The Site, a former printing facility, is located within a busy commercial shopping complex at the intersection of North Road (Route 9) and Fulton Street in a mixed commercial and residential area of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York. The Western Publishing Company operated at the Site from 1935 until 1983. On-site operations included photography, lithography, plate production, rotary and offset web printing operations, coating (i.e. paperback covers, recipe cards), gluing and binding operations, shipping and receiving, and general plant operations and maintenance. Materials utilized and stored on-site included various petroleum- and vegetable-based inks, dyes, mineral oil based solvents, volatile organic solvents, fuel oil, photo processing chemicals and acids. The Site may have been partially occupied by various tenants from 1985 until the late 1990s, including a moving company (for storage space), classrooms, a bus maintenance company, and hospital offices. The Site has been vacant and abandoned since the late 1990s or early 2000s, and current ownership is unclear. The Site is surrounded by the remainder of the shopping complex, a liquified gas retailer, an apartment complex for Marist College students, and a light industrial/commercial building. Marist College is located approximately 400 feet to the west of the Site.

EPA conducted entries into the Site building in September 2010 as part of a removal assessment. Approximately 70 unlabeled drums with unknown contents are located within the Site building: 63 95-gallon drum overpacks are present in the loading dock, and approximatley 10 55-gallon drums are located throughout the remainder of the building interior. The overpacks which were accessible during the September 2010 Site entries were found to contain rusted or otherwise damaged, unlabeled 55-gallon drums, some of which were leaking liquids within the overpacks. Many of the interior drums were rusted shut and could not be opened; the contents of these drums could not be sampled and are unknown. The overpacks are being stored near a drainage trench which runs the width of the loading dock.

Results of EPA's September 2010 analytical sampling of several of the drums indicated that some contain CERCLA-designated hazardous substances. One drum contains elevated levels of vinyl chloride, cadmium and 1,2-dichloroethane, and another contains a material considered to be a characteristic ignitable waste under RCRA. An additional drum contains low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Air monitoring inside the overpack drums exhibited elevated levels of volatile organic compounds in several drums and cyanide gas in one drum, although elevated levels of these and other compounds were not detected in the indoor air within the Site building.

The wood flooring blocks within the buiding were also found to contain CERCLA-designated hazardous substances (elevated levels of semi-volatile organic compounds and low levels of PCBs). In addition, EPA identified approximately 150-200 linear feet of potential asbestos-containing material (PACM) utilized as pipe wrap and approximately 20 light ballasts which may contain PCBs.

EPA’s removal action at the Site will consist of the stabilization, sampling, characterization, inventory, packaging and removal of the drums and wood flooring blocks from the Site building, as well as the removal of PACM and light ballasts as necessary.

For additional information, visit the Pollution/Situation Report (Pol/Sitreps) section.