took drums and loaded them into a large trash bin.

With fuel and oil leaking into the soil, contamination of the Darien River and nearby creeks has become a primary concern. Keeping the materials from seeping out of the site has been the crew's main objective.

"We can't let this oil and acid leak into the soil because then it would run off site," Crowley said. "We don't want it to go off site because then it will leak into the water and you'll have a real problem on your hands."

Environmental clean-up crews worked nearly 12 hours to get all the hazardous components into safely sealed containers, said Crowley.

"We don't have exact quantities for how much was leaked, but it was significant," he said. "It was enough that we were called to the site to assist."

Some drums will be sent to a landfill and others will be "bulk packaged and sent to their respective recycling sites," said DNR's Cortes.

Once the drums have been properly transported and disposed of, the EPA and DNR will begin examining the soil for possible contamination. That process could take as long as a month.

Weather might prove to be a challenge. Heavy rains could cause the hazardous materials in the soil to run off into nearby waterways.

As a precautionary measure, booms have been placed around the field to contain as much leakage as possible should it rain before the clean up process is complete, Crowley said.

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