A tale of two Superfund Sites in Collierville: Carrier Corporation and Smalley-Piper contaminated the Memphis aquifer at neighboring industrial sites, polluting public drinking water for Collierville residents.
Since the 1960s, Carrier Air Conditioning has operated a manufacturing plant near U.S. Highway 72 and Byhalia Road in Collierville. They produce residential air conditioning units, using the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), a cancer-causing chemical, to degrease the assembly line.
In 1979 and 1985, they spilled between 2,000 and 5,500 gallons of TCE onsite. They also dumped TCE- and zinc-contaminated wastewater into a lagoon onsite from 1972 until 1979. Because of this contamination, the plant was placed on TDEC's list of Hazardous Substance Sites in 1987, then designated as a Superfund Site in 1988. Since then, Carrier has worked with TDEC and the EPA to capture and remove TCE from the groundwater onsite.
Just across the tracks, Smalley-Piper operated a farm equipment manufacturing facility from the 1960s until 2007. They manufactured battery casings, sending liquid waste through an underground pipe, into open retention ponds, and ultimately into surface water drainage ditches.
This operation contaminated the soil and groundwater with chromium (yes, the same toxin from Erin Brockovich!). In 1981, they closed the ponds in a process overseen by TDEC, assuming they had successfully remediated the site.
In March 2001, chromium was found in surface water nearby. This prompted an investigation and, in 2002, chromium was found in two public drinking water wells for the Town of Collierville's Department of Public Services. The City took the impacted drinking water well and water treatment plant offline. Smalley-Piper was designated a Superfund Site in 2005 and work began on cleaning up the chromium. They excavated and treated over 6,000 tons of contaminated soil, and implemented groundwater "pump and treat" remediation starting in 2015.
As a part of their groundwater remediation, Smalley-Piper began re-injecting treated groundwater back into the Aquifer in 2015, without permission from the County and against County regulations. They've continued this process to this day.
In 2019, Carrier wanted to do the same at their site next door, where they've only been treating groundwater for their TCE pollution. POA and the citizens of Collierville knew that this strategy was dangerous, as their water was not being treated for the chromium from Smalley-Piper, just across the tracks. If granted the permit, they could inject hexavalent chromium right back into our aquifer.
Though located across the street from each other, TDEC and the EPA have treated Carrier Air Conditioning and Smalley-Piper as entirely separate Superfund Sites. They each contaminated soil and groundwater with different contaminants, and have been operating different remediation programs. Carrier leaked TCE while Smalley-Piper leaked hexavalent chromium. Though Smalley-Piper is no longer in business, Carrier still operates at the site today, cooperating with state and federal agencies. Remediation at both sites continues to this day.
When Smalley-Piper, the younger of the two sites, began re-injecting their treated groundwater into the aquifer in 2015, Carrier wanted to do the same. For years, Carrier had been treating extracted groundwater for TCE and releasing it into the sewer system. Re-injection would be a much cheaper alternative. They applied for an injection well permit in 2019 with the Shelby County Groundwater Control Board. Injection wells are illegal in most cases in Shelby County. However, agencies often get approval to use this strategy to direct plumes of pollution and lower costs, as Smalley-Piper had done. For Carrier, the “treated” water still carried chromium. Further, it looked to scientists like an injection well might spread the chromium, instead of containing it.
It was time to hold all these players to the law and inject some common sense. It was time to let the public in on these activities. POA, working with our lawyers at SELC, called a public meeting. On February 25, 2020, over 100 people from Collierville, including Collierville officials, gathered to hear POA and SELC tell the story of Carrier, legacy pollution, and a faulty remediation strategy.
Several items in the injection well strategy made no sense. Carrier was treating groundwater for the TCE they had polluted it with, but not the chromium from Smalley-Piper next door. And, despite their claims, injecting treated water would push the plumes further into the aquifer—not contain them. POA suggested that other options to retrieve and treat the chromium, notably staying with their current plan of releasing treated water to the sewer system.
Even though the Smalley-Piper and Carrier plumes now overlap, Carrier has not discussed working cooperatively with EPA at the Smalley-Piper site. We need a holistic, cooperative approach to these two side-by-side Superfund sites to ensure adequate remediation.
There's a third Superfund Site in Collierville named Walker Machine Products. Stay tuned...more information to come.
Want to learn more about Collierville's Superfund sites? Check out their websites below:
You can also dive into the POA archive of resources here.
Check out the original Record of Decision for Carrier Air Conditioning, issued in 1992. Or read the most recent report from 2020. Our comments to the EPA in response to that report can be found here. You can also read SELC's comment letter to the Groundwater Board, written in 2020, fighting the injection wells.
Smalley-Piper's Record of Decision, issued in 2008, can be found here. The Health Assessment, conducted by ATSDR in 2006, also provides a significant overview of the threat. Or, read the latest 5 Year Review from the EPA, released in 2022.
A third Superfund Site, Walker Machine Products, also exists nearby in Collierville! Check out the website for that site, as well!
