Zonolite Company/W.R. Grace/Texas Oklahoma Vermiculite, 200 N Wisconsin Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
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EPA
Region		 Location of facility Type of facility Amount
of ore
received
(in tons)		 Did
EPA
visit
the
site?		 Were
samples
taken?		 Results of
evaluation
6 200 N Wisconsin Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Former exfoliation facility 113,905 Yes-February 16, 2000 No According to an EPA database compiled from W.R. Grace shipping invoices, 113,905 tons of vermiculite ore from the Libby mine were shipped to this site between January 1967 and August 1988. EPA determined that a vermiculite exfoliation facility had operated at this site from approximately 1957 until 1991 or 1992. Two former Superfund removal sites bordered this facility. A commercial facility was adjacent to this property and residences were about 100 yards north of the site's front gate. At the time of EPA's visit, this site was owned and operated by a sealant manufacturer and distributor, who had purchased the site from W.R. Grace in 1994. According to the owner of the sealant company, a property search conducted at the time he purchased the site indicated that W.R. Grace had purchased the property in 1964. The owner said he was unaware that vermiculite had been expanded at the site; he thought that only mica was expanded there. The owner also said Phase I and Phase II environmental assessments were performed on the property when he purchased it. (EPA did not have copies of these reports in the site’s files and could not provide the findings of these assessments.) The owner showed EPA the interior of the silos and pointed out trace amounts of what he believed to be mica remaining in the silos and in the soil. EPA observed that a warehouse also remained on the site. EPA did not observe any vermiculite waste rock accumulations in these structures, on the grounds, or in the area of the railroad adjacent to the site. The owner said that all equipment had been removed from the site when he purchased it and he did not observe any vermiculite waste rock material on the site at that time. Since there were no vermiculite waste piles on the site, EPA did not collect samples. EPA determined no further action was needed.

GAO-09-6R