ROGERS — Workers expect to be done cleaning up a hazardous material site in south Rogers by Friday.
They have removed waste including batteries, pesticides, paint and one ounce of uranium nitrate, a slightly radioactive substance used in laboratories, said Cecillea Pond-Mayo, a spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
The estimated $530,000 cleanup is being paid for by the state and performed by Waste Services, based in Little Rock.
Steve Neal, president of Waste Services, said the cleanup has gone smoothly. He said about 80 percent of the waste at the site has been removed.
The agency will try to recoup the cleanup costs from Haz-Mert in bankruptcy court, Pond-Mayo said. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2009, leaving behind barrels of hazardous waste, including flammable liquids and oxidizers.
Department inspectors found in July oxidizers and flammable liquids were leaking from containers and running toward each other. The substances can catch fire if combined, according to the inspection report.
Pond-Mayo said inspectors were worried that more containers would deteriorate and leak.
Neal said workers haven’t found any more leaking containers. Once during the cleanup, some chlorine powder reacted with another substance and started smoldering, but workers were able to quickly extinguish it, he said.
The biggest challenge has been separating hazardous waste mixed in with nonhazardous waste, Neal said. For example, workers found flammable paint mixed in with latex paint that was labeled nonflammable, he said.
He said the cleanup will remove all contamination from the site.
The facility is near several businesses and residential areas. The backyards of some houses on South Third Street are adjacent to the site, separated only by the houses’ fences and the Haz-Mert fence.
One of those houses belongs to Maricela Manrique.
She said Wednesday afternoon she did not know much about Haz-Mert or the cleanup. She can hear work going on at the site, and there once was a chemical smell, she said, but she and her children rarely go in the backyard.
When asked to review a list of material removed from the site so far, she scanned the list, turning down the corners of her mouth and raising her eyebrows while children played in the driveway.
“I didn’t know that was all there,” she said.
Neal said he didn’t think material at the site had caused problems for neighbors.
Shannon Weathers, one Haz-Mert’s owners, said previously he tried to clean up the site after declaring bankruptcy, but his efforts were stymied by the Environmental Department.
Pond-Mayo said in July that Haz-Mert’s bankruptcy would have made it difficult for the company to pay for the cleanup.
Weathers repeated Friday the state would not let him clean the site. He said he is not in town often, and there has not been much movement in the bankruptcy case.
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At A Glance
Waste processed at the Haz-Mert site as of Tuesday
• Paint and lacquer waste: 30,419 gallons
• Nonhazardous liquids: 10,916 gallons
• Pesticides: 54 cubic yards
• Batteries and crushed paint cans: 27.71 tons
• Crushed paint cans: 19.93 tons
• Latex paints: 56,180 pounds
• Oxidizers and alkaline waste: 52 55-gallon drums
• Uranium nitrate: 1 ounce
Source: Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality