What are your thoughts on Hattiesburg's Hercules chemical plant? The EPA wants to know

While the Environmental Protection Agency has selected the former Hercules plant as a potential Superfund site, there's still work to be done, agency leaders say.

The EPA needs input from the community, not just on residents' concerns about the former chemical plant, but what they would like to see the 200-acre site become once cleanup is complete.

Public comments will be accepted through June 16. 

In its heyday, Hercules, located on West Seventh Street, manufactured more than 250 chemical products, including paints, varnishes and pesticides between 1923 and 2009.

Hercules: A look back — and ahead

Hercules was purchased in 2008 by Ashland Inc. for $2.6 billion. The company at the time operated three specialty chemical businesses: paper and water technologies, specialty resins and specialty additives and functional ingredients.

In early 2009, the company announced it would be shutting down operations at the Hattiesburg plant, but questions about the chemicals used and stored at the site remain.

• Is the groundwater near Hercules contaminated?
• Is my family getting sick from contaminants?
• What about rumors of barrels of toxic waste buried at Hercules?
• Will people be afraid to come to Hattiesburg if Hercules is designated a Superfund site?
• How long will cleanup take?

These are some of the questions asked by residents during a public meeting with EPA officials held May 12 in Hattiesburg.

From 2016:Hattiesburg resolves suit against Hercules

Gloria Tatum, a former regulator with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, lives in Hattiesburg. She has worked on a number of Superfund sites in the state.

She said Superfund cleanup usually takes longer than other methods, so other methods should be discussed and explored so the right choice is made for the people of Hattiesburg.

"I want to make sure that the communities understand that we (as regulators) want this site cleaned up as quickly as possible," she said.

Resident Jeanette Cole said she has to work fully clothed in her garden to prevent breaking out in rashes, which she claims are caused by toxins from the nearby Hercules plant.

"You guys need to tell us if the water is safe to drink, if our soil is contaminated," she said. "I don't trust this area."

From 2017: Hercules works toward settlement with residents

Sandra Bramble, EPA community involvement coordinator said that's a question the EPA can't answer — yet.

"To date, we do not have any information that the groundwater or soil offsite is contaminated, but that's part of the reason that we're here," she said.

In 2021, the EPA conducted an expanded site investigation to enable the agency to determine what needs to be done at Hercules. 

The findings, along with community input and other factors, will help the EPA put together a plan for site restoration if Hercules is designated a Superfund site, said Diedire Lloyd, EPA Region 4 remedial project manager, in a prepared presentation.

She said earlier testing revealed a number of volatile organic compounds and semi-volatile organic compounds found at Hercules, including benzene, carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethylene, toluene, biphenyl and dioxane. 

Other contaminants found at the site include the pesticide toxaphene, toxic metals such as arsenic, chromium and mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls — highly toxic industrial compounds.

Long before the EPA identified Hercules as a potential Superfund site, other remedial actions were implemented at Hercules.

The company has conducted site investigations, interim remedies and routine groundwater and surface water monitoring and reporting activities to comply with EPA and state orders, beginning in 2007. 

In 2011, the EPA issued an administrative order that requires Hercules to conduct environmental investigation activities to determine the nature and extent of potential contamination on- and offsite. 

A Superfund site is one that focuses on hazardous waste sites that require long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations as designated by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. 

The agency works with the designated site's owners to facilitate cleanup at the expense of the company. The EPA provides oversight of the project and works with residents and company and government officials until the cleanup is complete. Following clean up the site is repurposed for community use.

A final decision on whether to accept Hercules as a Superfund project will be made once public comments are received and considered.

Public comments may be made online at www.regulations.gov by typing in the Hercules docket number in the search bar, EPA-HQ-OLEM-2022-0191, and following the online instructions. 

Mail-in comments may be made by sending them to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Superfund Docket Center, Mail Code 28221T, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20460. Be sure to include the Hercules docket number on all correspondence, EPA-HQ-OLEM-2022-0191.

For more information about the proposed Hercules Superfund project, visit https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0402297.

Hercules timeline

• 1920: The Hercules Powder Co. buys 100 acres of land in Hattiesburg
• 1923: Plant opens at cost of $500,000. Its 16 buildings include a shredder house, warehouse, machine shop, boiler house and powerhouse. Employs 250-300 people
• 1941: Plant employs 500
• 1953: Employment tops 900
• 1965: Plant employs 760 people with a $5 million payroll. More than 100 products are made there
• 1966: Hercules Powder changes its name to Hercules Inc.
• 1974: Employment swells to 1,400. Hercules begins Pinex experimental program in which chemical is injected into tree stumps to increase rosin yield
• 1980: $10 million to $20 million expansion of plant's Herclor synthetic rubber producing facility
• 1983: Plant's primary extraction and refining area is shut down
• 1984: 110 workers laid off
• 1985: Plant employs 500-600
• 1987: Herclor synthetic rubber operation sold to BF Goodrich
• 1990: Plant employs 450
• 1993: Delnav Building, named after pesticide once made there, torn down
• 1995: Plant employs 156
• 2000: Company to sell its resins division accounts
• 2001: $100 million cost-cutting plan includes job cuts. Plant employs 123
• 2003: Plant employs 80. Cutbacks will leave only 40 employees by 2004
• 2008: Company is purchased by Ashland Inc.
• 2009: Ashland shuts down operations at Hercules
• 2010: Hercules groundwater sampling well sites rise in number to 23
• 2011: Environmental Protection Agency issues administrative order to ascertain extent of environmental contamination
• 2012: Impoundment basin sludge cleanup begins
• 2013: The city of Hattiesburg files a U.S. District Court lawsuit against Hercules Inc. and Ashland Inc. over contamination that may leach into the city's municipal water supply
• 2014: Hercules agrees to $1 million cleanup at Hattiesburg site
• 2015: Impoundment basin sludge removal and building demolition begins
• 2016: City of Hattiesburg, Hercules resolve lawsuit with $3 million settlemnt as cleanup continues
• 2017: Hercules works toward a settlement with about 400 residents after lawsuit filed over questionable chemical disposal and contaminants found in homes
• 2021: EPA identifies Hercules as a potential Superfund site, begins testing samples in and around the facility
• 2022: Public comment period begins

Do you have a story to share? Contact Lici Beveridge at lbeveridge@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.