Carborundum Company/Unifrax Corporation, 1625 Buffalo Avenue/2351 Whirlpool Street, Niagara Falls, New York
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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
2 1625 Buffalo Avenue/2351 Whirlpool Street, Niagara Falls, New York Former exfoliation facility/Ceramic fiber paper manufacturer 1,265 Yes-June 13-14, 2000 No According to an EPA database compiled from W.R. Grace shipping invoices, 1,265 tons of Libby ore were shipped to this site. An October 1953 information circular from the Bureau of Mines (at that time in the U.S. Department of the Interior), indicated that the Carborundum Company had operated an exfoliation facility in Niagara Falls, New York. EPA did an Internet search and discovered a Carborundum facility was located at 1625 Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls, New York. EPA visited this location and, after discussions with current employees of the company and a document review at the Niagara Falls Public Library, concluded that an exfoliation plant had not operated at that location. Because the Carborundum Company had been split up and sold to various other companies, it was difficult for EPA to obtain accurate and reliable information about the former exfoliation plant. Ultimately, EPA was unable to find the location of the plant. While searching for the Carborundum exfoliation plant, EPA found that Saint Gobain/Carborundum still operated a ceramics division at the 1625 Buffalo Avenue location, but none of the company’s employees had any knowledge of vermiculite use. On the basis of the information collected, EPA does not anticipate taking further action at the Buffalo Avenue site. While conducting this investigation, EPA learned that the fibers division of Carborundum was purchased by Unifrax Corporation in approximately 1994. EPA visited the Unifrax Corporation site located at 2351 Whirlpool Street in Niagara Falls, New York, and interviewed a senior company official. EPA learned that a Unifrax facility located at 360 Fire Tower Drive in Tonawanda, New York, was using unexpanded vermiculite to produce ceramic fiber paper that is used in catalytic converters. According to the company official, Unifrax used approximately 2,000 tons of vermiculite ore per year and this ore was purchased from a W.R. Grace mine located in Enoree, South Carolina (the Enoree site is listed separately in this database), and a source in China. The company official said the manufacturing operation took place indoors, workers used protective equipment, when appropriate, and dust collection equipment was used. Unifrax provided a document prepared by W.R. Grace that indicated tremolite asbestos was present in the vermiculite from the mine in Enoree, South Carolina. While this document did not contain information on specific amounts of tremolite present in the ore, it did indicate that the type of tremolite found in the ore did not present a significant health risk and that the amount of tremolite found in air samples taken while the ore was being handled was below the levels of statistically reliable quantification. On the basis of the volume of vermiculite ore purchased annually by the Tonawanda facility, the date of the last known shipment of Libby vermiculite ore to the facility (October 1992), and that the facility conducted its vermiculite handling operations entirely indoors, EPA decided not to visit the Tonawanda facility. However, EPA did send a letter of referral, dated March 21, 2005, to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) suggesting that it inspect the Tonawanda facility to ensure that worker health and safety were not being compromised from handling vermiculite materials at that site. After making this referral, EPA decided to take no further action at this facility. As of July 2008, EPA had not received a response from OSHA.

GAO-09-6R