The Story:

Our work, which provided factual information on the practices of each company on a 13-acre contaminated site in Morgan Hill, allowed our client, Standard Fusee, to be removed as a discharger for purposes of the clean-up orders of the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The Case:

The former Olin Corporation (Olin) site is a 13-acre parcel located in southern Morgan Hill, in Northern California. Olin manufactured signal flares at the facility for about 32 years from 1956 to 1988. Standard Fusee, our client, leased the site and manufactured signal flares for seven years from 1988 to 1995.

Potassium perchlorate was used in the manufacturing of flares by both Olin and Standard Fusee, from 1956 to 1996. The perchlorate leached through the soil into the groundwater over the 40 years of operation and created a ten-mile long plume of perchlorate.

Our investigation involved locating former employees, many of whom only spoke Spanish, of both Standard Fusee and Olin, and interviewing them, in some instances several times, to develop an understanding of the practices and procedures that led to this very significant groundwater contamination.

One of the purposes of the investigation was to determine if there were significant differences in the practices and procedures of Standard Fusee and Olin. Many of the former employees migrated away from the Morgan Hill area after employment with Olin/Standard Fusee. And because most of them had worked in minimum wage jobs, their electronic profile (records about them) were scarce, creating some interesting challenges in tracking them down.

We learned that perchlorate contamination at the site occurred primarily from three sources: 1) an unlined evaporation pond that received wastes from the cleaning of the ignition material mixing bowls 2) from on-site incineration of cardboard flare coatings with residues on them and 3) from accidental spills.

Our work, which provided factual information on the practices of each company on the site, allowed our client, Standard Fusee, to request of the Regional Water Quality Control Board that they be removed as a discharger for purposes of the clean-up orders issued by the Board. This was granted by the Board on July 15, 2005.