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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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

EPA study of water, soil contamination continuing at Hagerstown's Central Chemical site


By C.J. LOVELACE cj.lovelace@herald-mail.com | 

Federal environmental officials are overseeing additional investigative work at the Central Chemical superfund site off Mitchell Avenue in Hagerstown.
Crews were out this week drilling more groundwater-monitoring wells at the 19-acre property, which was once the location of an agricultural product manufacturing plant, to obtain soil and water samples that will be used to evaluate the extent of contamination in the ground, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Studies have been done on the groundwater side, but the EPA felt that additional study was necessary,” EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Smith said. “So we’re doing that additional study.”
At the site on Wednesday, a geologist with URS Corp., based in Fort Washington, Pa., said a total of 18 groundwater-monitoring wells have been dug since work began in 2003, and five more are set to be completed in the coming months.
Subcontractors working at the site were drilling a new well in one area of the property, while another was examining underground rock formations and patterns to determine the flow path of contaminated water.

Contaminants of concern on the site include arsenic and lead from heavy metals, as well as pesticides such as chlordane, DDT and Lindane, EPA officials said in a community update newsletter earlier this month.
EPA officials said the risk of exposure to contaminants is low because the site is fenced, and Hagerstown residents get their drinking water from the municipal water supply that is pumped from the Potomac River.

The EPA newsletter outlines ongoing work at the superfund site and other tasks slated for later this summer and future years. The Maryland Department of the Environment is a secondary agency in the cleanup operation.
Superfund is the federal government’s program to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites, according to the EPA website.

An official with Central Chemical Group — comprised of several companies cooperating with the EPA to fund the remedial investigation — called work on the site a “lengthy but thorough process.”
“The site most certainly is a priority” to clean up, Central Chemical spokeswoman Roberta Foulkes said. “Both the companies and the EPA have worked to keep the process going.”
The remediation is a two-fold process, one part seeking to clean up groundwater contaminants and the other to “solidify and stabilize” waste materials found in the soil.
In 2009, the EPA issued its final cleanup plan for the contaminated soils and wastes on the site.
Mitch Cron, a remedial project manager with the EPA, said most of the solid waste material is contained within an on-site depression, or a “waste lagoon,” in the north east portion of the property.
The lagoon contains high concentrations of pesticides and heavy metal components that had been buried.
“The main piece of the soil waste remedy is to solidify and stabilize the waste within the lagoon to prevent those contaminants from continuing to leach out into groundwater,” Cron said.
He said that the goal is to contain all contaminants in the lagoon within a concrete-like substance before the overall area is capped.
“The cap prevents people or (animals) from coming in contact with the contaminated soil,” Cron said. “

We want to make sure the final remedy is protective and will be effective over the long term.”
The need to remove contaminated soil on other portions of the property also is likely, Cron said.
Groundwater contamination has been found beyond the Central Chemical property boundary lines, according to the EPA’s website.
To check off-site contamination levels, officials plan to drill wells on adjacent private property to gauge contaminant levels in the soil and water, as well as check for any potential vapor intrusion, which occurs when volatile organic compounds are released from contaminated groundwater, Smith said.
The site, which is near Maryland Metals off North Burhans Boulevard, previously functioned as a blending and packaging facility for agricultural products.
At the former plant, agricultural pesticides and fertilizers were mixed with inert ingredients to dilute materials for commercial applications.
Most of the pesticide blending ceased in 1965, with operations ending in 1984. The old buildings were demolished in 2005.

Possible reuses
Asked about possible reuses of the site once remediation is complete, Foulkes said the property is currently zoned for industrial use, and a site land-use committee has been formed by Hagerstown officials to develop  recommendations.
Development ideas include light industrial and commercial office park developments, both with natural buffer areas, Foulkes said.
“The group’s recommendations have been taken under consideration as the project has moved forward,” she said.
Hagerstown Mayor David S. Gysberts said the property used to be part of the “inner ring” of industrial properties in the city, which has since overgrown the area and spread far beyond it.
Gysberts said he remembers discussing future plans for the land several years ago while serving on the Hagerstown Planning Commission, when a comprehensive rezoning package was considered that designated the land as Professional Office-Mixed Use.
“We considered that there’s still all that industrial land around there, that professional office would be the most appropriate with all the residential areas” nearby, Gysberts said.
Gysberts said he hopes that one day all the former industrial land in that area could eventually be redeveloped into a “job creation zone.”
Although the remedial investigation will take quite a bit of time, Gysberts said he appreciates that the EPA is moving forward with its cleanup efforts.
“With environmental hazards, you have to make sure it’s done right,” he said. “... It’s nice to know that they’re still working on it.”

Herald Mail Nov. 2013

Hagerstown, Maryland
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