EPA resolves PCB case at Former Frankford Arsenal

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has settled a case with Arsenal Associates who will pay a $21,000 penalty to resolve alleged violations of federal regulations for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at the former Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia, now a business complex for light industrial and warehousing operations called the Arsenal Business Center.

PCBs were once widely used as a nonflammable coolant for transformers and other electrical equipment. In 1976, Congress enacted the Toxic Substances Control Act, which strictly regulates the manufacture, use and disposal of PCBs, a probable human carcinogen.

In July of 2002, EPA inspected the Arsenal complex and found improper storage, disposal, labeling and documentation violation.

As part of the settlement, Arsenal Associates neither admitted nor denied the alleged violations. The company cooperated with EPA’s investigation, and has certified that it currently is in compliance with applicable PCB regulations. The facility is in the process of removing all of the PCB transformers from the site.

For more information on the health effects, regulations, and cleanup of PCBs, visit http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/pcb/

The Arsenal Business Center is the site of the former Frankford Arsenal which was owned at one time by the U.S. Department of the Army. The Army operated the site as a heavy industrial complex for the manufacture of arms, munitions, and military instruments from just before the Civil War until it was decommissioned in 1977. In 1983 the former Frankford Arsenal was acquired through a sales agreement with the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development, a municipal government agency whose function is to bring unutilized and underutilized industrial sites back into productive use in the city of Philadelphia. The facility is now a business complex primarily for light industrial and warehousing operations.