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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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Hagerstown chemical site cleanup could start in 2017 - Herald Mail Media: Local News

Hagerstown chemical site cleanup could start in 2017 - Herald Mail Media: Local News

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Posted: Tuesday, September 22, 2015 9:28 pm | Updated: 11:30 pm, Tue Sep 22, 2015.

Work to contain contamination at the Central Chemical Superfund site along Mitchell Avenue in Hagerstown could start in 2017 and will probably take at least a year to complete, a federal environmental official told the Hagerstown City Council on Tuesday.

The project will involve mixing contaminants in a former lagoon at the old fertilizer and pesticide plant site with a concrete material that will also contain ash and carbon, said Robert Wallace, remedial project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The idea of mixing the contaminants with the concrete material is to create a solid mass. A synthetic cap will then be placed over the old lagoon, Wallace said.

The 19-acre site was home to Central Chemical Corp., which blended agricultural pesticides and fertilizers from the 1930s to the 1980s. Raw pesticides manufactured elsewhere were mixed at the site with inert materials to produce commercial-grade products.
Contaminants found in the soil, groundwater, surface water and sediment, as well as in the tissue of fish caught downstream from the site, include arsenic, lead, benzene, aldrin, chlordane, DDD, DDE, DDT, dieldrin, and methoxychlor, according to the EPA.

In 1997, it was placed on a list for the federal Superfund program, which is designed to address abandoned hazardous materials sites.

Wallace provided the council and Mayor David S. Gysberts with an update on the cleanup during a work session Tuesday afternoon.
He presented a picture of what the site would look like once the work is completed that showed an elevated area where the lagoon is situated.
Council members asked how the site could be used in the future.
Gysberts said he thinks the property has been zoned as professional office/mixed use, which Wallace said would be a good use for the site.
Councilman Martin E. Brubaker asked if anything could be placed on the lagoon after the project is completed.
Wallace said he did not think so, but noted it would be safe to walk on.
But groundwater testing at the site found significant contamination, he told the council.
Apart from drinking water at the site or bathing in it, Wallace said he does not think the groundwater contamination poses a threat to the public.
Officials at the meeting pointed out that the city gets its drinking water from sources that include the Potomac River.
Wallace said that the project has presented challenges, including the determination that groundwater flows from all directions at the site.
"You couldn't have picked a worse place" for such an operation, he said.
There are about 2,100 wells in a five-mile radius around the site, Wallace said.
To determine how groundwater flows from the location, dye was injected into sinkholes on the property that provide access to groundwater, Wallace said.
Dye has appeared in water four miles east and west of the site, in Antietam Creek two miles away and at the Fountain Head Country Club, he said.
But Wallace said just because dye showed up those locations doesn't mean there is contamination. Work will continue to determine if there is contamination at the sites where the dye surfaced, he said.
EPA officials were commended for their work on the project.
"It's taken way too long, but I guess that's the way science goes," Gysberts said.
No taxpayer funding will be used for the work. Sixteen companies have reached a $14.3 million settlement with the EPA and the state to clean up the site.
Work to contain contamination at the Central Chemical Superfund site along Mitchell Avenue in 
Hagerstown could start in 2017 and will probably take at least a year to complete, a federal environmental official told the Hagerstown City Council on Tuesday.

The project will involve mixing contaminants in a former lagoon at the old fertilizer and pesticide plant site with a concrete material that will also contain ash and carbon, said Robert Wallace, remedial project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The idea of mixing the contaminants with the concrete material is to create a solid mass. A synthetic cap will then be placed over the old lagoon, Wallace said.

The 19-acre site was home to Central Chemical Corp., which blended agricultural pesticides and fertilizers from the 1930s to the 1980s. Raw pesticides manufactured elsewhere were mixed at the site with inert materials to produce commercial-grade products.

Contaminants found in the soil, groundwater, surface water and sediment, as well as in the tissue of fish caught downstream from the site, include arsenic, lead, benzene, aldrin, chlordane, DDD, DDE, DDT, dieldrin, and methoxychlor, according to the EPA.

 In 1997, it was placed on a list for the federal Superfund program, which is designed to address abandoned hazardous materials sites.
Wallace provided the council and Mayor David S. Gysberts with an update on the cleanup during a work session Tuesday afternoon.

He presented a picture of what the site would look like once the work is completed that showed an elevated area where the lagoon is situated.
Council members asked how the site could be used in the future.
Gysberts said he thinks the property has been zoned as professional office/mixed use, which Wallace said would be a good use for the site.

Martin E. Brubaker asked if anything could be placed on the lagoon after the project is completed.
Wallace said he did not think so, but noted it would be safe to walk on.

Groundwater testing at the site found significant contamination, he told the council.

But apart from drinking water at the site or bathing in it, Wallace said he does not think the groundwater contamination poses a threat to the public.
Officials at the meeting pointed out that the city gets its drinking water from sources that include the Potomac River.
Wallace said that the project has presented challenges, including the determination that groundwater flows from all directions at the site.

"You couldn't have picked a worse place" for such an operation, he said.

There are about 2,100 wells in a five-mile radius around the site, Wallace said.

To determine how groundwater flows from the location, dye was injected into sinkholes on the property that provide access to groundwater, Wallace said.

Dye has appeared in water four miles east and west of the site, in Antietam Creek two miles away and at the Fountain Head Country Club, he said.

But Wallace said just because dye showed up those locations doesn't mean there is contamination. Work will continue to determine if there is contamination at the sites where the dye surfaced, he said.
EPA officials were commended for their work on the project.

"It's taken way too long, but I guess that's the way science goes," Gysberts said.

No taxpayer funding will be used for the work. Sixteen companies have reached a $14.3 million settlement with the EPA and the state to clean up the site.
http://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/local/hagerstown-chemical-site-cleanup-could-start-
in/article_6cc9126e-6192-11e5-87db-4faef9e5a7e4.html
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