NPL Site Narrative for Monarch Tile Manufacturing, Inc. MONARCH TILE MANUFACTURING, INC. Florence, Alabama Monarch Tile Manufacturing, Inc., produces ceramic tiles and glazes, and is located at the intersection of Rickwood Street and Helton Drive in Florence, Lauderdale County, Alabama. The area is primarily industrial with Seaboard Railroad tracks to the west, and a bus company maintenance facility to the south. Stylon Corp. operated the facility from 1954 until 1973, when the company went bankrupt. Monarch then leased the property from the city of Florence with an option to buy. The company purchased the property in 1988. No previous industrial activity or disposal took place at the site prior to 1954. In their operations, both Monarch and Stylon used zinc contaminated with lead, barium, and cadmium as colorants. Starting in 1960, these hazardous wastes, along with other liquid wastes, were routed to a separator. The liquids from the separator went to settling ponds, with any excess liquid draining into ditches that run south of the facility. In 1976, Monarch began discharging the liquids from settling ponds to the Florence Sewer System, with the City's permission. Solids from the separator were taken to a municipal landfill until 1980, when Monarch constructed an onsite disposal trench. In March 1989, Monarch resumed sending the solids to a municipal landfill. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) found barium, nickel, lead, and zinc in composite samples of sediment collected from the settling ponds in August 1989. In October 1990, ADEM also found zinc, cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, and barium in sediment samples from the northern drainage pathway to Cox Creek, zinc in Cox Creek, and barium and zinc in an unnamed tributary of Sweetwater Creek. Surface water within 15 miles downstream of the site includes the unnamed tributary, Cox Creek, Sweetwater Creek, Cypress Creek, and the Pickwick Lake segment of the Tennessee River. The site is located approximately 3 miles north of Pickwick Lake and approximately 2 miles east of Cypress Creek. The Florence Water Department supplies drinking water to an estimated 63,000 people from an intake located where Cox Creek and Cypress Creek meet. The Sheffield Water Department has an intake on the Tennessee River that serves 14,100 people. Cox Creek, Cypress Creek, and the Tennessee River are used for recreational fishing. For more information about the hazardous substances identified in this narrative summary, including general information regarding the effects of exposure to these substances on human health, please see the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs. ATSDR ToxFAQs can be found on the Internet at ATSDR - ToxFAQs (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/index.asp) or by telephone at 1-888-42-ATSDR or 1-888-422-8737. ------- |