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El Paso Plating Works

No further Superfund environmental response actions are required at this site where a metal plating company operated in El Paso, El Paso County.

Site Summary

The El Paso Plating Works (El Paso Plating) site occupies 1/4 acre at 2422 Wyoming Ave. The business operated from the mid-1950s until closing in 1995. Former operations at the site included plating chromium, zinc, silver, tin, nickel and copper finishes to different metal components.

During the early 1990s the El Paso Public Utilities Service Board issued El Paso Plating violations notices asserting the company produced excessive chromium and nickel wastewater discharges. The facility was also investigated by TCEQ.

From October 1996 to September 1999 the EPA’s Emergency Response Branch removed 4,500 gallons of liquid oxidizer and corrosive wastes and 100,000 pounds of oxidizer and corrosive sludge and other solids. 

In September 1999, EPA notified TCEQ that no further federal Superfund remedial action funding would be taken at the site and referred responsibility of further cleanup to TCEQ.

Superfund Registry and Investigation

The TCEQ proposed the site to the State Superfund registry in 2000 and designated commercial/industrial as the appropriate land use.

From 2001-2003, TCEQ conducted removal actions consisting of asbestos removal, building demolition, and excavation of soils contaminated with metals and cyanide from the site. Verification testing demonstrated that the removal action addressed the contamination in the site soils and that no further remedial action was needed for site soils.

Groundwater monitoring revealed volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including tetrachloroethene (also known as perchloroethylene or PCE) that exceeded protective concentration levels established by the Texas Risk Reduction Program. In 2012, the PCE was determined to be from an off-site source. In 2014, monitoring indicated that the VOCs in the groundwater no longer exceeded regulatory action levels.

Notice has been filed in the real property records in El Paso County stating that no further remediation is required as long as the property is not used for residential proposes.

Current Status

Cleanup is complete. The site was deleted from the state Superfund registry in 2015. This site needs no additional state Superfund environmental response actions.