Beginning in 1955, the Mercury Refining Company (MERECO) in upstate New York accepted mercury-containing wastes from batteries, thermometers, dental amalgam, etc., and refined the mercury for resale.
The mercury was reclaimed using retort (condensation) furnaces at the facility. This facility was a commercial hazardous waste facility because hazardous waste was received from off site for on-site storage.
Before 1980, waste contaminated with mercury was dumped over an embankment of an unnamed tributary to a creek. Contaminated groundwater ran off the site. In 1981, there was a structure fire at the facility, and a large amount of water used for fighting the fire ran off the site. The NYSDEC sampled the area around the tributary and found polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury contamination on the southern edge of the property and the embankment of the tributary. In 1983, the USEPA placed the MERECO site on the National Priorities List of the most contaminated sites in the country.
In 1998, MERECO discontinued reclaiming mercury, but continued reclaiming precious metals at the facility.
After several interim cleanup and containment actions, in 1999, at the request of the NYSDEC, the USEPA took over as lead agency and initiated and completed a remedial investigation and feasibility study of the site. The final costs for the investigation and cleanup at the site are approximately $11,500,000. Even after the cleanup, residual mercury pollution will remain downstream of MERECO in the Patroon Creek [EPA 11j].