Robinson Insulation Company, 1771 19th Avenue SW, Minot, North Dakota
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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
8 1771 19th Avenue SW, Minot, North Dakota Former exfoliation facility 16,150 Yes-February 2, 2000 Yes According to an EPA database compiled from W.R. Grace shipping invoices, 16,150 tons of vermiculite ore from the Libby mine were shipped to this site between February 1967 and June 1983. EPA visited this site with an official from the North Dakota Department of Health and three representatives from the City of Minot Parks Department, which owned the site. The immediate neighborhood included industrial and commercial facilities, as well as residential homes within a few blocks of the facility. The Parks Department was using two buildings on the site to store equipment and supplies; the larger building had "Robinson Insulation" painted on it; this building was very dusty. A rail spur, which could have been used to transport vermiculite, was adjacent to the facility. According to the Parks Department's employees, the city had purchased the property in 1993. They believed that the property had been owned by Jessen Insulation before then and did not remember a lot about Robinson Insulation. They said that the insulation produced at the plant had been used in many houses in Minot. EPA did not find any visible piles of vermiculite insulation or ore on the site or any indication of former furnaces, hoppers, or silos. According to records in the City Tax Assessor's office, one of the buildings on the property had been built in 1947, and Robinson Insulation had probably shut down operations in the 1970s. Two local business owners who had been in the area for 20 to 40 years and were knowledgeable about Robinson Insulation confirmed that the company had made vermiculite ore into insulation. According to EPA’s discussion with the owner of Jessen Insulation, which operated at the site after Robinson, he had sold vermiculite insulation that was already bagged when he received it directly to local customers. He told EPA that the property appeared clean when he purchased it in 1986. When EPA returned to this site in September 2000 to more closely inspect the buildings and grounds, it found pieces of vermiculite in numerous locations. EPA collected six soil/dust samples in locations where vermiculite was visible. Five of the six samples contained 2-percent asbestos; the other sample had less than 1-percent asbestos. The samples were analyzed using polarized light microscopy (PLM). EPA conducted additional sampling and determined that soils at some locations on the property had visible vermiculite containing greater than 5-percent asbestos. The highest levels were immediately around the former processing buildings and the railroad spur; the levels tapered off with distance. No fences restricted access to any of the contaminated areas. On the basis of this information, EPA determined that the site needed to be cleaned up, and the cleanup was completed in the fall of 2002. The cleanup of contaminated areas along the rail line was completed in 2003. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR) health consultation report for this site can be found at ATSDR.

GAO-09-6R