Gadsden Mayor Craig Ford called out the EPA last week over their slow response to cleaning up hazardous waste still stored near homeowners in a predominantly Black neighborhood on the north side of the city.

“There the poison still sits. There the facility sits,” Ford said in an October 2 news release. “They’ve known about this issue for years, flew in to tell us about it, and flew back out. While residents eat, sleep, and breathe within feet of the property.”

Ford said the EPA even “ghosted” the city at a recent meeting, and called on President Biden to get involved.

“I expected the single largest government agency responsible for protecting our environment would have at least tried to do their job by now,” Ford said in his statement this month.

Techtrix is a former electroplating and metal finishing facility in Gadsden, a small city of about 33,000 in northeast Alabama. The shuttered plant sits on Plainview Street, directly across from modest bungalows and cottages. Following the death of Techtrix’s owner, Carl Weaver, in March, Weaver’s estate informed the EPA that they would be unable to properly clean up and close the site.

Since then, the EPA has performed an assessment of the site in July and a follow-up visit in August.

Chuck Berry, on-scene coordinator with the EPA, told the Gadsden City Council in September the agency estimated around 100,000 gallons of waste on the site, and around 30,000 gallons of that contains cyanide.

Clean up of the site is expected to begin this month, and the EPA is set to hold a meeting on October 15 with the Gadsden/Etowah County Emergency Management Agency to discuss the cleanup. But to Ford, the EPA hasn’t been moving quickly enough.

“The only thing I know the EPA has done the past few weeks is sit around on Zoom chats with the city council member from District 3 talking about the cameras and fences they might bring in one day,” Ford said in the release. “Cameras and Zoom calls aren’t cleaning up the chemicals, and they sure as hell aren’t protecting the people of Gadsden.”

But Larry Avery, Gadsden City Councilman representing District 3, said this statement is “100% inaccurate.” Avery said he’s met with the EPA weekly and had no issues communicating with them or getting information, and Ford and city administrators were invited to participate. He criticized what he called the “politicization” of the Techtrix situation.

But Avery said he, too, wants the agency to move more quickly to get the Techtrix site closed safely.

“[The EPA is] doing what it can do, and I’m grateful for them, even with everything going on,” Avery said, referring to recent hurricanes and the chemical fire in Conyers, Ga. “I’ve asked them to keep us at a high priority.”

The lack of urgency from the EPA has created concern and confusion for residents, Joseph Cole, a community activist in Gadsden, told the city council on Tuesday. The neighborhood around Techtrix is largely made up of Black, elderly residents, he said.

“People don’t know what’s going on,” Cole said Tuesday. “We don’t hear anything; the people don’t know anything. No one has said anything, and no one has heard anything from the EPA.”

The residents who live immediately east and west of the site are almost entirely seniors, Avery said. Carver Village, a public housing development in Gadsden, is just south of the site. Many residents in the area don’t have access to cars, and some don’t have internet access or cell phones, he said.

Initially, Ford praised the EPA’s response.

“We are very aware of the danger, but also very aware of the precautions that y’all have taken place,” Ford told Berry, the EPA coordinator, during a city council meeting in September. “We want to thank you for that.”

But since then, the EPA has been slow to take action and communicate with the public, Ford said. The EPA “ghosted” city leaders and didn’t show up to a planned community meeting on September 12 to discuss Techtrix, Ford’s press release said.

Cole said Tuesday that he attended the September 12 meeting with the EPA, but representatives from the agency did not show up. Avery said the EPA not showing up to the meeting was a “ big disappointment” to residents.

James Pinkney, a representative from the EPA, said in an email that the agency has been “in communication with the Gadsden mayor and city council.” The site is being addressed through the Superfund Removal Authority, Pinkney said, which covers a release or threat of release of a hazardous substance.

What has been done already?

As part of their inspection, the EPA found contaminants on the site, including cyanide, heavy metals, and acids and bases. However, the risk to the surrounding area from the site is relatively low, the EPA has said.

“It’s a low, low risk level. I want to stress that very much,” Berry told the city council in September. “The facility is stable.”

During the EPA’s first visit in July, agents discovered several leaking liquid waste tanks on the site. In August, the liquid waste from those tanks was transferred to secure containers, according to a fact sheet on the cleanup distributed by the EPA.

The real concern is what could happen in a worst-case scenario, Michael Rodgers, public affairs coordinator with the city of Gadsden, said. If the waste on-site is disturbed, it could release cyanide, which would be extremely dangerous, according to the EPA. As a precaution, natural gas and sprinklers have been disabled at the site and the electrical system has been inspected.

The Gadsden Fire Department and the Gadsden/Etowah County EMA both have plans in place should something happen on the site, Rodgers said.

Someone breaking into the site would be in danger from the on-site chemicals, Rodgers said, and as a result, the Gadsden Police Department has increased patrols of the area. The EPA has installed cameras and additional fencing to keep out intruders, and security is on site 24 hours a day.

Historical issues

Techtrix had a history of improper storage of hazardous waste. In 2021, the EPA issued an “administrative order of consent” (AOC) for the site, after a referral from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management and a joint ADEM/EPA inspection that found improperly managed hazardous waste.

The inspectors observed tanks and containers that were in poor condition or rusting, and waste leaking from containers that were not suited for storage, according to a news release at the time.

As part of the federal order, Techtrix was required to “immediately” take action to properly store and dispose of the hazardous waste at their site.

“The awful truth is that this is nothing new with Techtrix,” Avery said.

Berry told the Gadsden City Council in September that the facility had been making “incremental gains” in improving safety at the facility prior to Weaver’s death.

“The EPA has known about this site for years,” Ford said in the news release. “I am calling on President Biden, the EPA, and our Congressional delegation to demand the EPA take care of the people of Gadsden now!”

Above all, Rodgers said, Ford and the city leaders of Gadsden want the Techtrix site cleaned up as quickly as possible. It’s not a problem they created, but it’s one they’re stuck with, he said.

“The quicker we can get it out of here, the quicker it’s no longer an issue,” Rodgers said. “[Ford] wants to make sure that people in our neighborhoods are safe.”

The EPA’s community meeting will be held October 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Mission Baptist Church in Gadsden.