March 28, 2024
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EPA cleanup under way at old chroming facility

BANGOR – An environmental cleanup is under way at a former chroming facility on Perkins Street.

Roughly half an acre, the former Cobb’s Custom Chroming site at 37-41 Perkins St. includes a two-story cinder block facility and a garage. Owned by Cobb’s Auto Body Inc., the facility no longer is in operation.

The cleanup operation began early last week, when EPA contractors began collecting chemicals stored at the site and preparing them for shipment to a permitted disposal facility.

The owner was unable to help with the $240,000 cleanup cost, which is being funded with federal dollars. The owner did contribute to the effort by removing old vehicles and nonhazardous debris, according to an announcement EPA’s regional headquarters in Boston, Mass., issued this week.

The EPA’s site investigation revealed that while plating and stripping vats, various containers of acids, cyanide solids and other materials once used in the plating operations were on the site, the facility had been kept in an orderly manner, according to federal documents. Other aspects of the cleanup will involve addressing contamination, if any, to the building or nearby soil.

Air around the site is being monitored throughout the cleanup to confirm contamination isn’t leaving the site.

The work is expected to take less than two months to complete, weather permitting.

More information on the cleanup is available at www.epaosc.net/cobbscustom

chroming.


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