Central Chemical Corp.

History of Central Chemical Corp.
In important ways, the circumstances surrounding Thomas’s entry into the fertilizer business were not propitious. First, Thomas began business near the end of a half-century-long relocation of the fertilizer industry’s center. Though fertilizer use continued to increase in the Mid-Atlantic states and elsewhere during the period from 1870 to 1920, the manufacture of fertilizer began to shift to the Southern states in the late nineteenth century. By 1902, Charleston had replaced Baltimore as the fertilizer capital of the country. The Mid-Atlantic states’ share of total fertilizer use decreased from 34% in 1880 to 14% in 1920. By contrast, in 1920 the South-Atlantic states used about 50% of all fertilizers consumed in the U.S. Thus, Hagerstown could no longer enjoy proximity to the major centers of fertilizer-material production, and, while previously situated between the two highest-fertilizer-use regions of the country, it now found itself on the northern edge of a region that now dwarfed all others.

Second, Thomas’s decision to continue in the practice (apparently favored by Hagerstown companies) of making fertilizer primarily from bone and organic materials came at the start of a rapid increase in the demand for mixed fertilizers, but also at the beginning of a precipitous decline in the use of bone and bone products as a source of phosphorous in fertilizers. With the growing use of potash and phosphate rock, consumption of mixed fertilizers grew from 46% of the total in 1880 to around 70% in 1920. During the period from 1890 to 1910, when Thomas was focusing on his presumably unmixed “dissolved bone” fertilizers, mixed fertilizers were capturing market share.

Furthermore, the period from 1880 to 1920 is also characterized by the decreasing use of organic materials in general. Though organic materials provided about 91% of the total nitrogen in 1900, by 1917 the total nitrogen contribution from organics had dropped to 46.5%. With regard to phosphates, bone meal, dissolved bones and boneblack, and phosphoro-guano use peaked in 1890, but their use dropped to a negligible amount by 1910 as the use of superphosphates from phosphate rock increased dramatically..

Third, even as Thomas had begun his business trading fertilizer for livestock from relatively distant places, the fertilizer industry was increasingly turning to local distribution. Though mid-nineteenth-century fertilizer plants typically were situated in East Coast harbor cities, twentieth-century plants were dispersed to be closer to areas of consumption.

Finally, even though the name “Thomas’ Dissolved Bone” suggests that Thomas produced his own superphosphates initially, the use of bone in the production of superphosphates was on its way out as described above. For all practical purposes, then, Thomas had set his business on the track of the second, smaller type of fertilizer company, which only mixed fertilizer and did not produce superphosphates. For the next 90 years, even when Central Chemical had affiliates across the nation, it would remain in this “smaller” category – relying on large suppliers for its materials. For reasons noted above, this was not a problem at the turn of the century vis-à-vis the larger companies. Starting in the 1890s, however, many agricultural societies began to advocate home mixing of fertilizer materials by farmers. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the fertilizer industry fought this effort successfully by insisting on the value of industrial mixing processes and the farmer’s comparative disadvantages in mixing.

Though in its early years, Central Chemical advertised itself as “Exporters – Manufacturers – Importers,” by the 1970s it had become little more than a middle-man between larger suppliers and farmers. It did not import its own materials, but purchased granulated materials from suppliers. There is no evidence that Central Chemical was exporting products out of the country anymore. And its manufacturing capacity consisted of mixing pre-processed granulated materials in various proportions. At this point, its consulting capacity became equally important to its factory processes.

Though Central Chemical and its subsidiaries were taking in a combined $25 million in sales by the late 1970s, an employee remembers that there was always a sense of trouble on the horizon. The vulnerability of a company that adds very little value to its product and relies entirely on contracts with larger suppliers requires no explanation. It appears that not long after Central Chemical became a bulk blender, its large suppliers began pushing their advantages. In the early 70s, Central Chemical’s supplier, Agrico Chemical Company, put pressure on Central Chemical to enter into a long-term contract. When Central Chemical refused, Agrico withheld di-ammonium phosphate and granular triple super phosphate at a time of national shortage in these materials. Central Chemical responded by filing an antitrust lawsuit against Agrico in federal court. For most of the next decade much of the time, resources, and energy of what was still a closely-held corporation would be consumed in this litigation. Ultimately the lawsuit proved unsuccessful.

