U.S. Government Accountability Office

Texas Vermiculite Company, State Highway 29/East of Highway 281, Burnet, Texas

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	State Highway 29/East of Highway 281, Burnet, Texas	Former exfoliation facility	Unknown	Yes-March 15, 2000	No	An EPA database compiled from W.R. Grace shipping invoices did not contain any records indicating Libby ore was shipped to this site. However, a report issued in 1953 by the Bureau of Mines (at that time in the U.S. Department of the Interior) indicated this facility had been a vermiculite exfoliation plant. At the time of EPA's visit, all structures had been removed from this site and it served as a parking lot for a grocery. Representatives of businesses in the area confirmed that vermiculite was expanded at this location. A railroad track, which could have been used to transport vermiculite, had run adjacent to the building that had been on the site, although at the time of EPA's visit the track ended at the parking lot. One of the business owners said he had distributed the ore that was expanded at the site through his store and that he had installed the material as insulation in homes in the area. EPA did not determine the time period during which Texas Vermiculite had operated at the site and did not determine the source of the vermiculite used by the company. EPA did not observe any evidence of contamination from the past vermiculite operations. EPA determined no further action was needed.