Troy

An Oregon company has wrapped up a $1 million project to remove and contain pollution at its former Troy steel fabrication plant that has been closed for more than a decade.

Esco Corp., of Portland, has excavated some polluted ground from the former Steel Treaters property at 520 Campbell Ave., and installed an underground system to treat what is left in the ground water, according to a notice Friday from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

DEC has issued the company a liability waiver, meaning that Esco is no longer liable for pollution on the property, unless the company fails to maintain the underground treatment system that neutralizes dangerous solvents.

There are no drinking water wells at neighboring properties, which are served by Troy's municipal water system.

Currently vacant, the 1.1-acre property can now be reused for commercial or industrial purposes under that waiver. The plant was demolished in 2016 after being vacant since being heavily damaged in a 2005 fire.

The company also removed about 17 tons of contaminated soil for disposal in a hazardous waste facility.

Attempts to reach Esco for comment were not successful.

The plant opened in 1966 and used a variety of chlorinated solvents in its manufacturing process.

Some four decades of steel fabrication left the ground and groundwater polluted with chemicals including perchloroethylene (PCE, also known as "perc"), a cleaning solvent that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said can cause cancer.

PCE and its "breakdown products" have been migrating underground to other properties, according to a DEC notice this summer.

Other chemicals include trichloroethene (TCE) and 1,2-dichloroethene (DCE). Prolonged exposure to TCE can damage the liver, kidneys, the immune system, and central nervous system, according to EPA.

DCE is also a probable human carcinogen, according to the EPA.