EPA cautiously starts cleanup of blast site
DANVERS -- The trio in white protective suits and respirators approached the charred, twisted steel that was once the ink production room of CAI Inc.
One member of the federal cleanup crew held a monitoring device in a purple-gloved hand, testing for toxic substances wafting from hundreds of crumpled 55-gallon drums, mixing vats, and steel containers scattered during a massive Nov. 22 explosion at the ink, paint, and industrial coating manufacturing plant. Recording the air reading, the three workers ventured deeper into the rubble yesterday morning.
The US Environmental Protection Agency is just beginning the arduous task of cleaning up the highly contaminated site, and agency officials say it could take a month or more to unearth and dispose of the chemicals buried in the wreckage. If the soil underneath is polluted, the cleanup could take longer, said Michael J. Nalipinski, on-scene coordinator for the EPA.
Up to 20,000 gallons of solvents and other chemicals were at the plant at the time of the still unexplained explosion, but with most labels burned off drums and chemical containers, hazardous waste teams have only a vague idea what could be in each one.
"We are concerned about what is in the drums," said Nalipinski, who has been working 12 or more hours per day. Some of the drums and vats were damaged in the blast, and their contents have mixed with water or foam used to extinguish the blaze. Others have been contaminated with chemicals from other drums.
"A lot of their chemical compositions have changed," Nalipinski said. "We need to get to them before they freeze and possibly leak more."
Yesterday, the team emerged with clean air readings, a signal that investigators from the US Chemical Safety Board, armed with cameras, could visit the ink room without respirators.
The room, located at the back of the destroyed building, is considered an area of interest by the board, which is searching for the cause of the explosion, said John Vorderbrueggen, a chemical safety board investigator.
The EPA took over control of the roughly 2-acre site on the Waters River last week after criminal investigators declared the explosion an accident. Chemicals that ran into the river have been vacuumed up or flushed out by the tide.
There is little left of the plant, which housed CAI and Arnel Inc. Yesterday, a rusted steel pulley poked up from the rubble. Four-foot scraps of metal and roofing material blown into the air by the explosion hung off nearby tree branches. Scorched 55-gallon drums, warped into various shapes, formed a lumpy footprint of the plant. The workers jokingly refer to some of the drums, spray-painted with a white S for solids, as the fire's "baked goods."
About 25 EPA employees or subcontracters are working at the site. In addition to having workers test the air regularly inside the plant's boundaries, the EPA has air-monitoring stations at the four corners of the building's footprint, set to sound a piercing alarm if levels of toxic substances rise above safety limits. Officials have eight other air-monitoring stations in surrounding neighborhoods. Since the fire was put out, no air levels at any monitoring site have exceeded safety limits, Nalipinski said.
Yesterday afternoon, workers removed the first batch of contaminated drums from the rubble with heavy equipment and placed them on solid ground at the site. Crews will test chemicals in each drum and vat, recycle the material if possible, or dispose of it properly. Nalipinski was awaiting final word from a laboratory about what chemicals were in three underground storage tanks at the site before he authorized them to be pumped out. The tanks do not appear to be leaking. Workers also operated heavy machinery yesterday to move nonhazardous waste such as fencing and steel pieces into a mammoth pile.
The work is slow. Everyone entering the rubble must don thin, white protective suits over their clothes and yellow boots over shoes. When they leave the area, they must be hosed down by a decontamination specialist before removing the suits.
Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com. 
