DNREC plans remedial action at former Thoro-Kleen site
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has unveiled an action plan to clean up hazardous waste at the former Thoro-Kleen dry cleaners site in Georgetown.
The less-than-1-acre site, located on Railroad Avenue, is owned by former state Sen. Joe Booth. The Thoro-Kleen dry-cleaning business had operated there from 1953 until 2010. The former dry-cleaning building was removed earlier this year with only the slab remaining.
DNREC spokesman Michael Globetti said the site is divided into two operable units: operable unit-1 is the site of the former dry cleaning business, and operable unit-2, which includes soil, soil gas and groundwater contamination that migrated off-site. Globetti said the remediation plan is for operable unit-1; operable unit-2 will be addressed later, he said. Cleanup at operable unit-1 is being paid for by the state’s Brownfields program, with funding going to the Restoration Worship Center, a nonprofit organization which plans to use the site for a parking lot.
The former Thoro-Kleen site has been at the center of a long legal battle between DNREC and Booth, who owned the dry cleaners with his wife, Margaret. In 2014, DNREC sent the Booths a notice of liability after the department said it found perchloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), dichloroethylene (DCE) and vinyl chloride. Both PCE and TCE are considered hazardous.
Once the chemicals were found, discussions began about the Booths participating in DNREC’s Voluntary Cleanup Program. Negotiations broke down, and in October 2017, DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin issued an order finding the Booths liable and requiring them to initiate corrective action under certain deadlines. The Booths appealed that decision to Delaware Superior Court, where Judge Jeffrey Clark ruled that the Booths were liable. A trial to determine damages has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Globetti said the cleanup of the site would include capping the site with a foot of clean fill or impervious materials and using a passive soil vapor extraction system designed to target contaminated hot spots within the soil and remove the contamination. He said the cleanup will also include a long-term stewardship program to continuously inspect the site and monitor the groundwater. Globetti said DNREC’s feasibility study indicated it will take three to five years to achieve the cleanup.