All of this came at the same time that local, state, federal regulators were investigating the Hagerstown plant for its pesticide-disposal practices. In the 1970s the State of Maryland ordered two separate cleanups of the site; the EPA was just getting started.

Ultimately the push to eliminate the middle man that drove the switch to bulk blending began to turn on the blenders themselves. The larger companies and farmers wised up, and realized that they could both save money by dealing directly with each other. Farmers began buying direct-application materials from the same suppliers used by Central Chemical. By the early 1980s, Central Chemical’s network of fertilizer blenders had contracted substantially. Blending operations like those of the Hagerstown plant could no longer make the case for themselves. Crushed under the weight of increasingly serious environmental liability for its mid-century disposal practices, the Central Chemical Corporation contracted its operations substantially. The Hagerstown plant ceased operations in 1984 and the office headquarters moved from the old Thomas building to an office outside Hagerstown.


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Sunday, July 6, 2014

EPA tests could color Washington County springs and streams

Hagerstown agreed to allow continued study of groundwater patterns near former Central Chemical site

Posted: Monday, May 19, 2014 8:30 pm | Updated: 7:30 am, Tue May 20, 2014.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin tracer tests this week that  

potentially could color affected springs and streams a fluorescent green as part of the ongoing monitoring of a Superfund cleanup site off Mitchell Avenue in Hagerstown, 
according to an EPA official


The bright green nontoxic dye, which will be injected Wednesday into sinkholes located at 
the former Central Chemical site, is a harmless, food-grade dye also used in medical 
imaging and to make green beer for St. Patrick’s Day, an EPA statement said.


The Hagerstown City Council last month agreed to a right-of-entry agreement with the EPA to allow the continued study of groundwater patterns near the former Central Chemical site.


The agreement allows the EPA to install monitoring devices at groundwater springs and surface-water streams at city-owned properties, including the City Park lake, Hager House, Staley Park, and at locations along Hamilton Run and Antietam Creek.

About 28 monitoring devices have been installed on city property, private property and on the Central Chemical site, EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Smith said in an email Monday.


Of that total, approximately one-third of the detectors are on city property, one-third on private property and one-third in wells, some of which are on the Central Chemical site, she said.

The detectors will record whether the dye travels to the monitoring locations.


When asked Monday about the likelihood of monitored areas turning green, Smith said 


“Hagerstown residents may see green in springs and streams,” but the effect would not last long. The dye disappears quickly when exposed to sunlight, she said.


Groundwater contamination has been found beyond the Central Chemical property 
boundary lines, according to previous Herald-Mail Media reports.

By tracking the dye, the EPA will determine “how far, how fast, and in what directions site-
related contaminants can travel,” the statement said.

The detectors will be able to detect the dye, even if it is not visible to the human eye, the

statement said.

“EPA is conducting the dye tests to design a treatment plan capable of intercepting the

contaminated groundwater, ensuring the long-term protection of human health and the environment,” the statement said.


The first tracer test that begins this week will conclude in mid-July, according to Smith.
Testing is planned to continue through October.


The 19-acre Central Chemical site was once the location of an agricultural-product 
manufacturing plant, with most pesticide blending ending in 1965, operations ceasing in 
1984, and old buildings being demolished in 2005.


In 1997, the former plant became a Superfund site, which is the federal government’s 

program to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste locations.

In November, 16 companies making up the Central Chemical Group agreed to pay about
$250,000 to develop a plan to clean up contaminated soil and waste at the site.


It is estimated that completing the cleanup design will take about two years, according to previous reports.


Investigative work into groundwater contamination is continuing, with groundwater cleanup

operating on a separate track.
Shok is a reporter for The Herald-Mail. She can be reached via email at 
holly.shok@herald-mail.com. 




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